Best medium price Sharpening stones

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651bobby

Joined
Sep 5, 2008
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Hi I am looking for some general purpose sharpening stones.

I will mostly be sharpening kitchen knifes, but also some decent pocket knives (Benchmade, Spyderco...) and some wood working tools - Moras, Chisels and Planes (carbon tool steel).

I had pretty much settled on getting a set of Arkansas stones in Soft, Hard, Hard-Black. Especially after watch this guy on Youtube. I like the fact that the stone itself wears down slowly.


However after some further research, it seems as though these stones might be unsuitable for some of the higher end and harder steels I have like 154CM, s30v and VG10.

So my question is: "are these stones suitable for those sort of steels and if not what else is in this price bracket, are Japanese Whetstones better suited for this job"?

PS: I am not really interested in any sharpening contraptions like the Sharpmaker or the Apex etc... I just want a set of bench stones.
 
Oh sorry, I did looks for a 'sharpening' sub forum and didn't find it. Is it possible to move this thread?
 
651bobby said:
Oh sorry, I did looks for a 'sharpening' sub forum and didn't find it. Is it possible to move this thread?
Click to expand...
You can use the "report" function in the bottom left hand corner of your post to ask a moderator to move it for you.
 
I am not a professional sharpener nor as knowledgable as many but I can keep my blades sharp ... just my opinions ...

if you aren't wanting to spend alot on stones Norton Crystolon with work with the steels you mentioned ... S30V is the hardest to sharpen out of what you mentioned and the Norton will sharpen that ... a Norton combo of Crystlon/India oil stones would be inexpensive in comparision to others ...

Another inexpensive stone I use alot are the Baryonyx stones ... can be used dry or wet ... I prefer water with these ... they are very well priced and work well on most steels ... you could get a good setup of these for less than one good diamond bench stone in most cases

if you plan on stepping up steels of high vandium types then diamond stones are probably the consensus choice but more expensive.
 
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Having no idea what sharpening stones sell for these days I can only tell you what works for me. I've been using Spyderco medium, fine and ultrafine ceramic bench stones for the last few years and I have zero complaints. In addition I have an 8 inch DMT coarse/fine diamond plate for damaged or really dull edges and a Knives Plus Strop Block for keeping things super sharp. The Spyderco bench stones aren't cheap to buy but they should last virtually forever.
 
I find stones a mess and a headache. oil, water mess, mess and a mess. ceramics and diamond bench stones like dmts as an example are far better, easier and work clean. I get some folks like old time stones have at 'em. I have bunches from many years and long ago when that's all I had.... once diamonds and ceramics came around I haven't gone back to them. take from that what ya want.........
 
I can't speak for other types of stones. But I have no problem sharpening my VG10, AS and R2(SG2) knives on King and Naniwa Japanese wetstones.
 
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Lee48 said:
Having no idea what sharpening stones sell for these days I can only tell you what works for me. I've been using Spyderco medium, fine and ultrafine ceramic bench stones for the last few years and I have zero complaints. In addition I have an 8 inch DMT coarse/fine diamond plate for damaged or really dull edges and a Knives Plus Strop Block for keeping things super sharp. The Spyderco bench stones aren't cheap to buy but they should last virtually forever.
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This is probably my most used set up. DMT Coarse/Fine then off to the Spydercos. Many times just the Spydercos with an edge that's just a little dull.

I also use Shapton Glass stones but the DMT/Spyderco set up is super easy to use and very low mess. Just splash a little water on the surface is you please or use them dry. Scrub with some soap and water after used. You can use comet or barkeepers friend on the Spydercos. But, I usually just use one of this hand held soap fill scotch brite scrubbers. Works like a charm if you don't let the Spydercos load up crazy heavy.
 
there are plenty of options, but from what I've used I settled on diamond hones and finish with a loaded strop belt. I have a cheap diamond hone from like 10 years ago that I use right before stropping, it still gives a nice smooth edge.
 
I use the dmt green/red duasharp for everything. Cheap-ish and travels well.
 
The cutler Tony Bose uses EZ-Lap diamond hones on his $2k+ knives.
 
KenHash said:
I can't speak for other types of stones. But I have no problem sharpening my VG10, AS and R2(SG2) knives on King and Naniwa Japanese wetstones.
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After the comments here and some additional research I think this the way I am going to go. King stones are in my budget, seem to be fine with the 'super steels' and have a good rep.

Thanks everyone for your input.
 
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