Honesuki final grit?

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WaTFTanaki

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Flipping between 500 Sg finished at 1k or 2k finished lightly on 6k. Since I am am not Japanese I am mostly logically using it to debone chicken thighs and it hits some bone from time to time so thinking 1k finish makes sense because of my dulling on bone. Thoughts?
 
WaTFTanaki said:
Flipping between 500 Sg finished at 1k or 2k finished lightly on 6k. Since I am am not Japanese I am mostly logically using it to debone chicken thighs and it hits some bone from time to time so thinking 1k finish makes sense because of my dulling on bone. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
1k is totally fine. So is 800 or even 3k. It's really more about personal preference and whether you're in a situation where you can touch up an edge or not.
 
Personally I finish mine 1 to 2k. I suspect 3k would be appropriate as well though I haven't done that...

As long as you find it has and maintains enough bite when you use it...go for it.

I've heard it explained that the micro serrations at higher grit finishes become clogged with fat more easily than larger ones from lower grits...I have not investigated these claims myself...it may or may not be true...

Ultimately it's personal preference and what works for you...

Take care

Jeff
 
Walla said:
Personally I finish mine 1 to 2k. I suspect 3k would be appropriate as well though I haven't done that...

As long as you find it has and maintains enough bite when you use it...go for it.

I've heard it explained that the micro serrations at higher grit finishes become clogged with fat more easily than larger ones from lower grits...I have not investigated these claims myself...it may or may not be true...

Ultimately it's personal preference and what works for you...

Take care

Jeff
Click to expand...
A lot of it depends on the skill of the sharpener. An experienced sharpener can easily get a toothy edge from a 3k+ stone.
 
WaTFTanaki said:
Flipping between 500 Sg finished at 1k or 2k finished lightly on 6k. Since I am am not Japanese I am mostly logically using it to debone chicken thighs and it hits some bone from time to time so thinking 1k finish makes sense because of my dulling on bone. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I’ve been on a voluntary 2 week long chicken breakdown binge, touching up every time to find the answer to this exact question.

Synthetic, 1k seems fine for me. Maybe it ends up a bit higher because Naniwa, but anything past 3k I notice a drop off 2-3 chickens in. 5k gets too slippery. I think if the skills are up for it, go as coarse as you can provided you are still meeting minimum sharpness requirements. 400 grit is my minimum.

Right now I’ve landed on iyoto somewhere between 500-1k grit but seriously scratchy, finished on binsui with a finer nagura. Just stropping on the finisher. Huge teeth for skin and those membrane-y bits, keen enough to slide through flesh.

My honesuki is white #2 tho, it tends to get easily over refined, more so than blue super or CCK carbon. This is mostly my reasoning for leaning so far towards coarse vs fine.
 
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I was doing my SK steel one on a 2k Shapton Glass with light suede stropping and it was fine. I took it up to the 4k once and didn't like it.

My last session I did it on one of my Soft Arkansas stones. They can range quite a bit obviously but I reckon that one is the 600-800ish ANSI rating and I really like how it's performing so far. I think that would be in the 700-800ish JIS range or around 15 micron. Pretty subjective I know but basically, rather course. That particular stone leaves an edge that leans to the bitey side of things.
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
I was doing my SK steel one on a 2k Shapton Glass with light suede stropping and it was fine. I took it up to the 4k once and didn't like it.

My last session I did it on one of my Soft Arkansas stones. They can range quite a bit obviously but I reckon that one is the 600-800ish ANSI rating and I really like how it's performing so far. I think that would be in the 700-800ish JIS range or around 15 micron. Pretty subjective I know but basically, rather course. That particular stone leaves an edge that leans to the bitey side of things.
Click to expand...
I’ll be honest, natural stone edges dominate any synthetic edge I can come up with in my somewhat limited selection for this application.
 
Pie said:
I’m eyeing the dark side of non-jnat naturals. I seen a beautiful namazu ark at my local Home Depot the other day for $25 🤣
Click to expand...

The main problem with cheap Arks (even they are genuine) is the surface conditioning. I've had one's with crystals proud of the surface so it catches and nicks. It's something so subtle you don't see it but you damn sure feel it.

If you're interested in trying out an Ark, I'd recommend sticking with a soft.
 
