NEWBIE Knife Sharpening Question on 1000 Grit Stone

[RVISS58]

Hey All,

Longtime lurker, first time poster here. Thanks for the great information + community here.

Have a question i was hoping you pros might be able to help me with.

I did a little bit of digging around here and other sites...this article here was close but didn't answer it totally > http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...o-put-an-edge-on-S30v-with-a-Sharpening-Stone

Long story short, I just got into hand sharpening (specifically for the chef's knife i use in the kitchen), and have 3 stones, 2 1000 grits and 1 6000 grit.

My stones:

1) 1000 grit King Stone > http://www.amazon.com/King-Medium-G...TF8&qid=1456773514&sr=8-3&keywords=king+stone
2) 1000 grit random stone > doesn't have any markings of any kind...was given by a friend that just said it was silicon carbide and he thinks its chinese?
3) 6000 grit king finishing stone > http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-King...TF8&qid=1456773514&sr=8-2&keywords=king+stone


The specific question is around the two 1000 grit stones.

I don't know what King Stone is made out of, but my buddy said the one he gave me is definitely silicon carbide. Obviously I'm new and my technique needs to be improved, but it's strange. the king stone "feels" more premium and smoother to me...it also generally just has a more pleasant sound while using, and seems to require less water to keep wet. But despite all that, the other 1000 grit random stone I have seems to actually work better. It's physically lighter, sounds "louder", doesn't seem to retain water as well (required much more during use or it starts to sound pretty "loud"), and yet despite all this it puts a decent edge on the knife!

I realize all these are pretty fluffy / subjective descriptions, but was curious if anyone might have had similar experiences with 1000 grit stone like this before? I mean, is the King Stone even better? it feels/sounds smoother, but is that an indicator of quality?

Thank you in advance for the newbie tolerance

 

[HeavyHanded]

Does the anonymous stone make a finer edge or just faster to make one.

Generally, if it sounds louder in use I'd expect it to be more coarse than one that sounds more quiet, but not necessarily so. I don't have experience with the stone in question, but I have inherited some very nice generic stones, some of which I no longer even use for sentimental reasons based on their origin.

Waterstones come in a lot of configurations, some of which use silicon carbide, but of the more common ones usually SiC is only used < 1000grit. I would take a close look at the scratch patterns, it may be the anon stone is somewhat more coarse and will allow the King 1k to work a lot faster following it. Or you might have a very nice mystery 1k.