I was wondering how fine of a grit is enough? An example of what I am trying to say is if you tried to sharpen a lesser steel (not a $5 dollar knife), but something common like 420 on a 8000 grit waterstone, would the knife get really sharp or would the edge just turned to dust. Will many blades take an edge to this degree of sharpness? Would the edge last for more than one cut? I'm not sure this thread even makes sense, but if it does I would like to hear some opinions.
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What grit for what steel?
- Thread starter gary74
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in this thread exists the potential for much suffering 
420 polishes pretty easily, which is what you would be doing to the edge with very high grit abrasives. How long it would last would depend on what you'd do with it. 420 isn't very wear resistant. The sharpening angle is also gonna have a large effect on longevity.
420 polishes pretty easily, which is what you would be doing to the edge with very high grit abrasives. How long it would last would depend on what you'd do with it. 420 isn't very wear resistant. The sharpening angle is also gonna have a large effect on longevity.
I think the grit you decide on is more dependent on how and what your cutting needs are more so than the type of steel your knife is. If your more of a push/press cutter you want a more polished edge, and if your more of a slicer you want a less polished edge.
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Anywhere from 600-10,000 grit or even beyond (10,000 grit being strop filled with chromium oxide producing a polished edge) is considered a finished edge depends on what your doing. If you are going to beat the hell out of the blade don't go to the higher grits, heavy work won't help hold the edge at any grit.
Cliff Stamp
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Yes you can do this for cheap blades and yes the edge retention is much higher than that. Vincent has done a number of reviews on the $1.99 class knives. Note a lot of working knives in developing countries are made out of materials like aluminum, mild steel, etc. . The higher grade steels are usually not quenched so they are pearlite, so expect really soft blades. But even a 35 HRC knife is WAY harder than woods, etc., recall that we used bone knives for a long time.
-Cliff