Need Help picking out waterstones..

EDDAKA

EDDAKA

Joined
Oct 24, 2009
Messages
408
Hey guys,

I've recently taken up freehand sharpening as my preferred method of sharpening knives. I think it's alot of fun, and very satisfying. Now i'd like to buy some decent quality waterstones.

I have some medium grit stones and even a small diamond sharpener, and I finish up with 1000+ grit sandpaper.

So I've been eyeing two specific stes of stones and need help picking them out.

1.) The "king" 1000/6000 grit combination waterstone. Around $40. Would like some feedback on these.

2.) The Carter cutlery japanese waterstone 1000/6000 grit stones. $100.

I would like to know if the carter is worth about twice the price of the king. I want a good reliable stone, and just need help picking one out.

If they're are any other quality stones I'm open to suggestions.


Thanks guys.
 
I had a set of kings, they were a good beginner set but they are a rather low end stone. At this point I perfer natural water stones, they work better and feel much better.

What's your budget?
What kind of steels do you sharpen?
What are you going to use for profile work? (ie. coarse stone?)
 
I'd like to keep it around $100 or less. But I'd go higher if it was truly worth it.

I sharpen alot of stainless and carbon.

Lots of 1095 series steels, and some L6 or D2(rare but I have to sharpen these knives too...). Some stainless like s30v, 440c, 154 cm and the like, kitchen knives too...

I have a coarse stone I can use for re-profiling. (Maybe not as coarse as it could be but I'm contempt with it.)
 
I'll put up some links when I get home in a bit but IIRC japanwoodworker.com has a large selection of water stones and one of the natural stones I have.

With steels like S30V I find water stones to be less than effective, when I had my king stones they would barely touch S30V and M4 wouldn't even sharpen. My naturals on the other hand have no problem.

When it comes to water stones there is almost a endless selection so take your time and don't rush into anything.
 
I have the blue stone and will be getting the Awase To stone soon. The blue stone is pretty amazing for what they say to be a 3k to 5k stone, I would have little doubt in its abilities to be used directly after a 220 water stone. I've used mine to effectively remove 320 grit diamond scratches and 60 grit sander marks.

As for sharpness though I really don't know, I've never really had much luck getting knives sharp with water stones. Its been better with the naturals but I still think I need more practice.

For me it will be the stones you see on that page, the green 220 but one without a base, the aoto I have and the awase to. I would suggest the later two to start.

I'm far from a expert on natural water stones though, these are just the ones I was able to find at a reasonable price and of decent quality. There is much better but your talking hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a single stone.
 
I hear very mixed reviews about the kings.

Some people like them, (Of course murray carter with the It's 99% technique and the stones don't matter...)

Some people who say that they suck and can't sharpen anything with them!

So for now I will "try" the two separate king stones in 1k and 6k.

However I would love to buy a natural as well, but they are so darn expensive, that I can't afford to buy another stone with it.

Thanks for the help knifenut, I appreciate your advice.

-Richard.
 
You should check out Norton stones too. They're very affordable and the only negative thing I've heard is that they're a little soft compared to some other stones ( natural ones in particular if I remember correctly, but don't quote me ) but for the price people seem to think they're well worth it. I've only used the 220/1K combination though so I can't really put my own recommendation on anything higher, but I've seen a lot of straight razor enthusiasts raving about their 4000/8000 stone.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=51817&cat=1,43072,43071&ap=1

That site has the best deals I've been able to find for them. I haven't tried anything but Norton, but do a bit of reading around, I haven't found a reason to be compelled to switch to any of the other ones yet.

I have been considering getting some Shaptons though, as I've heard they're much harder. They're a bit more on the spendy side though
http://hmsenterprises.com/index.php?c=15
 
EDDAKA said:
1.) The "king" 1000/6000 grit combination waterstone. Around $40. Would like some feedback on these.

2.) The Carter cutlery japanese waterstone 1000/6000 grit stones. $100.

I would like to know if the carter is worth about twice the price of the king. I want a good reliable stone, and just need help picking one out.
Click to expand...

You may have already figured this out, but the Carter stones are King stones. The price difference may be because they're a different size?

cbw
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top