Love for Kitayama?

[Saya]

Long time ago, doing research on stones, there were several sites in praise of Kitayama, giving great final edge and wonderful kasumi for a synthetic. However I see almost nothing on this forum.
Any thoughts, experience and comparisons? To other synthetics, to naturals, to hybrids like JNS 6000? I have since gone into naturals, and this is mostly academic interest, but still curious with a nagging sense that I'd like to try it.

 

[HRC_64]

Long time ago, doing research on stones, there were several sites in praise of Kitayama, giving great final edge and wonderful kasumi for a synthetic. However I see almost nothing on this forum.
Any thoughts, experience and comparisons? To other synthetics, to naturals, to hybrids like JNS 6000? I have since gone into naturals, and this is mostly academic interest, but still curious with a nagging sense that I'd like to try it.

did you actually search? theres been a couple threads in past year on it and alot of mentions

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/kitayama-discussion.34862/
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/kitayama-8k-or-shapton-pro-8k.36124/

in general its an 8k stone, and the trend is for people to use 3-5k finishers alot more than 8k for double bevels. Some people use/recomment the 8k kitayama off a 1k jump (including watanabe and Korin), saying this is fast, cost effetive, and doesn't overpolish / leaves correct amount of "bite".

Around 10 years ago there was more focus on 8-10k stones than there is today, as most people find them pointless on gyutos (cost and time not worth benefit at best; sometimes actually decreasing performance at worst).

 

[daveb]

The search engine within the site software kinda sucks balls. Not as bad as the previous one but not sure you could find any posts relating to "knife" with it.

A google search will find many Kitayama discussions. Don't know the syntax off the top of my head but I'm sure someone does.

 

[Nemo]

I use Kitayama a lot for touchups on carbon steels. I also use it dry as a strop.

Feedback is pretty good and it is reasonably fast. It does dish a bit but nothing extraordinary. I guess that I flatten it every 2-5 knives (it lasts more knives if just polishing the edge as part of a progression). I use it as fully splash & go. I guess you'd call it a medium or medium-hard stone. No issues with cracking but my Choseras haven't cracked either (FWIW, I seal them- not sure if this helps or not). IIRC, it did produce a bit of contrast but I honestly don't use it for this- I find that 8k is a little too high polish for wide bevels as anything over about 4-5k interferes with food release.

 

[Dave Martell]

I think I've been using one of these just about as long as I've been hand sharpening. I've often tried to reduce my kit by removing this stone but it always comes back as I find myself missing it. For starters it has the best feeling during use of any waterstone that I've ever used, a pure pleasure to work with.

This isn't a very aggressive stone like other 8000x stones, it's more a stone that I see as a finishing stone and this is important to note. I've come to find that it's best used following other 8000x stones rather than coming directly from medium stones (like you would normally with an 8000x) as it does not perform as a standalone 8k. I like to use this stone after other 8000-10000x stones and find this is where it performs it's best as it's results can be compared with 10000x-12000x stones.

For me I can't finish a yanagiba without using this stone on (at least) the back side -crispy crispness!

 

[Yet-Another-Dave]

... A google search will find many Kitayama discussions. Don't know the syntax off the top of my head but I'm sure someone does.

Add:

site:KitchenKnifeForums.com

to the Google search terms to limit your search to just this domain. (I suspect this will work with other search engines too, but I use Google.)

 

[Nemo]

@Dave Martell - Thanks for the writeup. It's always good to benefit from your experience. Interesting points about it performing best as a strictly polishing stone. Maybe this is why it works as a makeshift strop.

Might need to experiment with a slightly coarser stone for my gyutos...

 

[Keith Sinclair]

I bought my second quality Yanagiba from Takeshi at A frames back around 2007. I asked him to show me his SB sharpening technique. He was using the Kitayama yellow stone on wood base. Right after that I bought one. This was before he was married & lived back of Palolo valley.

I used it to touch up my yanagiba's almost after every cutting session sashimi and sushi topping for banquets and sunday brunches.

Have it have not used it much since I retired. Think they still come with the cool forest box. Kind of like stone with rustic wood bases. Had a couple of the Rika 5K with the wood bases too.

 

[Marek07]

A great stone for a wide range of knives in my opinion. Talking of edges not polishing though. If I were to lose all my stones - - it would be in the 1st 3 I would buy again - without hesitation.

 

[Saya]

did you actually search? theres been a couple threads in past year on it and alot of mentions

https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/kitayama-discussion.34862/
https://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/threads/kitayama-8k-or-shapton-pro-8k.36124/

in general its an 8k stone, and the trend is for people to use 3-5k finishers alot more than 8k for double bevels. Some people use/recomment the 8k kitayama off a 1k jump (including watanabe and Korin), saying this is fast, cost effetive, and doesn't overpolish / leaves correct amount of "bite".

Around 10 years ago there was more focus on 8-10k stones than there is today, as most people find them pointless on gyutos (cost and time not worth benefit at best; sometimes actually decreasing performance at worst).

Thanks for the links, the second of which is useful, especially as it did not come up in my search.

 

[Saya]

I think I've been using one of these just about as long as I've been hand sharpening. I've often tried to reduce my kit by removing this stone but it always comes back as I find myself missing it. For starters it has the best feeling during use of any waterstone that I've ever used, a pure pleasure to work with.

This isn't a very aggressive stone like other 8000x stones, it's more a stone that I see as a finishing stone and this is important to note. I've come to find that it's best used following other 8000x stones rather than coming directly from medium stones (like you would normally with an 8000x) as it does not perform as a standalone 8k. I like to use this stone after other 8000-10000x stones and find this is where it performs it's best as it's results can be compared with 10000x-12000x stones.

For me I can't finish a yanagiba without using this stone on (at least) the back side -crispy crispness!

Thank you Dave. I appreciate your insights, and it is consistent with what I remember: some feel it unnecessary but those who have tried it tend to love it and stick with it.

I currently finish on Ohira Suita, and I guess that would negate a need for Kitayama as far as kasumi goes. But I may try it just out of interest. Some knives really do like different stones.