Good introductory stones?

Need to take the leap into sharpening myself to make my life easier and my job performance faster and more refined. Never sharpened before so I'm looking for any advice.

What are some good bang-for-your-buck stones? Something good for a beginner to start on and preferably a set. Shapton glass stones seem to get good reviews and are a good price point, any difference between sharpening on a "regular" water stone and a glass stone?

Start with two stones, a medium and a fine grit, like the Bester 1200 and Suehiro Rika 5000.

http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/Bester-1200-Sharpening-Stone-p/bstr1200.htm

http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/Suehiro-Rika-5000x-5k-sharpening-stone-p/suerika5k.htm

Get something to flatten them, either an Atoma 140 or if you're on a budget, 220 grit wet/dry on glass or tile will serve, but you will go through a lot of wet/dry.

http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/ATOMA-140x-sharpening-stone-plate-p/ato140.htm

Shapton GlassStones can be used to sharpen knives, but they were developed for sharpening planes and woodworking tools.

Rick

I'd recommend getting a diamond plate either atoma 140 or dmt xxc.

Also get good stones from the beginning to save money gesshin or choseras are good.

Bester are good coarse stones and lots of people like the Rika 5k.

They will last plenty long to learn on I found out its better to get good equipment to start of you can't hurt it.

I also think it is a good idea to just get good equipment from the start, the stones will last years of use.

I've had my Bester 1200 for 3 years, sharpened hundreds/thousands of times on it, and it still barley looks worn down...needless to say that I love this stone for the mid-range, as it is affordable and had a good feel and feedback while sharpening (especially if you work up a little mud slur).

Granted I've never tried another stone in this grit range, but I don't need to...it has handled every steel I've thrown at it from all the simple carbons and semi-stainless of kitchen knives to ZDP-189, M390, CPM-M4, etc. of folders.

It's tough to beat the beston-bester-rika set in the bang for the buck category. If you take care of your stuff and like fine edges, you don't need the beston. If you like more aggressive edges, I'd go with beston-rika. If you want a nice middle of the road, one stone solution, I'd say the bester is the way to go. Before I found this group of folks, I would have been very happy with that one stone and it really is nice to have an Atoma...worth every penny, IMO.

Good introductory stones are cheap.

I want to buy new stones to replace my king 1000/6000 too.

I'll go with the bester-rika set + DMT xxc :thumbsup:

Pensacola Tiger said:

Start with two stones, a medium and a fine grit, like the Bester 1200 and Suehiro Rika 5000.

http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/Bester-1200-Sharpening-Stone-p/bstr1200.htm

http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/Suehiro-Rika-5000x-5k-sharpening-stone-p/suerika5k.htm

Get something to flatten them, either an Atoma 140 or if you're on a budget, 220 grit wet/dry on glass or tile will serve, but you will go through a lot of wet/dry.

http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/ATOMA-140x-sharpening-stone-plate-p/ato140.htm

Shapton GlassStones can be used to sharpen knives, but they were developed for sharpening planes and woodworking tools.

Rick

Click to expand...

x2.

I started with Naniwa SS stones, then went to Arashiyama, then Chosera and finally to the Shapton GS.

I know the GS series are not really liked around these parts, and it's probably true that there are better options for single beveled knives, but for double bevel knives the Shaptons are hard to beat.

No soak
Super fast cutting
Minimal wear and no dishing

"Feel" is subjective, but they feel good to me.

The only downside for me is that they need a stone holder to provide them clearance when sharpening.

eaglerock said:

I want to buy new stones to replace my king 1000/6000 too.

I'll go with the bester-rika set + DMT xxc :thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Good choice