stone or plate for thinning AND flattening

I currently only have a king combo 1000/6000. I am looking to get a coarse stone that I can do thinning with, but I also need a stone flattener (tired of the screen method). Is there a stone or a plate that I can use to do both, or am I better off with two mutually exclusive products. If so, looking for a budget option.

If you're looking for the budget option the screen method is the way to go. Doesn't help for thinning, but I've always thought that coarser stones tend to be softer and wear faster anyways so am not sure how they'd work for flattening a higher grit stone, but don't get to use mine as often as I'd like as a home cook. Maybe consider an Atoma but the 140 may be too coarse for thinning, so perhaps a 400; I have both. I think JKI also has a product? See this thread and the links within for more discussion:
http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...t-flattening-plates-stones-do-you-like-to-use

Best bet would be to buy a diamond plate to flatten with, the atoma 140 is great, or if you want to save some cash Stu from toolsfromjapan sells an iwood diamond plate for around half the cost. You can use some other flat surface to flatten stones or kind of rub them together but you can't guarantee them ending up being flat, you will also end up wearing down certain stones a bit more.

My opinion is that a single stone/plate will not do you well. A coarse diamond plate that works well for flattening will leave incredibly deep scratches that will take you forever to get out. I would recommend something like JKI's diamond flattening plate combined with a 400g or so stone for thinning. If you need to remove a lot of metal, the Gesshin 220 stone is huge and cheap (or any other 'pink brick'). Might take you a while to clean up the scratches from the 220 with a King 1000, but it'll be a lot quicker then smoothing out scratches from a coarse diamond plate. Diamond plates can also wear out quickly when used for thinning due to the diamonds getting entrapped in the soft cladding of san mai knives.

Be well,
Mikey

Granite plate and silicon carbide powder is the fastest for big jobs, atoma or dmt for every day maintenance

brooksie967 said:

Granite plate and silicon carbide powder is the fastest for big jobs, atoma or dmt for every day maintenance

Click to expand...

Just curious: do granite plates wear and lose their flatness when used this way?

Eventually yes, you can use a piece of glass too, cheaper and disposable

I vote diamond plate, they stay flat. If you are thinning alot you going to have to lap the stone often. I am talking about lapping between front and back side of the blade and some times during one side. This has been my case with the cerax 400. I have good luck with a well worn dmtxc. I tried the atoma 400 but it leaves deep scratches that can take a while to get out on the next whet stone. May have better luck with an atoma 600. And if i just want to get it done fast i just put it on the Belt sander with back plate or grind wheel. If you use a belt sander without a back plate you will end up with a convex edge. Do in short bursts and cool the blade or you will ruin the blade!

Just get the atoma 140. Done.

Never knew there was an Atoma 600. Always just thought 140, 400, 1200. No experience with the 1200 myself

My bad I mean the cerax 320 not 400