Recommend a finer stone

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Jeffrey Kramb

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Currently using a Shapton Kuramaku 1k and 5k. Was thinking I should get an 8k or 10k. Any recommendations?
 
Maybe you want to describe your knives and ideal finish and/or what's missing now for you, some people say 5k is good enough to finish SS knives.

I recently re-found that Kitayama 8000 has better feeling than Kuromaku 8000 and 12k.
 
Hmm. Well, all of my knives are carbon. I'm really just looking to work on my game and get even sharper. With the 5k, I can get them sharp enough to push cut paper, but not quite sharp enough to shave. Honestly, I don't really like the feel of the kuromaku 5k. It's very hard.
 
Naniwa Snow White 8000. Reasonable price, i like mine and use on some knives to see how sharp i can get them.
 
You shouldn't need an 8k to get a shaving sharp edge nor a 5k for that matter. Having said that, if you want something softer than what you have the Kitayama will surely give you that because hard it isn't. In fact it is quite easy to gouge if you are not paying attention. It is a good stone though and I have kept mine around for quite some time now.
 
Maybe you want to describe your knives and ideal finish and/or what's missing now for you, some people say 5k is good enough to finish SS knives.

I recently re-found that Kitayama 8000 has better feeling than Kuromaku 8000 and 12k.

Same. Using Kitayama a lot for knives, even if a bunch of 8-12k stones lay around.
 
Hmm. Well, all of my knives are carbon. I'm really just looking to work on my game and get even sharper. With the 5k, I can get them sharp enough to push cut paper, but not quite sharp enough to shave. Honestly, I don't really like the feel of the kuromaku 5k. It's very hard.

the finer the stones get the harder they get usually. i think all shaptons pros are of similar hardness though. the glass stones feel a bit softer but i think they are actually just as hard.

I like the shapton pro 12k. thats a step up from a 5k imo. and its actually quite fast for its grit. not too expensive for this grit. it does not polish it cuts!

i also have the naniwa superstone in 12k the white one. and i'd say its slower, much slower. I actually bought it to polish on, but when comparing the 2 the difference is minimal imo in actual polish. at least not as big as one would think after reading EVERYTHING on the net written about the SS12k. i prefer the pro over the ss. price is similar.

you can shave off both of these straight off the stone i'd guess. for actual shaving though the spyderco UF (conditioned with a fine spyderco rod) is a much better and slower alternative, at least 10 times slower. but this one creates a true mirror finish. i can shave straight off this one, no stropping.

the shappro 8k is also nice imo.
 
i just rub the fine rod on the UF until all "stray" particles gets knocked off the stone. there are hundreds of them. i use high pressure to do this. the stones are flat milled with diamonds then fired and all the dust from the milling gets fuzed on the surface. i spent maybe 5-10 minutes on mine rubbing a fine rod on it. i did this dry.

before the stone was similar to a 3-5k or so but now its like a 15-20k. like its supposed to be. and you can easily see where the stray particles were since these spots turn a different color when sharpening on it. hundreds of them!
 
i figured the best way of conditioning it would be the exact same abrasive. and the fine rods are the same as the UF but the UF is machined. thats the only difference. exact same "grain" they just mill it with a diamond cutter before the fuzing.

you will probably have to be quite heavy handed doing it. i was and i saw no problems. i also chamfered the sides with a fine rod (the fish hook side) this takes an hour or so though and its probably best done with diamonds, but i did this 10 years ago and i only had a chosera 1k, a sharpmaker and the UF so i used what i had :)
 
also no need to flatten the UF. they are all warped more or less. just use the concave side.

it will eat diamonds like you would not believe if you attempt it. i have read people wasting several dmts on it. dont do it. just condition it imo.
 
well then yeah just rub the rods on the UF and see where thats gets you. i kinda doubt you have "ruined" the stone. i at least get a true mirror finish out of mine it must be very very high grit. 15k at least. you cannot compare it to a shappro 12k or SS12k. this is true mirror.
 
i use no fluids. i use the UF dry actually.

i think they stop working when used wet. fairly certain of this.
 
cool.
the sharpmaker rods are often slightly warped too as you might have noticed. so i used the side that would get me the most surface area on the stone.
 
morihei karasu 9k has a soft-ish muddy-ish feel to it and provides a great edge
 
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