Best edge for general purpose kitchen?

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What stones leaves you with your favorite edge for general purpose kitchen use assuming a 7+" Chef / Gyuto type knife? And what technique, i.e. edge leading, edge trailing.

Just speaking edge here, not stone you like the feel of or anything else, just straight up favorite edge.

For Carbon?

For good stainless?

For German stainless?

For crap stainless?
 
well I hate to be super normie about it but mine's an ohira renge shiro suita.

but quickly making it's way into my heart is an Aiiwatani I got from bernal they listed at 4-4.5. absolutely screaming edge.

anything that cant take one of those gets the SG500.
 
For Carbon? 6-8k (maybe even 12k sometimes just for fun)

For good stainless? 4k (for r2, srs15 etc)

For German stainless? 2-3k

For crap stainless? 1-2k
 
Western Stainless gets Chosera 400, with Cho 1k for deburring.

Fine grained stainless usually gets Cho 3k.

Carbon (and most semistainless) steels get Cho 3k. Maybe Kitayama 8k if I want to go finer. Sometimes I use a natural instead if I have already been using it to polish a bevel.
 
For anything, SG 500 -> paper/cardboard/whatever material is handy strop.
Carbon/good stainless, SG 500 -> SG 4k -> same strop.

Okish stainless, SG 500 -> SP 2k -> strop.

For crap stainless Crystolon coarse -> Crystolon medium -> India fine -> strop.
 
For Carbon?

I used to use King 1200 > Suehiro 3k. Now I'd probably go King 1200 > Washita / Turkish

For good stainless?

Eh? ;)

For German stainless?

Haven't done much, but someone brought me their Wusthof a few months back and I used Norton SiC then the King 1200 to good effect.

For crap stainless?

Norton SiC Coarse and Fine is good because you can kind've re-set bevels/edges quite quickly on things like Globals to get rid of their stupid weird grinds. Also people tend to bash up crap stainless, so chip removal is usually necessary for the ones I do.
 
some people like 500 for everything. some like 1k. some like 2k for everything. some like 8k for everything.
some like red, some like blue. its just how it works i guess. there is no right and wrong here.

even a 500/1k edge will cut everything you want. i guess it boils down to: is it worth the effort?
 
Depending in the state of the edge, my progression uses these stones:

SG220 -> Chosera 400 -> Chosera 1000 -> Chosera 3000 -> Debado LD 6000

Some knives I stop at 1K, some at 3K, I only generally go to the 6K these days for yanagiba. Followed with stropping on denim or rough leather, with or without compound depending on mood.
 
Crap stainless SG320/NaniwaP400 +Naniwap800 for german

Better stainless Naniwap800, Naniwap3k/SP2k

Good carbon Naniwap800, NaniwaP3k+ Aiiwatani/Kitayama
 
Most steels, JKI 2k soaker. Touch-ups are green-compound denim strop and fine ceramic Idahone. If the steel can take it, a nice 6k JKI diamond edge is pretty sweet too, but you really need a fine-grained steel (carbon, stainless or in-between). Extended family cheap stainless (Misen and Cutco) gets SG500 and cereal-box stropped.

On that note, I'm looking for whatever edge will let me do cherry tomatoes for days. I'm about to pull the trigger on a JKI 4k, if it'll be an improvement over the 2k. Just hunting for that edge that gets me the least tomato juice on my board.
 
Most steels, JKI 2k soaker. Touch-ups are green-compound denim strop and fine ceramic Idahone. If the steel can take it, a nice 6k JKI diamond edge is pretty sweet too, but you really need a fine-grained steel (carbon, stainless or in-between). Extended family cheap stainless (Misen and Cutco) gets SG500 and cereal-box stropped.

On that note, I'm looking for whatever edge will let me do cherry tomatoes for days. I'm about to pull the trigger on a JKI 4k, if it'll be an improvement over the 2k. Just hunting for that edge that gets me the least tomato juice on my board.
My 2 favorite tomato edges are SP2k and SG3k, curious to hear what others use.
 
SG 3K edge is my new fav now. I like it better than NP3K edge.

Cheap & German Stainless = SP 2K
Carbon= Morihei 6K
Nice Stainless, SG 3K,
Yanagiba =Morihei 9k/12k
Butcher knife SG3k
Nakiri = Morihei 9K
Paring = SP2k/NP 3K
 
For a couple years I went to 8K for general pro kitchen use. Those edges were fun but not always practical. Also, I've learned that I don't always want the knife to just fall through product, I want some feedback/bite. I've come back to my trusty Naniwa deluxe 1K (carbons). If I'm feeling fancy or for stainless I'll finish at NP2K.

At home, I occasionally leave a DMT XC edge on paring knives. The edge it leaves is especially fun for tomatoes.
 
For Carbon: Dependig on the knife and mood; Chosera 2000/Chosera 3000/Aoto/Aizu/Suita.

For good stainless: SG2000 (only one I have that works well on PM steel).

For German stainless: Chosera 800 and Aoto (I have found that one of the Aotos I have work excellently on German steel, and VG10/max)

For crap stainless: Chosera 400/SG500
 
Latelly I was finishing on Rika or JKI 6K for everything double bevel of mine.
For anything family related I would stop around 1K.
 
I stop at 1000 for my German steel knives, and at 3000 for my Japanese ones. Perfect compromise between getting very sharp and retaining enough bite. The exceptions are my deba and yanagiba, which get the 10000 treatment.
 
Sg500/Chosera 800———> Aoto/SG2K
(Steel depending)
Form burr edge trailing remove edge leading

Only use/have ginsan and carbons
+1 for aoto. The chosera 800 is one of my favorite mid grit edges too.
 
SG2k for all of my knives. I wasted money on the 4k and 8k. I am so glad I didn't get the 16k!
 
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