Whestone and German Knife

[vadimk]

Hi,
I have a Suehiro 1000/6000 whetsome for my japanese knives and i was wondering if you use those whestome for german knives sharpening (like zwilling pro ?) i read somewhere but can't find the link that it's harder to sharpen those german ones ? is that true ?

Thanks

Vadim

 

[Ourorboros]

Traditional European knives are softer than Japanese knives. Any whetstone that can handle your J-knife will be fine for German.
With softer steels you may get a gummy sensation on the stones, depending on how fast the stone sheds grit.
That said, I find that European knives are a great reason to break out my novaculite or blues/coticule. But that's just because I like those stones.

 

[KnifeRep]

You could skip the 6000 and just steel and strop after the 1000, unless you want scary sharp. My personal gauge and sales training tells me most German forged knives are 54-56 HRC, some will go to 58, Friedr. Dick's fully forged Premier line is and it gets a bad rap for being hard to sharpen, but their edge retention is great; I have two old French knives that are in the 60-61 HRC range, hard as snot, but a great edge once worked to death..., but those knives are few and far between in today's new European made knife market, even the cobbled French stuff.

 

[vadimk]

You could skip the 6000 and just steel and strop after the 1000, unless you want scary sharp. My personal gauge and sales training tells me most German forged knives are 54-56 HRC, some will go to 58, Friedr. Dick's fully forged Premier line is and it gets a bad rap for being hard to sharpen, but their edge retention is great; I have two old French knives that are in the 60-61 HRC range, hard as snot, but a great edge once worked to death..., but those knives are few and far between in today's new European made knife market, even the cobbled French stuff.

Thank you very much

 

[milkbaby]

I agree that the softer stainless steel knives can work great with just sharpening on the 1000 grit side of your stone.

 

[Bob6794]

Sharpening is all about preference and what works for you. The goal is a fully apexed edge free of defects, doesn't matter much as to how you get there so try what you have on your knives. If you don't like it change your setup or technique a little.