WiscoNole
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no offense but it's probably technique. I have a Gesshin 2k and can get an edge worthy of taking to work if I'm in a hurry.
Bester 1200 & Rika 5000
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Keith Sinclair
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Do not give up on the Gesshin 2000.I think you made a good choice.It needs alot of water,I soak mine about half hour,also use a a spray bottle wt H2O while on the stone.It puts a very functional edge on knives wt. good steel.The stone has feedback & is aggressive for a 2K.
There is a link to Jon's--Knife Sharpening Playlist--24 videos.View the ones that can refine your tech.& put some more blades to that stone.
Do not give up on the Gesshin 2000.I think you made a good choice.It needs alot of water,I soak mine about half hour,also use a a spray bottle wt H2O while on the stone.It puts a very functional edge on knives wt. good steel.The stone has feedback & is aggressive for a 2K.
There is a link to Jon's--Knife Sharpening Playlist--24 videos.View the ones that can refine your tech.& put some more blades to that stone.
Hi guys, thanks for the replies.
I am able to form burrs no problem, I think it's the removal that seems to be the problem. I have watched all the relevant videos from Jon's YouTube channel and taken knowledge from the forums. So far I have been soaking the stone for at least 30mins then forming a burr on both sides followed by working both sides with lesser pressure and number of strokes to try and deburr finishing off with some light trailing strokes and passing through cork. I have been managing to get to a point where the edge bites while doing the thumbnail test but it's not super sharp and grabby.
After some prep on the board the edge will slide while doing the thumbnail test. So this also makes me wonder about my board too (it's made of acacia wood), can't afford a decent board right now. I'll need to swap to the synthetic board this next time and see what happens.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Aaron
Hi Guys,
i did not want to start a new topic for my question, which fits roughly into the premise of this thread. The thing is this: I'm looking to somewhat upgrade my stones, which at this point consist of a Kai 400/1000 combination stone and a Suehiro Rika 5k. The Kai stone is alright, I guess, but quite small. It is almost a cm shorter on each side than the Rika, which makes sharpening larger blades a chore. Also, the two sides are extremely different: the 1000 side is very soft and will melt away by just looking at it. The blade will cut into it very quickly and it needs a lot of flattening (which only takes seconds). The 400 side, on the other hand, is very hard and I'm having trouble flattening it at all with wet-dry sandpaper... there Is very, very litte material being removed.
I'll be using the 1200 for two things: Touching up on my knives (The usual: Blue & White steel, and some VG10) and finishing a lot of Euro knives (I want to learn, so I sharpen everything I can get my hands on). So it should be quite universal, for carbon, VG10 and soft stainless, it doesn't need to excel in Hightech steels like HAP40 or ZDP189. Also, it would be good if the stones were not too fragile, like being ruined if they're forgotten in water at some point in time, cracking if they're dried to fast, etc.
The 400 will be used mainly for the soft stainless knives, which, as you all know, are in a bad condition most of the time. So I plan on doing most of the work on the 400, finishing these knives with the 1200. Generally, I prefer harder stones, I looked into Naniwa Pro and Shapton, but these might be a bit too advanced, and perhaps a tad expensive? Also, as far as I understood, I should have a Diamond Plate for flattening those. I'm not all too motivated to spend 150 for one of these plates, so I thought that the somewhat softer Besters might be more sandpaper as a flattening medium.
Bottomline: Is there any reason why I seriously consider not going along with the plan of adding the combination of Bester 400 + Bester 1200 to my Rika 5k for said setup? Is there something which will be significantly better for some reason? Then please tell me
Thank you all for reading.
i did not want to start a new topic for my question, which fits roughly into the premise of this thread. The thing is this: I'm looking to somewhat upgrade my stones, which at this point consist of a Kai 400/1000 combination stone and a Suehiro Rika 5k. The Kai stone is alright, I guess, but quite small. It is almost a cm shorter on each side than the Rika, which makes sharpening larger blades a chore. Also, the two sides are extremely different: the 1000 side is very soft and will melt away by just looking at it. The blade will cut into it very quickly and it needs a lot of flattening (which only takes seconds). The 400 side, on the other hand, is very hard and I'm having trouble flattening it at all with wet-dry sandpaper... there Is very, very litte material being removed.
