Home cook, do I really need more than 1 stone?

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fatsumie

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Hey all, I'm new to sharpening with whetstones and don't have a big understanding and I'm learning along the way.

Going to pick up my new carbon knife soon made from White #2 Santoku.

My question is. As a home cook that will use the knife at least 2-3 times a week. Do I need more than 1 stone? Will a stone that is 1000 or 2000 grit be enough along with stropping it before I use it every time?

I don't really understand this whole finishing stone or edge thing with higher grit stones.

Thanks
 
As long as you don’t need to grind out damage to your edge, a nice 1000 grit should do you fine. And you don’t need to strop before every time you use it. Stropping with compound is a good way to refresh an edge that has become less fresh, but doesn’t need the 1000 yet.

I’d just start with that, and see if you develop any other needs. The first focus should be learning to sharpen well on that stone.

If you are drawn down a rabbit hole, as I was, then so be it. But you don’t need to worry about that now. On purely practical terms, your second stone, if you get one, should be a 300-500 to deal with damage or rebeveling (say, to a different angle).

Nice choice of steel BTW.
 
A good way to start and grow a progression of stones as your proficiency increases:

Shapton Pro 2000 to begin with
Shapton Pro 1000 next

These two will accomplish 90% of sharpening you ever need to do. You don't need to buy them at at once.

If you want to add a higher grit stone for refinement add a Shapton Glass 4000

If you find yourself doing bevel work or repairs, the Shapton Glass 500 Xtra thick is a good choice.

You'll often see these abbreviated as SP xxxx or SG xxxx.

Suggest you lose the strop until you're proficient with sharpening on stones. Stropping should be a compliment to sharpening, not a replacement for it.
 
I come at sharpening from a course-first philosophy. If I really had to choose, I'd rather have a low grit (200-400) edge and then stropped than to just have a higher grit stone.

You have to have a sharp edge off low grits or the higher grits just don't matter. The more I was forced into a one-stone scenario, the lower I'm likely to go.

That said, yes you do need more than one stone. If you don't explore too many steels you can probably do alright with two stones. A lower grit and a medium grit.

Are you new at sharpening?
 
Take Dave's advice. It's spot on.

A higher grit stone will give you more refined edges that feel more sharp and less ragged, at least on carbon knives. (I basically never take stainless above 2000.) If you're happy with your 1000-2000 grit edges, don't worry about it. A lot of people stick with that grit, even when they have higher grit stones available. It'll give you some nice micro-teeth for cutting easily through tomato/pepper skins, for instance.

If you're just maintaining the knife that you use, you don't need a coarser stone. I wouldn't recommend having a really coarse stone as your only stone, if you don't need to do lots of repairs. The cutting experience is a little nicer at medium grits, the product will be less torn up, and you'll remove less steel with each sharpening. Also, if you cut yourself a 2k grit cut is going to heal much faster than a 300 grit cut! :p
 
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Yes as most have suggested get the 1-2k and really learn to use it well and then get a low grit, and then if you’re still feeling spicy get like a 6k.

I have gone down the rabbit hole very far, owning many natural stones and synthetics. Truly a spoil of choices available, and at the end of the day my favorite natural edge is an Aizu (which finishes 2-4K), and my favorite synthetic is a 3k. Occasionally I’ll do a really high grit finish for fun, but the mid grit edge is really the best cutting feel and edge life.
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
I come at sharpening from a course-first philosophy. If I really had to choose, I'd rather have a low grit (200-400) edge and then stropped than to just have a higher grit stone.

You have to have a sharp edge off low grits or the higher grits just don't matter. The more I was forced into a one-stone scenario, the lower I'm likely to go.

That said, yes you do need more than one stone. If you don't explore too many steels you can probably do alright with two stones. A lower grit and a medium grit.

Are you new at sharpening?
Click to expand...
I would say I am new to sharpening?

I have a hand me down whetstone with a grit that I have no idea of and a Kiwi Bunka.

Whenever I feel the Bunka feels a bit dull. I just do a 15-30 passes on each side on the whetstone and I'd be happy with the sharpness.

daveb said:
A good way to start and grow a progression of stones as your proficiency increases:

Shapton Pro 2000 to begin with
Shapton Pro 1000 next

These two will accomplish 90% of sharpening you ever need to do. You don't need to buy them at at once.

If you want to add a higher grit stone for refinement add a Shapton Glass 4000

If you find yourself doing bevel work or repairs, the Shapton Glass 500 Xtra thick is a good choice.

You'll often see these abbreviated as SP xxxx or SG xxxx.

Suggest you lose the strop until you're proficient with sharpening on stones. Stropping should be a compliment to sharpening, not a replacement for it.
Click to expand...

I don't think I'll be doing a lot of bevel work or repairs.

I do about 15-30 passes on a whetstone about 4 times a year at most and Im quite happy with the result.

I wouldn't say I'm very proficient nor good at sharpening and I'm not exactly too sure how often I should be sharpening. As I only do it when it feels a bit dull.

I just learnt about stropping. Do you think its still something to do? In my case. Cheers

ian said:
Take Dave's advice. It's spot on.

