Recommendation? Starter stones for a noob

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bfortified

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Dec 3, 2020
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Looking to get started with sharpening. Have a few folders blade lengths 2.5"-3.5". Would be nice if it could handle a kitchen knife in the future.

Would like to spend as little as possible to get started but also don't want to waste money on garbage.
 
I agree with Shawn, you should start with something that removes metal fast. Another one that I would suggest is the Sigma Power Select II 240 (Lee Valley sells them). I recently pulled this one out and was reminded of just how good it is.
 
My recommendations is based on what steel you are sharpening. If you are sharpening simple carbon steel or common stainless then I like what I started with which was a set of 3 stones which included a silica carbide course stone the washita medium and fine stone. Mine are about 2x8 inches. It is still my favorite stones to use. I have seen them around 35-50. Another good choice are FortyTwoBlades FortyTwoBlades stones. He makes great stones and I love his manticore for reprofiling and repair of edges. Plus he is a supporter of the forum and is quick to give great advice. If you have knives that have a high vanadium carbide content then you will need diamond. I have several DMT plates and the have lasted5 years of hard use.

You will get a lot of opinions here, most of which will be good recommendations.

I prefer freehand sharpening but a lot of people will recommend guided systems. Quality ones will be several hundred dollars. I get my knives sharp enough without them so I am happy doing freehand.. It just took 40 years of practice.
 
As a note, diamond/CBN only starts to be needed for high-vanadium steel when you start getting above ANSI 400 grit. Vanadium carbides are very small (about 1µm) so until the grains get finer than 400 grit the abrasive just scoops them out along with the steel. As the size of the grains starts getting closer to that of the carbides then it starts to struggle more. Think of it as being like shoveling sand vs. shoveling gravel vs. shoveling cobbles. The shovel you're using is steel that's softer than the stone is but you can scoop it up because of the size. Once your shovel actually starts colliding with the stone instead of passing through it, that's when you start running into trouble. Same idea with the abrasive vs. the vanadium carbide.
 
If you are using the more basic steels, I would recommend the KW65 King combo water stone. It is quite cheap and will give you a choice between 1000 grit somewhat toothy finish and 6000 grit for more polish. The downside is that if you are sharpening a really dull knife it could be time consuming the first time you sharpen, so maybe something else coarser would be better.

If you are using anything better than budget steels, it won't be a good choice. It is great for less expensive kitchen knives though(X50CrMoV15/1.4116; X30Cr13/420J2 etc)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Think of it as being like shoveling sand vs. shoveling gravel vs. shoveling cobbles. The shovel you're using is steel that's softer than the stone is but you can scoop it up because of the size. Once your shovel actually starts colliding with the stone instead of passing through it, that's when you start running into trouble. Same idea with the abrasive vs. the vanadium carbide.
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That my friend is a damn fine analogy...

I'll second looking at Baryonyx knife company for stones. I just got a manticore bench stone, and a couple of pocket stones (American mutt and artic fox). While I haven't had a chance to put the manticore to use yet the pocket stones are great.
 
That is strange to me. I find that SIC puts an edge on the hardest/toughest steel faster than a 50 grit Diamond.
 
Looks like the Baryonyx Arctic Fox would be my starter stone if I go with that brand? at these prices I would be fine with buying two stones if that would be better in the long run, or is it better to focus on technique with a single stone to start?

I have a couple 420HC Kershaw Scallions, A couple Kershaw Shuffles 8Cr13MoV that would be my "practice" knives though I want to keep the Scallions in decent shape, carried them a long time and they are dear to me even though they are pretty pedestrian. The Shuffle was my nephews first knife and I got myself one to match, again sentimental but that thing looses it's edge quickly. I have a Leatherman Charge Ti with an S30V blade that is currently in good shape but hoping with practice I will feel comfortable sharpening that. And I recently got a Civivi Wyvern with D2, this is another "practice" knife and has the bonus of having no emotional attachment and I got it for $43 so if I ruin it in the pursuit of learning a new skill I will not be heart broken.

My knives rarely see hard use anymore, I work behind a desk these days but I do get to put them through there paces on the weekends occasionally.

Thanks for all the responses so far and let me know if the above info changes any of your answers or helps narrow things down.
 