Forty Ounce said:
A lot of it depends on the skill of the sharpener. An experienced sharpener can easily get a toothy edge from a 3k+ stone.
Click to expand...

An experienced sharpener can indeed get a toothy edge... however... it's the nature of the beast that the micro serrations will be smaller as the particles in the stone also get smaller and fill up with fat more/faster.

As noted by another poster...Pie...

Pie said:
I’ve been on a voluntary 2 week long chicken breakdown binge, touching up every time to find the answer to this exact question.

Synthetic, 1k seems fine for me. Maybe it ends up a bit higher because Naniwa, but anything past 3k I notice a drop off 2-3 chickens in. 5k gets too slippery. I think if the skills are up for it, go as coarse as you can provided you are still meeting minimum sharpness requirements. 400 grit is my minimum.

Right now I’ve landed on iyoto somewhere between 500-1k grit but seriously scratchy, finished on binsui with a finer nagura. Just stropping on the finisher. Huge teeth for skin and those membrane-y bits, keen enough to slide through flesh.

My honesuki is white #2 tho, it tends to get easily over refined, more so than blue super or CCK carbon. This is mostly my reasoning for leaning so far towards coarse vs fine.
Click to expand...

So it's not just the toothyness...it's the size of the micro serrations.

Take care

Jeff
 
Walla said:
An experienced sharpener can indeed get a toothy edge... however... it's the nature of the beast that the micro serrations will be smaller as the particles in the stone also get smaller and fill up with fat more/faster.

As noted by another poster...Pie...



So it's not just the toothyness...it's the size of the micro serrations.

Take care

Jeff
Click to expand...
Hi jeff.

Please see this comment..

Forty Ounce said:
It's really more about personal preference and whether you're in a situation where you can touch up an edge or not.
Click to expand...
 
I’ll go with the coarse trend. 400-2k (assuming you can deburr pretty well) is good for rough tendon work and bone contact.

A coarse/medium Crystolon or India stone would be excellent for this job, and keep deburring easy since you can just lean into edge-leading strokes on the stone and not care much about stone damage. I know Japanese stones are the baseline on this forum, but don’t discount this option for some applications. They cut very fast, are cheap, and make burr-free edges a bit easier at low grit.
 
HumbleHomeCook said:
I was doing my SK steel one on a 2k Shapton Glass with light suede stropping and it was fine. I took it up to the 4k once and didn't like it.

My last session I did it on one of my Soft Arkansas stones. They can range quite a bit obviously but I reckon that one is the 600-800ish ANSI rating and I really like how it's performing so far. I think that would be in the 700-800ish JIS range or around 15 micron. Pretty subjective I know but basically, rather course. That particular stone leaves an edge that leans to the bitey side of things.
Click to expand...
A good soft Ark is great for this!! These stones are really good and can create a nice bite.
 
I favor my Naniwa pro 600 for such edges. As is commonly stated it produces a finish closer to 800 give or take. Plenty of bite for meats.
 
jffallred said:
I favor my Naniwa pro 600 for such edges. As is commonly stated it produces a finish closer to 800 give or take. Plenty of bite for meats.
Click to expand...
That is also a possibility.

I know the Naniwa Pro 600, if you have the chance then try a good Soft Ark or a Washita in comparison.

But as always, something like this is always a matter of personal feeling and it has to be the right solution for you.
 
Good chance to go higher to clean the edge then reintroduce tooth ones with a few passes on a 1k. Or 1k finish stropped hard on a pasted strop
 
KingShapton said:
That is also a possibility.

I know the Naniwa Pro 600, if you have the chance then try a good Soft Ark or a Washita in comparison.
Click to expand...

I have a Dan’s soft ark I finish on when going through my India progression.. However when I feel like using water stones I do suehiro debado 20 to np 600.
 
As someone who personally cut a sizeable majority of the three to four thousand chickens that passed through the butcher shop last year, really anything works. 1k is a good all-arounder. 3k is also excellent. Sometimes I'll go as high as 6k (preferably on diamonds though) if I've just parting out birds since I won't be hitting bone and I think the finer edge gives the meat a better look on the final cut.

@Forty Ounce is right, it's basically all personal preference. Try different grits, see what works for you, your knife, and your cutting style. A lot of the time, it makes more a difference if you've got a light touch or a heavy touch and good or bad technique than what grit you finished the knife you're using on.
 
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