Get a sheet of coarse grit (P80) wet/dry sand paper. Find a flat work surface. The bench top next to the sink is a good spot. Put a little bit of water down for the sheet to lay on (you can use half a sheet if space is lilmited), soak the stone and flatten away. Works an absolute treat and costs you absolutely bugger all. Depending on the grit of the stone I found I can use half a sheet at least five times.
Personally I'd leave the 240 side alone and start using the 1000 grit side of your stone. Generally the lower grits are used for the fast removal of material (reshaping the profile, thinning the blade etc) rather than for creating the finished edge. The 1000 grit will leave a really nice bitey edge on your knife and I (and many others here from what I've read) generally don't go any further on your average softer stainless kitchen knife blade. You can stop there with a J knife too. I wouldn't go out and buy a new stone if I were in your shoes. Mind you, the bigger Japanese whet stones (210X65mm) are a lot easier to use. And there's certainly no need for a diamond plate of any size or description for flattening purposes. Unless of course you like spending money and it's turning in to a hobby.
And I'd agree with your friend in saying that J knives are amazing. I've got a couple of entry level ones and they really are from a different planet when it comes to sharpness and edge retention. I find I don't have to sharpen them anywhere near as often as my other knives.
Ok this is great advice thank you. I will go buy some wet/dry sandpaper tomorrow. The only reason the #240 side is ground down so badly is that I had used it in the past before I knew anything about what I was doing. I assumed that it was the first and main one to use because that is what I had, and it is a Global, and I had assumed that they knew what they were doing... I might post a photo of it soon in a new thread so you can all laugh at me, and see how I deal with flattening it.
Get the CN.
It's a benchmark knife. For many it's THE benchmark knife. I have a Kikuichi TKC which is basically just a brother from a different mother.
We just had a meetup and one of the big revelations was just how damn good a couple of "tuned up" (re-handled ed and re-finished) TKC's stood up to knives costing as much as 10X more.
It's a knife that will give you a good intro to j-knives right out of the box, but will grow with you as you learn to thin behind the edge and slowly change grind and profile to your ideal.
Between that and your sab, you will have 2 of the most iconic and influential blade shapes in recent kitchen knife history.
As for the length, I usually follow the philosophy of "try something different than I already have."
Oh yeah, great work on the chip removal, but the width of the primary edge bevel makes me think that theres still quite a bit of steel behind the edge and you coulld up performance by thinning it out.
As for the gf, making purchases based on someone that knows less than you is always a bad idea. Help her to learn/appreciate what she's looking at before you ask her opinion.... And if she still thinks patina looks dirty, then get her a nice, clean, pos cheap stainless knife for the local big-box. Let her try cutting with that for awhile then let her dry your "dirty" carbon.
Your advice about buying the CN is good, thank you - then you mess it up by saying "ignore the GF" as she was objecting to the Hiromoto!!! I also am fairly sure that she will love the AS even with the "dirty" edge, because she is not dumb and it is a beautiful thing.
I think honestly I will love both of them. Someone else commented "get both", and I can see where they are coming from.
I like what you say about length as well - my Sab is 210 or so, so yes a 240 is probably the way forward..... you are right about me not having thinned it - it was all about removing the chip and I knew nothing about what I was doing. It still cuts well though even in state I left it. I love what I am learning here - I may thin it down and then polish it up at some point, maybe even put a new handle on it if I get inspired to do so, as it is all dishwasher cracked, but it was my first proper kitchen knife and I think I lucked out and somehow bought something that is actually half decent and worth putting a bit of love into, for itself as well as for the nostalgia it entails.
Interesting thing about my friend's J knife - it is a petty and they paid over £100 for it (I think £119). As far as I can tell it is a JCK GEKKO, which they sell for $75 (£51 delivered) and it is not even sharp. They were going on about how sharp it was, but it is OOTB sharp and wouldn't even cut paper. They had been told to use a water wheel sharpener on it and that they should bring it back to the shop for resharpening every 4 months for £6 a go. Amazing. Really not impressed with them at all. I thought that the reason UK knives were overpriced was to do with the 27% import tax, but that is 100% over what JCK want, and on top of that they have spun them crap about sharpening which is nonsense. Compared to the old Sab Judge knives they have it was indeed quite sharp, but a little bit of love ob their old cheap knives would have saved them a lot.
They were talking about buying a Gyuto, I said to talk to me before they did that!!!
