Best coarse stone for crap steel

Advertise with us
Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
ian

ian

Refined, yet toothy
KKF Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2017
Messages
6,487
Reaction score
14,373
Location
Boston, MA
Just to beat you to it: “a brick! the sidewalk!”

But seriously, say I want something that’ll remove steel like a mofo on soft stainless —— think Henckel or Wustoff at the best, maybe a Vic, but also think about Cuisinart and Cutco knives and crap like that. What do you pick? I’m thinking lowww grit, like for initial bevel setting on knives that wouldn’t cut your arm if you hacked at it. Currently I’m using a SG 120 for most of the initial bevel setting, which is ok, and I liked Sigma 240, but I’d be interested in other ideas/opinions. Kinda curious about Suehiro Debado 200, SG 220 too.
 
do you want faster or just different?

i like the shapton pro 220 for this. its semi muddy, and the scratches are way less deep than the sigma imo. its faster too iirc.

the problem with the 120ies is that you have to push so hard you can only do it for like a minute.
i like the glass 220 too. its was practically made for crap ss.
 
pro 120 is ultra hard, the glass 220 and pro 220 are softer
 
  • Like
Reactions: ian
Chuckles said:
Here is the thread where I learned ‘cheap steel needs cheap stones’.

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/sharpening-a-top-chef-knife.19737/
Click to expand...

Good read. A $20 oilstone may be a good idea too.

My biggest blunder with these kind of knives was not going aggressive enough at first. Nowadays I inspect it briefly to make sure it’s hella dull, and then I just wail on it with as coarse of a stone as I have (alternating sides somewhat frequently) until I get a fat burr heel to tip. I usually do this at a lower angle than I’m going to finish at, like 15(?) degrees. Then I cut off the burr with a couple edge leading strokes, and then move up to a 500ish grit stone, where I briefly polish the 15 degree bevel and then cut in a conservative smaller bevel. If it’s crap steel, I finish at 500 grit with any residual deburring on cardboard. For a Wusthoff or a Vic or something, I’ll finish at 800-1000.
 
Venev diamond bench stones. They go down to something like 100-140 grit. If you don't mind EdgePro-sized stones, they're cheaper. I took a couple with me when I rented an AirBNB, and sharpened all their knives, including some Henckels and some really really crappy Chinese steel. Worked out fine, though I had to learn a lot about deburring when all you have is a 400 and a 1200. Stropped on printer paper on the granite countertop.
 
to be honst, in the ultra low grit range, all stones dish fast and don't really feel that good. but who really cares as long as they remove metal fast? i dont.

just get one and stick to it until its used up. thats the economical way. but not very fun.

if you want fun. just get a few coarse ones and try them out. you can never have too many stones imo.
 
For what it’s worth - I got a few Shapton SG stones for travel and to sharpen crap knives of my relatives. And SG220 worked well to do the coarse part of the work. You want softer stone for this as otherwise it might load up with the rubbery soft stainless. I would guess that most other 200-ish stones would work equally welll.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ian
I have a Shapton Glass 500 that does well with crappier steels on cheap knives. I've also used a 300 grit diamond plate with decent results.

This week I have a Shapton Glass 220 coming along with a 220 grit stone from Pride Abrasives that is supposed to be extremely fast, and is very cheap. Best Sharpening Stones has a Pride Abrasives 220/1000 combo stone for $38 bucks.

I'll give them a few sharpenings and report back with what I find out. I have high hopes for the Pride Abrasives as they are made in the US and are supposed to be a very fast cutting, long-wearing stone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ian
If you have access to it, I feel like this is where a belt sander or tormek shines. Then strop and hone. I've also had good experience on my atomas.
 
Best coarse stone for crap steel?
Those generic blue ones from Asian grocers for $4.99. I actually use one of these to thin. They dish immediately and, every now and then, just completely fall apart in use. They're spendy, true, so there's always this one: Combination Sharpening Stone
 
I use atomas
140 400 1200 6000 .
Plus cheap belt grinder from harbor freight. There is often a hollow near the handle from electric or pull thru sharpeners. Way too much removal to do with stone. I use float glass and back light the knife to make sure the edge is flat.
 
When I know that I hate the knife going in and that it's not going to get any better, I break out the ubiquitous 220 pink brick. Mine is from JKI but everyone seems to offer one.

It's huge, I don't care if it dishes. It can be worked either hard or harder. It is not and will not be pleasant. But I already hate the knife, it's not going to get worrse.
 
I did a lot of cheap crappy knives recently. I used a atoma 140 for the heavy stuff, and SG500 for the less heavy stuff.

It worked great, and the atoma is great for resurfacing the shapton. However, it's expensive to buy, not cost efficient (atoma's don't have a great lifespan, glass is slow to dish but slow to flatten), and sharpening on the atoma is possibly the worst sharpening experience you could possibly have (however, moving on the shapton, or any real stone is like walking in to an air conditioned store on a very hot day).

The glass 500 should be plenty fast for stuff like wusthof/vnox, even with a couple chips. It does glaze quite a bit though, so you would ideally have something close by to resurface it a tiny bit every now and then, and to clean it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ian
Dakota Day Trader said:
I have a Shapton Glass 500 that does well with crappier steels on cheap knives.
Click to expand...

+1 on the Shapton 500 glass (get the double thick version).

I have one and have used it to reshape significantly chipped edges, snapped off tips.

And then I figured out I also had several better choices: An 8" bench grinder, 6" wide belt/10" disc combination sander (and also enough knowledge to go slow, keep a pan of water close by to quench steel at frequent intervals before destroying temper, arthritis in my hands and the slowly dawning realization I should not hurt myself using a stone where a power tool made more sense...)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top