Recommendation - Initial Water Stone Set Up

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Folks, I am sure you have all answered this a million times so I appreciate your patience for yet another newbie request. I'm a good sharpener but it is all oil and diamond stones. I have never ventured into water stones, but I'm starting to plan my initial plunge. Simultaneously, I will be pushing more into Japanese knives. Don't have a ton of money so it will be slow but I want 2021 to be heavily focused on this venture.

First, for various reasons, I want to stick to splash-and-go. I will also not be using them over a sink.

I have good SiC course stones from Baryonyx and Norton and I'm only talking about my own knives that I don't allow to get too dull or damaged. But, I think those stones would work if I did need some aggression. Absolutely open to input though.

Right now I'm thinking:

- Shapton Glass 500
- Shapton Glass 1000 or 2000 (thoughts?)
- Picking up another universal stone holder
- What to flatten them with? Diamond? Grit?
- I'll cobble together a "work station" but welcome any ideas
- I have various strops

Again, completely open to input and advice. This is just what I came up with based on some research.

Thanks all.
 
My Shapton setup is for quick and dirty sharpening and for other peoples knives. Not disparaging them at all, I just prefer soaking stones to S&G in general.

What works for me is the SG500 then the SP1000 and SP2000 sequentially. There's more of a difference than is suggested as the SP1000 works a little lower, more like an 800 while the SP2000 works more like a 3- 4K. I keep this set at home and another one at work. The boxes the SPs come in are adequate for holders though I will use a universal holder given the chance.

I'm starting to play with some of the SG series now - need to make sure what I have and fill it out. Looks promising.
 
My Shapton setup is for quick and dirty sharpening and for other peoples knives. Not disparaging them at all, I just prefer soaking stones to S&G in general.

What works for me is the SG500 then the SP1000 and SP2000 sequentially. There's more of a difference than is suggested as the SP1000 works a little lower, more like an 800 while the SP2000 works more like a 3- 4K. I keep this set at home and another one at work. The boxes the SPs come in are adequate for holders though I will use a universal holder given the chance.

I'm starting to play with some of the SG series now - need to make sure what I have and fill it out. Looks promising.
I'm a fan of the Glass 500 and Pro 2k also.

Check out the Glass 4k also. I like it as a good s&g alternative to Gesshin 4k.
 
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My Shapton setup is for quick and dirty sharpening and for other peoples knives. Not disparaging them at all, I just prefer soaking stones to S&G in general.

What works for me is the SG500 then the SP1000 and SP2000 sequentially. There's more of a difference than is suggested as the SP1000 works a little lower, more like an 800 while the SP2000 works more like a 3- 4K. I keep this set at home and another one at work. The boxes the SPs come in are adequate for holders though I will use a universal holder given the chance.

I'm starting to play with some of the SG series now - need to make sure what I have and fill it out. Looks promising.

Thank you.

For soaking stones, what are a couple good, beginner options? I would be wanting something that doesn't remain soaked all the time (I know for some stones that is a bad thing just not sure if that applies to all) but don't mind if they have to soak for a half hour so before use.
 
The cheap option is King. I don't like em, won't have em. They dish like a bastard., But they have served many newcomers (and many old hands) well.

Do like the Gesshin series a lot. Not the cheapest but worth every dime in the long run.
 
But why tho? Soaking stones are a pain to deal with and you'll only appreciate the difference if you compare them to other stones. Shapton Pros are good, fast, and no fuss.
 
Does the cerax 1000 and king 1000 really wear that differently?
 
I have tested about 100 Japanese stones over 10 years.
About your question, King 1000 red color or Hyper 1000 that you refered?
 
I highly recommend the chosera 800 as a work horse stone. Its splash and go, has good feedback, finishes a bit higher than 800, dishes slowly, and eats metal fast. I actually finish a lot of people's knives on it, usually people's cheap pocket knives.

Personally if you are going to be sharpening Japanese knives I recommend going a little higher than 2000, maybe getting the chosera 3000 (I haven't tried it but have heard good things), the suehiro rika 5k (soaker), or even either a king 4 or 6k.
 
Cerax 3000 is a really good finishing stone for hard steels. I can get my Japanese knives wickedly sharp on that stone. And it's useful for touch-ups, too: if a knife starts to lose it's edge, but isn't really blunt yet, a few swipes on the 3000 and it's back to perfectly sharp again.
 
Btw i have not found the shapton pro 2k being finer than 2k.
having had glass 2k, naniwa pro 2k, bester 2k, juuma 2k, glass 3k and 4k, cerax/ouka 3k and then a bunch of other stones close in grit i'd say the pro2k is just that, a 2k.

the shapton pro 2k is still one of the best shapton stones i think.
 
Thank you.

For soaking stones, what are a couple good, beginner options? I would be wanting something that doesn't remain soaked all the time (I know for some stones that is a bad thing just not sure if that applies to all) but don't mind if they have to soak for a half hour so before use.

cerax/suehiros, naniwa hibiki, some besters/imanishis, juumas, sigmas, king hypers.

the actual soaking is never the "problem", its the drying time imo. does it take a week or a day??
most of the splash and go stones dries in a few minutes, some take a few hours.
 
its supposedly the exact same stone as the cerax 3k. maybe different color.
soaker, medium soft, makes very good contrast on clad blades. i only use mine to polish blade sides not sharpening.
 
stainless-stainless
suehiro3k2-jpg.93344
 
Mine not so much lol
 

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cerax 8k and 2 angles of the imanishi 10k. the imanishi makes a lot less contrast. but its very good for monos. very easy to get a consistent finish off it.

suehiro8k2.JPG


imanishi10k2.JPG

imanishi10k3.JPG
 
Mine was on the new cerax 1k/3k combo that I’ve since returned

Also keep in mind that is a 68$ Masahiro yanagi. The hira is wavy at best. It would be nice if I could actually get the entire blade face to touch the stone
 
Mine was on the new cerax 1k/3k combo that I’ve since returned
I've heard the combos are different than the regular cerax. I had the new cerax 1/6k combo. The 1k literally wore through in about a month, maybe 2. I still have the 6k side, it's a bit harder, but very muddy, so I use it for kasumi finishes. Definitely not actually a 6k though, I find it is coarser.
 
I've heard the combos are different than the regular cerax. I had the new cerax 1/6k combo. The 1k literally wore through in about a month, maybe 2. I still have the 6k side, it's a bit harder, but very muddy, so I use it for kasumi finishes. Definitely not actually a 6k though, I find it is coarser.


I had the same experience basically the cerax 1000 seemed way too soft. The 3000 side seemed ok. So I got the sp1000

I actually asked ryky if he thought the formula for the combo 1000 and the regular cerax 1000 were the same and he said no.
 
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