10,000 grit sharpening stone for a pocketknife?

9

9397jim

Joined
Oct 24, 2013
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Hello from wet and very windy Scotland
Ive been practicing and think Im getting good at sharpening my A Wright and Son pocketknife. My finest stone I think is slate. Ive been looking at Japanese and Belgian blue stones that have grits up to 10,000, used mainly I think for shaving blades. Would this type of stone be of use on a pocketknife? Im interested to see how scary sharp I can get my wee pocketknife.

Thanks in advance
 
There are some Japanese Naturals (Jnats) that are excellent for pocket knives. You can either start off with synthetics and just use a couple Jnats as finishing stones , or you can do an all Jnat progression.

Before you get into any Jnats in the 10k range I recommend starting off lower in your progression with a couple synthetics.

Say some Nubatama Stones , the 150 , 1k Speckled Hard , and the 2k Speckled Nubatama. From there you can either go higher with synthetics , or swap over to naturals early on.

If you go higher with synthetics I would look at the 4k and 8k Nubatama Stones. Then a Meara , and a Yaginoshima Asagi.

If you swap over to Jnats I would look at an Igarashi or Binsui (Both in the 2-3k range , the Binsui being the harder of the two) , this little bit of overlap will help you to convert from synthetic scratch pattern to a Jnat scratch pattern. Then I would go to a Monzen Aoto or Aono Aoto.(Both 3k-5k , Aono being harder and more common) From here I would personally add a Meara (6k-7k), although its not needed. And then finish up on a Yaginoshima Asagi (10k-20k+) and you will be in the range you are looking to be.

Jnats are a pleasure to use , and pair particularly well with Nubatama Stones. And they will play well the carbon steel in your pocket knife.

Heres a Jnat Edge on a Carbon Steel Maestro Wu Pocket knife. This particular edge well exceeds 30k.


For more information on Jnats and Nubatama Stones I would contact Ken Schwartz. The most knowledgeable person I know of outside of Japan on the subject.
 
Thanks Sadden I shall look into your suggestions. My first thought is that you can't go directly to a ten k stone
 
For a pocket knife there is no need to go much past 3k-4k, there are not many pocket knives hard enough to support such a fine edge and the cutting ability is greatly reduced.

A fine diamond hone or a 1k king stone can put a real nice edge on most pocket cutlery. A 800 grit chosera is another stone that does real nice with pocket knives.
 
Like kitchen knives, the type of edge you desire is dependent on personal preferences and the tasks you do with a knife - and the type of knife you have. For my personal use I use pocket knives - nearly all Spydercos - that have some of the best steels available and consider my edge too coarse if it deteriorates below the level of a fresh 24k grit edge. Something in the 1k range is rarely used on my EDCs unless I'm doing a repair or switching to naturals past that point.

Jim, depending on the steel, using various Japanese naturals - and there are coarse, medium, and fine ones - can produce an excellent edge on pocket knives. For softer steel knives the edges won't support a very fine edge but you can produce good edges on softer steels with middle grit Japanese naturals (categorized as Nakado) relying on a different type of edge rather than just a refined edge. Slate stones can produce a decent edge but cut very slowly.

---
Ken
 
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