Utilizing my old stone + advice on which others to get

Well, looks like this slope is two-headed.

I already own a Norton 4k/8k that I used for straight razors a few years back, it doesn't have much use on it.

However, after some reading, it sounds like I will need something a little coarser to start with and finish on the 4k/8k.

Would something like a 400/1200 combo stone take care of most sharpening needs? Or should I spend more on a 1000 solo stone?

Bestor 1200

What is your budget? With ~1000 grit you will be good to go unless you need to do some repairs or thinning. That's a good starting point and finishing for some knives as well.
The "cheapest" and quite well regarded for the price is King 1000.

Basically you need a coarse stone for very dull blades, reprofiling , chip repair etc
You need a 1k stone for the majority of your sharpening . Then a finishing/polishing stone for deburring and refinement( which you have already)

If your a home cook a 400/1000 combo stone would be fine. Unless you plan on doing a lot of sharpening.
If you plan on doing a lot of sharpening its best to have two separate stones. Either way both 400 and 1k are pretty nessesary... The 1k more so

awesome, thanks for the replies. i'm a home cook, and am planning to get a few Tojiro knives (gyuto DP & shirogami nakiri) to start with, so it sounds like a ~1000k will suffice for now.

assuming I want to use the same stones for trying to rebevel/sharpen my stainless Henckels and Shun Ken Onion knives, will I need to start with something like 400 to set a new edge, or can I start ~1000 with those also?

To set a new edge or bevel you will need something coarser than a 1000 you can do it on a 1000 but it will take a lot longer

10-4, thanks everybody.

If the knifes you want to start sharpen do not need work on thinning or changing bevels or remove chips, than 1000 stone is more than enough to start sharpening process. If you however have knives that are seriously blunt, or need the above mentioned work than a 400-600 grit stone would make the work much easier and faster. You mention you need to re-bevel some knifes, than you will need the coarse stone too.

Just to give you idea - I use 400, 2000 and 6000 stones (all Gesshin range) and normally I just start with the 2000 stone (it is very fast stone for its grit). I only use the 400 if I need to thin a blade or remove chips. So it does not get used every time.

I would say - get a decent 1000 grit stone - maybe a King if the budget is tight, or just go for Gesshin from JKI if budget allows. For around 500 grit the Beston is quite popular, but again - the Gesshin stones are great

For the completeness - the stones from JNS are as great as Gesshin (I was lucky to try both), but since you are located in US it would probably make little sense to order from Denmark.

thanks for the response and recommendations Matus.

I guess i'm not 100% sure if I need to rebevel my Henckels and Shun or just start them on a ~1000 stone. The most recent sharpening they've had was from a Chef's Choice 2-stage, and Shun electric knife sharpener, respectively. Would it be best to reset the bevel on a coarse 400-600 stone or just start them on the ~1000?

It depends if those sharpeners did any damage to your edge... If they are chipped or microchipped start from 400

You can check for smaller chips that are hard to see by slicing slowly through paper... You will feel it catch when you hit a small chip

If you need to work on the bevel (I would guess that the electric sharpener only works on the edge), than 400-600 stone will make the job faster.

i ended up going with a bester 500 and a bester 1200. got them today... looking forward to learning this skill. thanks for all the input.