What are some good 1000/6000 Japanese water stones to buy?

Bladenoobie1

Bladenoobie1

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Jul 20, 2012
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I possible may be interested in grabbing a waterstone in the future in a 1000/6000 combo stone. Any advice on what brand to get and where? I'll be sharpening s30v and carbon steels.

Julian
 
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I like the Arashiyama 1k & 6k

Much faster than the standard King stones and able to sharpen a wider range of steels.
 
I also prefer the stone to be a combination stone.

EDIT: Would a 1000 grit stone be enough to get a hair whittling edge in combination with a strop w/ black, white, and green compounds?
 
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I don't really like combo waterstones because of the amount of wear the stone has. Once the 1k side wears out you are left with a half thickness stone and the need for a new 1k.

Getting that kind of sharpness at 1k is possible but the skill of the sharpener must be good.
 
Shun makes a great one, I've had mine for years..

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I've mostly only use it to sharpen my Chef Knives (Shuns, Mundial, Chroma and F. Dick) but I did use it to sharpen my Leek and Shallot with great results.
 
Chosera or Shapton Pro (Individual, not Combo) have great reputation, but expensive. King less expensive, softer.
 
King is the generic waterstone that everyone thinks of when the word waterstone is spoken. Its not a bad brand or stone but is at the bottom of the list when it comes to effectiveness in sharpening.

Sharpening steels like S30V with waterstones is not something I would want to do often. You would need stones much better than the King brand and more than a 1k and 6k. When you try to sharpen steels with high levels of wear resistance it requires a tight progression of grit or you will not correctly refine the scratch pattern.
 
Can you recommend any good diamond combo stones to use for steels such as s30v? How is diamond stone over waterstones when it comes to sharpening carbon steels?
 
Bladenoobie1 said:
Can you recommend any good diamond combo stones to use for steels such as s30v? How is diamond stone over waterstones when it comes to sharpening carbon steels?
Click to expand...

Just like blade steels there is a trade off in performance, with carbon steels diamonds are too aggressive and gouge the steel. With high wear steels waterstones (most of them) don't have high enough grit density to sharpen them properly.

It's a proper tool for the job type of thing.
 
Out of late night randomness, just wanted to speak about the King stones.
I am an avid user of Shapton glass-shapton pro. Chosera and I loooove Naniwa super stones. I bought a 1k and a 6k king for practice, so I would not wear out my expensive stuff. Over the months I have sort of fell for the king 1,000! Idk, something about the king 1k works every time. It loves white and blue steel, which are pretty hard, semi abrasion resistant. The king stone just does a great job of not loading up as long as you keep water on it, and for a 1k it cuts very fast. I can predict exactly what my edge is going to do at the next grit coming off the 1k king. On my other stones, it is more of a guess.
I know this all sounds stupid but man... I love that red-brown deluxe stone... the 6k is not quite as useful but it works.
After all, metsunaga abrasives have stood the test of time for a reason... They are decent quality

Question for you guys out there looking into stones, I have not yet found the answer the this so I would like to inquire:
What brand of water stone does Shun/KAI put their name on? Or what are they similar to? Thanks.
 
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