ToddS said:
I agree with Shawn, you should start with something that removes metal fast. Another one that I would suggest is the Sigma Power Select II 240 (Lee Valley sells them). I recently pulled this one out and was reminded of just how good it is.
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mtckitchen has them for less and with a 20% discount right now.

I'll say the answer depends on the steels. But if OP is thinking of kitchen knives too something in the 8"x3" size is more comfortable.
 
bfortified said:
Looks like the Baryonyx Arctic Fox would be my starter stone if I go with that brand? at these prices I would be fine with buying two stones if that would be better in the long run, or is it better to focus on technique with a single stone to start?

I have a couple 420HC Kershaw Scallions, A couple Kershaw Shuffles 8Cr13MoV that would be my "practice" knives though I want to keep the Scallions in decent shape, carried them a long time and they are dear to me even though they are pretty pedestrian. The Shuffle was my nephews first knife and I got myself one to match, again sentimental but that thing looses it's edge quickly. I have a Leatherman Charge Ti with an S30V blade that is currently in good shape but hoping with practice I will feel comfortable sharpening that. And I recently got a Civivi Wyvern with D2, this is another "practice" knife and has the bonus of having no emotional attachment and I got it for $43 so if I ruin it in the pursuit of learning a new skill I will not be heart broken.

My knives rarely see hard use anymore, I work behind a desk these days but I do get to put them through there paces on the weekends occasionally.

Thanks for all the responses so far and let me know if the above info changes any of your answers or helps narrow things down.
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If you're going for the Arctic Fox you should toss in a Manticore stone as well. A no frills coarse stone is the backbone of all hand sharpening, and the manticore and arctic fox make a good combo. If you use them with water you can even smear some of the mud from the arctic fox on the underside of a cutting board and use it as a finish strop.
 
For most steels a coarse / fine combination stone, like Norton's JB 8 in SiC grit will take you a long way in sharpening. For 30$. Good luck, DM
 
I do not understand what SIC "moves Metal" means? It (RE)moves metal AFAIK. If one is not careful with a softer metal. They could literally find themselves holding the handle! All I know is that it profiles or puts an edge. Like nothing else I know of. There are Cobalt compounds. Not that you can purchase on the Internet. You must Be A NASA Scientist I take it. Anyway I have not a need for harder than SIC. I am not sure if I should do this. If the OP is in a good place with their finances. I would urge them to support the name brands and contributes here. If they are broke, they can get the same thing at a local Hardware store. Not a big box store. Even so, they really are not as nice as the real ones. Whatever you do, build a home from the foundation. Make sure you have the SIC stone in your first order. Oh, Thanks for the like Buddy.
 
I'll put in a plug for a Norton Crystalon combination stone as well. It is the AK 47 of the sharpening world.

I would splurge for one of the bigger ones and be done with it, but an 8x2" and a small bottle of mineral oil will handle a lot of chores.
 
As other have said, get both of those Baryonyx bench stones as the core of your sharpening setup, I have both and they are great. The Arctic Fox is so flexible, except for sharpening super steels, you can probably use it for 70-80% of all your sharpening tasks.

Add one more to handle your super-steel folders: Buck Edgetek dual pocket stone. A 4" x 1" dual-grit 325/750 diamond pocket stone, which you can find for $15 to $16 online. An equally good and similar option is the DMT diafold coarse/fine sharpener. I've had this one for 10 years and mine's still going strong, it works great, but as you'll see if you shop around, the DMT costs more than double what the Buck does. It's a better constructed sharpener and may be worth it in terms of durability and quality, but if you're trying to economize, the Buck is fine and gets very good user ratings on every retail site I've seen it sold. Having this portable dual-grit diamond sharpener gives you a portable, practical way to sharpen your knives that are most likely to contain super steels: folders and field knives. If you later decide to upgrade to bench-sized diamond stones (which you probably will :-) ), it'll still be handy to have a portable diamond sharpener.

So if you get the 2 Baryonyx Bench stones and the Buck pocket stone, total would be around $70 + tax and shipping. Not bad for a startup basic sharpening kit.
 
Ourorboros said:
I wish I knew/did that when I started sharpening. Now that I have enough stones to lay a foundation, I'm trying to cut down on new redundancies but occasionally would like that bigger stone.
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Some purchases you know were worth it the minute you open the box...
 
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