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Welcome to the rabbit hole indeed!

White and blue do not need exotic stones because they are fairly simple alloys and have very fine evenly distributed carbides. They are not highly abrasion resistant like CroMoVa steels so you don't need super fast cutting stones to sharpen them. They take a very fine edge from high grit stones and show good contrast between hard and soft steel with minimal work.

Only drawback is that they don't have the edge life of more exotic steels.

They will sharpen easily on just about any set of decent quality stones, the choice is really what type of stones you prefer and how much work any of them take to maintain and give you the edges you want.

I bought my stones to sharpen A2 plane blades -- high wear resistance on the stones is very important in that use to keep them flat so you don't get curved edges or any significant bevel curvature. Not an issue with knives, especially easy to sharpen ones.

The old fashioned King stones work very will with carbon steel, so that's an option, but I'd just use my standard set -- King Deluxe 300 for steel removal (and a 220 grit if I need it), Beston 600, Bester 1200, either Naniwa 3000 or synthetic blue aoto, and a King 6000 for slicing knives.

Pluses and minuses for any set of stones -- the King Deluxe 300 is silicon carbide and you have to work really hard to get it out of flat, but it has to be flattened with loose grit on glass (or the sidewalk...) and with heavy use burnishes like an Arkansas and has to be freshened up with some loose grit. I flatten test stones that way, working on some sandstone pieces to try for knives.

The Bester/Beston stones require about 30 minutes of soaking, but stay flat a long time. I don't flatten them with the King 300 unless I want to refresh it after, it burnishes.

You can't go wrong with Shapton stones, espcially the Glass series. Naniwa traditional stones are soft, you will need to flatten a lot, especially the 220 grit.

Pick some and try them out, you need something coarse for chips and thinning, then a 1-2k stone for sharpening and 3 or 5k for polishing a little, and maybe something in the 6k range for delicate cutting like sushi. The rest is personal preference, don't get easy to dish stones if you don't like spending the time to keep them flat, if long soaking is an issue get splash and go stones, et.
 
Thanks. "All three" is tempting, but I was thinking one stone only...

Actually 500 + 2k might be a good idea, my 220 is wearing out quickly after a few serious thinning sessions (getting rid of high spots in single bevels and wide bevels). Great stone though.
 
Yeah... but are you familiar with Shaptons?
:LOL:little bit....

Jokes aside, I've been using Shaptons for many years, have the Pro's from 220-12k and the Glass from 320-6k and use both series regularly. In addition to many other stones..

Is that familiar enough for you that I can agree or disagree to a recommendation?

Just out of curiosity - do you always ask about the familiarity of a member here when someone comments on a stone or knife?
 
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I took it as a joke, based on your handle. Hard for me to imagine that it was intended any other way.
I hope so, but I'm not sure...

So I prefer to ask so that there are no misunderstandings. Just to be sure..
 
:LOL:little bit....

Jokes aside, I've been using Shaptons for many years, have the Pro's from 220-12k and the Glass from 320-6k and use both series regularly. In addition to many other stones..

Is that familiar enough for you that I can agree or disagree to a recommendation?

Just out of curiosity - do you always ask about the familiarity of a member here when someone comments on a stone or knife?

lol 100% a joke based on your handle
 
So what do you think about this setup

Atoma 140 -> SG500 -> SG2000 -> SG4000

This will be for vegetables

For fish, rolls and meat (sujihiki) I will consider 8000 but you said SG is not a good option.
 
Buy it, try it and if you don't like it sell it. Try another, and so on and so on...
 
So what do you think about this setup

Atoma 140 -> SG500 -> SG2000 -> SG4000

This will be for vegetables

For fish, rolls and meat (sujihiki) I will consider 8000 but you said SG is not a good option.

Not sure what do you want to hear. People who like Shapton Glass will say its good. People who don’t will suggest other stones and you are back to square 1.

I do not like how most Shapton Glass feel; so I think you are on a wrong path.
In addition, 500 -> 1000 -> 4000 is a better progression, but there is nothing wrong to jump from 500 to 2000. Its just that 1K is a more versatile grit.
 
So what do you think about this setup

Atoma 140 -> SG500 -> SG2000 -> SG4000

This will be for vegetables

For fish, rolls and meat (sujihiki) I will consider 8000 but you said SG is not a good option.

That’s pretty close to my setup although I have an SG1000 instead of the 2k.
 
So what do you think about this setup

Atoma 140 -> SG500 -> SG2000 -> SG4000

This will be for vegetables

For fish, rolls and meat (sujihiki) I will consider 8000 but you said SG is not a good option.

I use a different flattening plate but otherwise those stones do 90% of my kitchen work.
 
Bester 1200 -> JNS blue synth aoto does it for me most of the time..
 
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