Hi I'm in the UK London to be specific. Was wondering if someone could recommend a good place to repair/sharpen knives. I've looked into Japanese knife company but a few bad reviews in the sharpening service have put me off, also looked into kataba company but once I sent him pictures and got a quote over the phone he wanted to charge me more than double when I took them in. Thanks
Recommend sharpening service please
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What kind of knives do you have? Show some pics. Have your considered sharpening them yourself? For many of us, the act of sharpening is a “zen” that is just as important as the knife itself.
I'd recommend buying the first cheap, no-name stones from Amazon. I got it down in 3 tries. $18 USD for a double-sided 400/1000 stone, and $18 USD for a lapping/flattening stone. They get the job done fine. The only trade off, is that they wear down faster than expensive stones, which is why you need the flattening stone, and need to use it after every other knife you sharpen. YouTube videos are plentiful to show you techniques. Also, it helps more than you know to buy a cheap leather strop.
Jovidah
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The cheap amazon stones don't just wear faster, they're outright worse at everything, and make learning how to sharpen unnecessarily more difficult.
And it's not like a stone that doesn't suck costs all that much more. So while I can get behind the recommendation to try learning it yourself I'd very much recommend against starting with the cheap Chinese junk stones.
Could you recommend me a better stone that doesn't cost much? Preferably a 400/1000? I'm curious as to how much better it is, since I have always gotten the job done on the cheapos and haven't had a reason to buy anything better, so far.
Rodrigo is a pro sharpener who lives in London too, talk to him. He can do the repairs for you, and even teach you how to sharpen knives
Rodrigo Batista
Instagram @togidai.uk
Stick with reputable brands. King stones are usually the least expensive of those. I'm not a big fan of combo stones and would recommend the King 300 and King 800/1000/1200 (whichever is cheaper, they feel pretty similar to me).
If you insist on combo, I found this King 250/1000. Never used it, but the price is right.
https://www.amazon.com/KING-1000-Gr...luze+stone+300,aps,144&sr=8-7#customerReviews
DitmasPork
Senior Member
Send them up to Scott at Sheffield Knife Sharpening! Super nice, knowledgeable, skilled with sharpening/repairing of Japanese style knives. Good to pick up stones to learn sharpening yourself, but there's a learning curve that takes time and patience—until you get competent with sharpening/repair, I highly recommend sending your knives out to an expert, someone who knows what they're doing.
https://www.sheffieldknifesharpening.com/
could you try BST here for a beginner set left by someone who fell down the Jnat hole. I'd buy a trueing stone / diamond plate to quick fix those up too.
I would second this.......
buy once cry once. you don't need an amazing stone - I think the Cerax or Shapton glass stones are not terribly expensive and will keep up with you as you build your skill.
I wasted a good amount of money on these bad amazon stone. would NOT recommend it. (Sorry Jman*).
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
Yeah no surprises there. There's also an indepth vid on it by outdoor555 that does a decent job.
I actually owned a set of these myself as first stones. On the list of issues I'd add that the higher grits were overly soft, making it very easy to cut into the stone. Generally speaking all of it was just crap compared to any other japanese stone.
So that's also my recommended alternative; literally any reputable Japanese brand is better, whether it's naniwa, suehiro, sigma, shapton, imanishi, even the cheap king stones, or any other brand I left out.
JustAnotherJoe
Hobbyist
Vouching for the king 300. Its almost splash, go and pretty slow wearing and its big. It leaves a finish higher than 300 grit JIS, enough for decent paper towel cutting (because that obviously composes most of my diet). I've been getting lovely edges with just it and a bbw or soft ark.
Norton IB8 double sided india stone is hard to go wrong with if your fine with a bit of oil, plus it almost doesn't dish (which is good and bad).
Any cheap diamond plate in the 1k range works better than those cheap chinese waterstones.
I would even be willing to bet that I could get a better edge from a coffee mug.
DitmasPork
Senior Member
Here's the beginner set I've recommended to people seriously wanting to commit to hand sharpening. These are for beginners I know that have pricey knives—IMHO makes sense spending a bit more on better stones, avoiding the false economy of cheap stones. The wide 1k is very easy to use.
BEGINNER SET
• Suehiro stone holder
• Diamond flattening plate
• Shapton Glass 500
• Debado 1000 (extra wide)
• Debado 6000
BEGINNER SET
• Suehiro stone holder
• Diamond flattening plate
• Shapton Glass 500
• Debado 1000 (extra wide)
• Debado 6000
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Can't say I blame him. He asked for a recommendation of a sharpening service, not for others to tell him that he needs to sharpen them himself. I get that we try to offer best overall advice, but he didn't ask for that. He even did some of his own research and provided reasons as to why he didn't want to use them. There few some good recommendations after, but also a month after he asked...
service.94107
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If you wanna save energy searching, my recommendations would be :
Stick to the brand Shapton Glass
Take the 320 removing chipped edge and form new edge
Take the 1000 as rough grind for boning and work horse
Take the 4000 as fine touch for work horse after everyday or every week as after cooking touch and general fine grind
If you have a slicer or sujihiki, buy a 8000 for careful touch up, a strope would also do.
You do not need any other stones until you either becomes a serious knife grinder or you become a stone addict.
Another set would be
Chosera 800
Chosera 3000
Kitayama 8000
Atoma 400 diamond
The upside of this set is that the mechanical feedback during grinding is slightly better
The down side is that you are responsible for flatting the stone before your splash-n-go, or you ended up with scratches on the bevel line
Stick to the brand Shapton Glass
Take the 320 removing chipped edge and form new edge
Take the 1000 as rough grind for boning and work horse
Take the 4000 as fine touch for work horse after everyday or every week as after cooking touch and general fine grind
If you have a slicer or sujihiki, buy a 8000 for careful touch up, a strope would also do.
You do not need any other stones until you either becomes a serious knife grinder or you become a stone addict.
Another set would be
Chosera 800
Chosera 3000
Kitayama 8000
Atoma 400 diamond
The upside of this set is that the mechanical feedback during grinding is slightly better
The down side is that you are responsible for flatting the stone before your splash-n-go, or you ended up with scratches on the bevel line