I'll be using the 1200 for two things: Touching up on my knives (The usual: Blue & White steel, and some VG10) and finishing a lot of Euro knives (I want to learn, so I sharpen everything I can get my hands on). So it should be quite universal, for carbon, VG10 and soft stainless, it doesn't need to excel in Hightech steels like HAP40 or ZDP189. Also, it would be good if the stones were not too fragile, like being ruined if they're forgotten in water at some point in time, cracking if they're dried to fast, etc.
The 400 will be used mainly for the soft stainless knives, which, as you all know, are in a bad condition most of the time. So I plan on doing most of the work on the 400, finishing these knives with the 1200. Generally, I prefer harder stones, I looked into Naniwa Pro and Shapton, but these might be a bit too advanced, and perhaps a tad expensive? Also, as far as I understood, I should have a Diamond Plate for flattening those. I'm not all too motivated to spend 150 for one of these plates, so I thought that the somewhat softer Besters might be more sandpaper as a flattening medium.
Bottomline: Is there any reason why I seriously consider not going along with the plan of adding the combination of Bester 400 + Bester 1200 to my Rika 5k for said setup? Is there something which will be significantly better for some reason? Then please tell me
Thank you all for reading.
I like the Bestor 1.2K and Suhiro pair. But don't like the Bestor 400 at all. I could never find the sweet spot between too wet and too dry to use the stone effectively. Did find stone love with the JKI 400 and the JNS 300.
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As you're in Europe get a Naniwa Pro 400. And depending on your budget a Naniwa Pro 3k or a Belgian Blue with it.
Thank you both. I looked up the Belgian Blue, they seem to be in the 5k-6k range, filling the same spot as the Suehiro Rika 5k which I already have. Do you mean the Belgian Blue can (should) replace the 1k stone for standard sharpening tasks?
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if you can get King Hyper 1000 (standard version) for a similar price to the Bester 1200, I would suggest going this route. More aggressive cutting speed and feel, still decent dish resistance (maybe the Bester is a bit better? it's been a while since I've used mine), good height/thickness of stone, and leaves a pretty good finish on core steel + cladding of sanmai wide bevel knives
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KING-Whetst...357185&hash=item3d2a5222de:g:B9cAAOSwXeJYGv8h this seems to be a good price for the stone. Slowmo shipping from Japan
http://www.ebay.com/itm/KING-Whetst...357185&hash=item3d2a5222de:g:B9cAAOSwXeJYGv8h this seems to be a good price for the stone. Slowmo shipping from Japan
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Coming from a Naniwa Pro 400 your first aim should be reducing, and eventually getting rid of the fat burr a 400 stone leaves. A Belgian Blue is great in deburring. It's a bit old school, but use saliva instead of water to start with. And make sure the stone doesn't glaze, so roughen it to be more effective.
I see! My idea was to use the 400 mostly for the Stainless knives which are mostly in need of a complete reset, and something 1kish as the main stone for maintaining my own knives. I should not need the 400 often for them, right? Or do you mean I should go with 400+ Belgian Blue instead of this?
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If you have to deal with overly neglected soft stainless a Naniwa Pro 400 may even to be much too fine. Consider a Shapton Glass 220 or a simple carborundum stone to start with. But after the said 400, most will do with deburring on your green ScotchBrite sponge. Any further refinement is rather counterproductive with a soft steel embedding large carbides like Krupp's 4116. Stay very short on a Belgian Blue. Just very light longitudinal deburring. With finer stainless and carbons you may work much longer with them, and have more refined results.
Thank you all again for your help. This is a lot of good new information.
Mute-on
Senior Member
Since you already have the Rika 5000 (I have one. Great stone on stainless and carbon), I would just get the JNS 300 (splash & go) and JNS 800 (soak) or 1000 (splash & go) pair and be done. I have the JNS 800 and Rika 5000 in permasoak (with a Bester 1200). I still like the 1200 after the 800, but it's probably not necessary.
Enjoy the journey
Enjoy the journey
Thanks to all of you! For now, I'll go with the Bester 1200k. I guess that I could have agonized over the differences forever, since the other alternatives aren't 'worse' per se, but different. About the course stone, thinking some more I'll be. I sometimes feel more like getting a more affordable stone for the heavy lifting, since this won't be for the premium knives. And thanks Benuser for mentioning the Belgian Blue, it is only matter of time until I'll complement the Rika with one of theseEnjoy the journey
