Can a 1000 grit stone do it all?

I second yoda's advice. That's what I do as well and have found to work.
 
Thanks fellas :thumbup:

I'll play around again tomorrow while the wife is at work and report back.
 
There are only two elements to an edge - geometry and friction. In my opinion you always need a coarse stone because it can take a really long time to shape an edge with a medium stone like yours. Once you have the shape of the edge right, it is sharp. Beyond that, it is a matter of reducing friction and the less friction the better. That's why most waterstone users have three - coarse (shaping geometry), medium (sharpening) and polishing (reducing friction.)

In your shoes I'd add a coarse stone (100 or 200 grit) next and then a polishing stone later (5000 or 6000)
 
I second the 6000 grit stone. For one, it gets rid of burring issues. According to research done by John Verhoeven, professor of metallurgy at Iowa State, a 6000 grit Japanese waterstone produced very little burr and a very fine 0.5 micron edge. By comparison the machine sharpening system he used produced 1.5 micron thick edges.
 
The actual grit of waterstones differs considerably from brand to brand and from family to family. I had three 1K grit waterstones. One was a Norton, one was a Shapton Professional and the other was a King brand. The Norton was the coarsest and I would rate it closer to a 600 grit. The Shapton felt more like a 1,000 and left a nice finish with a little bit of tooth on a Kitchen knife. The King was softer and smoother and felt more like a 2,000 to me. I frequently use only the Shapton for a quick sharpening job on a kitchen knife that has gotten too dull for my Sharpmaker. I seldom use the King and I gave away the Norton for someone setting up a sharpening business.

I would supplement the King with something coarser. A Norton 220/1000 waterstone would help a lot for truly dull knives: http://www.knifeoutlet.com/shop/10Expand.asp?ProductCode=NTWATERCOMBO
 
myright said:
Alright fellas - This my first crack at sharpening with a water stone. I got a 1000 grit king in a trade and am wondering if 1000 grit can be used to get the knife sharp enough to not need an additional polishing stone.

I really want to get the hang of using water stones as I really like the method. I'll be shaprning VG-10 Shun Classic's and some cheaper Henkels. The Henkels I'll probably sharpen on my paper wheels more than the stones though so it's really an 8" Chef and 4" paring knife by Shun that I'm looking at using the stone for.

So... Is 1000 grit considered a good all around grit?

Oh - I don't need my knives to be able to whittle hair, shaving sharp is fine.
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1000 should be more than enough. My favorite stone is a Norton Crystolon coarse/fine. It's 180/600, I believe.
 
O.K. - so it sounds like (based on what I've heard here and some other places):

200 grit is good for creating/reshaping a primary edge (I'd do this at 11 degrees or so), and 1000 grit is fine for creating the secondary edge (I'd do this at 22 degrees or so). Whether or not you'd want to polish the edge at 4000 grit is probably a matter of what you want the edge to do and how it would hold up under repetitive use.

Using the Razor Edge TM coarse stone and 1000 grit waterstone has worked pretty well for me so far, but I'm going to try the 200/1000/4000 waterstone sequence and will report back.

Best,

Steve
 
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