I'm a big fan of nakiris, and this is likely because I use them at home (when I use one), for my wife and myself. One really great thing about a nakiri is that you can get a knife that performs unbelievably well for a very reasonable price, when compared to a gyuto or even a suji. The limitations of the blade shape can be made up with pairing it with a petty, or another knife with a tip for trimming, coring, etc. Of course, this adds up and you can easily get into beautiful gyuto territory for that price.
With that in mind, for a home cook, a medium sized Carter Funayuki will do everything you will likely need, and especially when cooking for one. A couple other very nice options would be Itinomonn (from Maxim), Yamawaku (if you can wait for eBay), Tanaka (metalmaster), or maybe a Carbonext, based on their reputation.
I'm currently using an Itinomonn gyuto at home, and a Harner at work. I must say, I'm very pleasantly surprised by the Itinomonn (everyone knows how great Harners are) and I think Maxim might get more requests for them as more people give them a chance. Put it this way: I already have my next one picked out....
Now, I hate to mention it, but why not try out a 1k stone like a King? They're cheap and very effective. You can even do light dry stropping to maintain your edge until you get comfortable with sharpening. Just a thought.
PS. Welcome!
+1
If you're really stuck on using that CC, then don't spent over $60 on a nakiri, because there's a very good chance that the CC will mangle it.
I don't want to sound too harsh or like a snob, but it's not a question of the CC having "limitations" its just flat-out the wrong tool for this application. Honestly, saying "I'm going to spend $200 on a nakiri and maintain it with a CC" is akin to saying "I'm going to go buy a Ducati and maintain it myself using the crowbar, sledge, and hedge trimmer I have out in my shed."
Sharpeners like that are not designed to work with knives as thin or edges as acute as you'll find on j-knives. It's also going to be very difficult to maintain the nice flat edge profile / grind evenly without putting divots or waves in the edge and/or burning the steel/ ruining the temper.
Even if you manage to sharpen it without totally wrecking it, the performance will degrade very quickly for a few compounding reasons:
1) the edge that machines like the CC created are hollow ground and inherently weaker / shorter lasting than those made the correct way by hand
2) because of #1, and the fact that you have no way of stopping / maintaining the edge in between sharpening , you will need to sharpen more often
3) machines like the CC remove too much steel with each sharpening session
4) because of points 1-3 you will wear your knife much faster and as the edge travels up the blade, you will have no way of thinning the steel behind the edge, so with each sharpening the performance will degrade until you eventually reach the point where the edge is sharp, but the area behind it is so thick, it will feel like you're trying to to cut with a bushcraft knife.
So, please, just get a frickin stone and learn to do things the right way.
If you have the motor skills to use a CC without damaging your knives, then you can learn to use a stone.
It's really not that intimidating, and an inexpensive nakiri is, IMO one of the easiest knives to learn on.
You will get really good results really quickly, and you'll feel like a hero. Check out Murray Carter and JKI Jon on youtube or buy Dave Martell's DVD and then then develop a style / motion that work for you.
Get a Nakiri in white #2 and 1 or 2 stones. Spend less than <$100 on the nakiri and a little >$100 on stone(s).
A cheap knife is less intimidating to experiment on, and the soft iron cladding and simple carbon steel core is much easier to sharpen than something really fancy.
If down the road you want to upgrade (and no matter how good your first knife is, you'll always want more) you can sell your first one (but no one ever does) and you'll have a better idea of what you want in a knife when you're spending more money.
1000-1200grit is a versatile range if you get just one stone, but something like an 800 and 4000-5000grit is more fun and will give you a lot more options/ make your sharpening life easier.
There are plenty of newbie sharpening threads on here, just do some reading... .or take the lazy approach and toss up another thread and the stone geeks will be all over it.