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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Need Recommendations on Freehand Sharpening Stones
- Thread starter MadJukes
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Shapton Glass Stones. A-OK!
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The Shapton Pro's do better with carbon and low alloy steels, that's why they were not recommended.
The only Glass stones to be discontinued are the series for carbon steel. They are darker in color and I believe a Japanese market only item as of now.
The only Glass stones to be discontinued are the series for carbon steel. They are darker in color and I believe a Japanese market only item as of now.
Ah... that makes sense regarding steels. How do the pros do on things like VG10, etc... from kitchen knives?
I have a lot of respect for Jason's ability and knowledge. I don't doubt much of what he says here. In fact, Jason B has taught me VOLUMES about sharpening.
That said, Jason and I tend to differ a bit on low grit stones. Maybe I'm lazy. Perhaps I'm impatient. Or I lack the ability to hold an angle for long enough with medium grit stones. For big repairs, or setting brand new bevels on knives that have been damaged, I want a very low grit, fast grinding stone or plate. The Nubatama 150 is in this class. The DMT XXC (100 micron diamond) is another player. These both grind steel like crazy. Just short of a powered system. I personally NEED this kind of grinding power to do some jobs. I can't imagine trying to set a bevel on a very damaged blade with a 400 grit diamond plate or a 500 grit waterstone.
The DMT XXC changed sharpening for me. It was a revelation. I learned more from that stone than almost any other. If you are serious about sharpening, I always recommend a very good coarse stone, like the DMT XXC.
Brian.
That said, Jason and I tend to differ a bit on low grit stones. Maybe I'm lazy. Perhaps I'm impatient. Or I lack the ability to hold an angle for long enough with medium grit stones. For big repairs, or setting brand new bevels on knives that have been damaged, I want a very low grit, fast grinding stone or plate. The Nubatama 150 is in this class. The DMT XXC (100 micron diamond) is another player. These both grind steel like crazy. Just short of a powered system. I personally NEED this kind of grinding power to do some jobs. I can't imagine trying to set a bevel on a very damaged blade with a 400 grit diamond plate or a 500 grit waterstone.
The DMT XXC changed sharpening for me. It was a revelation. I learned more from that stone than almost any other. If you are serious about sharpening, I always recommend a very good coarse stone, like the DMT XXC.
Brian.
Why not sharpen completely on diamond?
Wondering the same thing. Absent from the knife hobby for over 50 years, I had just assumed that diamond stones made their way into the hobby and were the preferred tool now. Somewhat like calculators replaced sliderules. (I'm really old.)
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Different stones work better for different steel. IMO Diamond is great for the high carbide steels like S110v, m390, M4, 10V, S30V....etc but waterstones work better for simple carbon steels like 1095/5160/O1 and low alloy stainless steels such as 440a/Aeb-l/aus8.
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The Shapton Pros work great on VG10 and most of the other steel kitchen knives are made from. Where the Glasstones have the advantage is with the more wear resistant steels like S30V.
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Very good advice there. Lots of people ask what stones to buy, how much to spend before mniwing how to sharpen and end up ruining or at least scratching up the heck out of their nice blades. Only problem with trying to sharpen harbor freight knives (i have a $2 folder from there, its the worst steel ive ever seen) and especially with diamonds is that steel is so soft its a PITA to get sharp. It grinds fast but its hard to sharpen, you need lots of tricks thst you learn with experience. Id recommend going to your goodwill or other thrift store and buy up some kitchen knives. They should have better steel than POS HF knives and once you sharpen them you have some sharp knives to use in you kitchen.
As far as stones go, king makes decent stones at good price. Also if you look you can find DMT plates at a good price and those will last you for a long time and theres no need to flatten which is a must with waterstones. I like softer muddier stones for setting my bevel and a hard non muddy stone for doing my microbevels. Bought a 6x2 1000 grit ceramic stone made by smith on ebay for $6 with free shipping and it puts on a nice and sharp edge with plenty of bite left. Dont spend too much money at first, learn how to sharpen, what you like (diamond or waterstones), what kind of finish works for you and it you even like freehand. Theres a reason why edge pro and wicked ecge sell a lot of sharpeners, they give good results and make keeping you angle much simpler than just by feel of your hand. I still like my edge pro for certain knives but I do enjoy to freehand ax well.
winnerone23
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Good read.. Looks like I need to step up my stone/plate game, for the better steels that I'm carrying these days.
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Many people in this thread have recommended using diamond plates to sharpen steels with high carbide contents (particularly of vanadium or tungsten), or have recommended Shapton Glass Stones.
Instead of those recommendations, I would ask: If you like waterstones, why not just go ahead and get the waterstones actually designed to cut highly wear resistant steels quickly? Sigma Power Select II series stones are composed of silicon carbide abrasive and minimal binder, fused under heat and pressure, and as a result they are very muddy and cut faster than any other waterstone available on the market.
How quickly, you ask? Quickly enough to collapse the difference between 440C, VG-10, HAP40 (basically M4), and ZDP-189 and sharpen them all at essentially the same rate. Yes, they have to be flattened more frequently, but I just use my Atoma 140 to flatten the stones before each use, and the muddiness of the stones means that the stones tend to avoid forming much of a burr at any grit above 1,000.
Once i bought a few of these stone, I binned all the other stones I had as time wasters and none of my other waterstones have gotten any use since.
Instead of those recommendations, I would ask: If you like waterstones, why not just go ahead and get the waterstones actually designed to cut highly wear resistant steels quickly? Sigma Power Select II series stones are composed of silicon carbide abrasive and minimal binder, fused under heat and pressure, and as a result they are very muddy and cut faster than any other waterstone available on the market.
How quickly, you ask? Quickly enough to collapse the difference between 440C, VG-10, HAP40 (basically M4), and ZDP-189 and sharpen them all at essentially the same rate. Yes, they have to be flattened more frequently, but I just use my Atoma 140 to flatten the stones before each use, and the muddiness of the stones means that the stones tend to avoid forming much of a burr at any grit above 1,000.
Once i bought a few of these stone, I binned all the other stones I had as time wasters and none of my other waterstones have gotten any use since.
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Just looked at the CKTG website and found that diamond combi stone. What a deal Jason, $35! Any experience comparing it to the DMT Duo sharp? That comes in a combi stone (blue 325/ green 1200) with a base for $125 in pretty much the same size.
This times a zillion!!!!:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
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We went through this once already, I have the sigma power select 2 1000, and the shapton glass 1000. The sigma doesn't cut noticeably faster and it wears waaay more rapidly. I bought the sigma as an experiment and wouldn't do it again. I will pay shipping for "all" the stones that you"binned" so they don't waste any more of your time with them.
Russ
Also, the sigma 2 are made of aluminum oxide, not silicon carbide...... Just FYI...