A higher grit stone will give you more refined edges that feel more sharp and less ragged, at least on carbon knives. (I basically never take stainless above 2000.) If you're happy with your 1000-2000 grit edges, don't worry about it. A lot of people stick with that grit, even when they have higher grit stones available. It'll give you some nice micro-teeth for cutting easily through tomato/pepper skins, for instance.

If you're just maintaining the knife that you use, you don't need a coarser stone. I wouldn't recommend having a really coarse stone as your only stone, if you don't need to do lots of repairs. The cutting experience is a little nicer at medium grits, the product will be less torn up, and you'll remove less steel with each sharpening. Also, if you cut yourself a 2k grit cut is going to heal much faster than a 300 grit cut! :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm just looking to maintain my knife that will cut well when I'm cooking. I have a whetstone with no idea what grit it is. Which gets used 4 times at most a year.

So I'm not too sure how often I will be using this new whetstone with my new knife.

As I've been using a Kiwi Bunka since I've started cooking where I do 15-30 passes every time it starts feeling dull. Which only happens to be 4 times a year at most.
 
Your Kiwi is likely not sharp. Just sharper.

Still suggest a known good stone and learn fundamentals. It's a good ride - enjoy it.
 
One stone will fill in one gap.

The mediums gritt stone fills in the average gap: a knife which is not damaged, just a bit dull.

If you want to be able to do other stuff to knives that are in different then the above condition, you need more stones.


For example: if you really want to start learning freehand sharpening, you will have to make hours. Meaning, you will have to take knives from other people to 'practise' on (just tell them you are sharpening them, since the result is sharper then before anyway). Most of these knives are compelte dull or heavily damaged, a 1000-ish gritt stone is not sufficient.
The other way around is also true, if you want your knive to become sharper then you can achieve on your medium gritt stone (for now), you will 'need' a higher gritt stone.
 
Having been in your shoes a couple years ago, the advice that resonated with me was Rangen and M1k3 above.

I've been using a Cerax 1000, and leather strop. Recently I was working on our kitchen knives and my wife asked "what are doing? Making sharp knives sharper?" So I guess I've improved.

I'm looking at getting a 3000 and 6k just too see if that makes a make big difference, now that I'm not hurting my edges so much. At this point I feel my edges are functional, but I know I can do better. Getting some finer stones will tell me if it's technique or materials. (or both)
 
i used just a 1k for almost a year. it got my knives sharper and i learned to use a stone. the problem came when i bought a natural stone and realized there is a whole new kind of sharp, one where cutting your arm hair just makes you yawn a little. and maybe this kind of sharp gets your loin a tingling, then you go and buy too many stones, because that loin tingle is nice, and so are stones and sharp knives.

so yes, you could just have 1 stone, or you could just drop your knife off somewhere, or you can chase perfection...
 
and by the way, I noticed dude above is using a cerax 1k. Im not sure why more cats dont speak of this cerax 1k. show me a synth that can do a better kasumi and ill consider buying it. this cerax 1k is a great stone, maybe a touch soft for some, but it cuts steel, and also polishes bevels very nicely. and you can get it in a huge chunk.

ill say it now, having used 5 different 1ks (shapton pro and glass, king, bester, Naniwa) Cerax 1k is my favorite 1k.
 
Lots of great advice, and to directly answer your question....NO, you don't need more than 1 stone, and I would recommend the KING 1k/6k combo stone, and later, a few sheets of 200 grit wet/.dry sandpaper to flatten the stone. King is a very well respected stone provider, been around for a long time. With your Kiwi and soon to arrive santoku, the $40 USD King will get you a long way.
I gave mine to my daughter when she moved away to Uni, and I do miss it.
FWIW, from a sharpening standpoint the Kiwi and the White #2 are polar opposites
 
If you can get a 3k to 6k stone. Not only a higher grit stone will give you more refined edges that feel more sharp and less ragged (once you learn how to use it) but for a beginner it is easier to remove the burr on a high grit stone. Then you'll learn how to deburr on your 1k. So the high grit stone make a beginer life easyer .
 
Bolek said:
If you can get a 3k to 6k stone. Not only a higher grit stone will give you more refined edges that feel more sharp and less ragged (once you learn how to use it) but for a beginner it is easier to remove the burr on a high grit stone. Then you'll learn how to deburr on your 1k. So the high grit stone make a beginer life easyer .
Click to expand...
That's not what I experienced when I started sharpening. I made matters worse for a while when finishing on a 5k stone as opposed to a 1k stone. Probably not good enough at maintaining a constant angle and using too much pressure.

At any rate, when I was new to this, I found it easier to get a decent edge on a 1k than a 5k stone.
 
I'd say starting with just a mid grit stone (1000ish, 2000 at most) is fine. If you can't get it sharp on that, a finishing stone isn't going to fix the result either.
For some people it might be all you ever want. To some extent there are diminishing returns when you go up in grit.
When adding a second stone I'd be inclined to get a more coarse stone so you can keep your knives thin behind the edge, which arguably has a higher impact on the cutting performance than more polishing on the edge itself.
 
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