Next stone choice?

Spats McGee

Spats McGee

Joined
Jun 6, 2019
Messages
384
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! … and Mrs McGee and I generally allow a small bit of extra spending. I’m thinking another stone or maybe, just maybe, two for freehand sharpening. Let’s assume a soft budget of $75-100.

And let’s start with what I have:
1. Sharp Pebble 400/1000 combination stone. The big river site says it’s “green silicon carbide.” Despite its fairly modest price, I really like this stone. Puts a nice working edge on steels up to and including S30V without TONS of effort required. I like the feedback, too.
2. Arkansas stones - 1 medium bench stone, 1 fine bench stone, 1 combination medium/fine bench stone.
3. Ultrasharp diamond plates, 300 and 600 grit;
4. A fairly coarse carborundum (corundum (?)) stone that was on the same Tri-hone that once housed the above Arkansas stones.

My sharpening projects include kitchen knives, pocket knives and then occasional filet knife. No foreseeable supersteels, and M390 is the hardest blade I currently own.

I could go a stone “down,” lower than 400 grit, or a stone “up,” higher than 1000 grit. If I were to shop victoriously, I might be able to swing one up and one down. Or might be willing, to be more accurate.

Here is what I’m looking at, and I’m looking for opinions. Let me know what you think and whether there are other options I just HAVE to look at.

1. The Sharp Pebble 1k/6k or 3k/8k water stones, both of which are aluminum oxide. “Soak” water stones, I think.
2. King 1k/6k water stone;
3. Chosera 3k
4. Shapton Glass 4K
5. BYXCO Arctic Fox or American Mutt.

What say you, BF residents? (And if you read this from the beginning to this point, welcome to Overthinkers Anonymous.)
 
Looking at what you have already, you have the course stones that will enable you to remove chips, thin down edges, re-profile and sett bevels.
I would be looking at picking up an easy to use good finishing / touch up stone.
My go to kitchen touch up stone is a Shapton Pro 2000, splash and go, cuts quickly and puts a perfect edge on a kitchen knife. This one rock gets more use than any of my other stones.
If you don't let your knives get too banged up, the SP2000 brings them back to screaming sharp with just the right amount of tooth, and does it very quickly.
 
Stockman said:
Looking at what you have already, you have the course stones that will enable you to remove chips, thin down edges, re-profile and sett bevels.
I would be looking at picking up an easy to use good finishing / touch up stone.
My go to kitchen touch up stone is a Shapton Pro 2000, splash and go, cuts quickly and puts a perfect edge on a kitchen knife. This one rock gets more use than any of my other stones.
If you don't let your knives get too banged up, the SP2000 brings them back to screaming sharp with just the right amount of tooth, and does it very quickly.
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Agree with everything he said, but I might go up to.a 3000 grit as a better (my preference) complement to your 1000 grit stone.
 
One more question: I have seen some stuff about Naniwa being “new Chosera,” or something. Are the two companies related? Are the stones similar?
 
Spats McGee said:
One more question: I have seen some stuff about Naniwa being “new Chosera,” or something. Are the two companies related? Are the stones similar?
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There is the Gouken Arata, which I believe translates to something similar to "new" something. It is basically the Chosera without the base or nagura included and also 15mm thick as opposed to 25mm thick(I think, maybe 20mm) that the Chosera is, and slightly cheaper. Exact same stone material though. I'm not 100% sure whether that is what you are referring to though. Naniwa is the brand. Chosera/Professional/Gouken Arata are the lines as well as a few others

As to your original question, I think you need to decide what type of stone you want before comparing those in your list. Do you use the 400 side much? If you are anything like me, I usually sharpen my knives when I notice they aren't properly sharp. In other words when I notice them start struggling to make clean cuts. In my case I have coarse stones that I don't use very much at all. I will start at 800/1000 grit to do most of my sharpening. It's only when I sharpen other people's knives that I use 400 grit to sharpen a really dull knife or even coarser if there is edge damage/chipping etc.

For my kitchen knives I usually finish on the Gouken Arata 3000 grit(same as the Chosera 3000). It is my favorite stone hands down. It cuts fast enough that if a knife isn't too dull I can just start and finish on this stone, or jump from the 400 grit(also Gouken Arata) for dull knives straight to the 3000 which removes the 400 finish fairly quickly. It would probably be fairly similar in what it does to a 4000 or 5000 Shapton. These are all very hard stones compared to what you have FYI and will probably take a bit of getting used to. You can't go wrong with any of them though. I remember when I first got the 3000, I was literally grinning after seeing the results after the first time I used it.

If you think you will be repairing or re profiling knives you might want to get a coarse stone. Those Byxco stones seem to be very well respected. If you are in the US I would go for one of those, or something like a Shapton Pro 120 for a really good repair stone if not. I use an Atoma 140 for my major repairs and for stone flattening.
 
I blazed through most of this, but I 100% recommend the Baryonyx arctic fox, provided you have a medium grit option. Consider the field stone which has both.

I love the American mutt, but it’s something I used on my most abused edges, like my wood turning tools.
 
I'd get a 1000-1200 diamond plate, as the Sharp pebble and Arkansas oilstones aren't the best choice in this grit level. Maybe step up to the 2400 diamond plate if you think otherwise.
 
Maybe I did not understand you right. But Shapton Glass Stones are true splash and go stones. Shapton Pro as well. Although I have read reviews that some Pro stones soak some water (don't know the grit).

As you have Arkansas stones a traditional coarser stone would be Norton Crystolon (silicone carbide) or India (aluminum oxide). Inexpensive and good. Available in coarse, medium and fine.
Finer than 1.000 grit makes me think about a Spderco Fine (302F).
 
Papilio said:
Maybe I did not understand you right. But Shapton Glass Stones are true splash and go stones. Shapton Pro as well. Although I have read reviews that some Pro stones soak some water (don't know the grit).

As you have Arkansas stones a traditional coarser stone would be Norton Crystolon (silicone carbide) or India (aluminum oxide). Inexpensive and good. Available in coarse, medium and fine.
Finer than 1.000 grit makes me think about a Spderco Fine (302F).
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To be fair, I may not have been very clear, either. For that matter, when I first posted, I wasn't even very clear in my own mind!

As of this posting, my front runners are the Shapton Pro 2K and the Chosera 3K, probably in that order. At some point, I may upgrade my lower-grit stones, but that time hasn't come yet, I don't think. My low-grit stuff (diamond plates, one coarse stone of indeterminate composition, and my Sharp Pebble water stone) work fine for the steels I have & sharpen. When I do finally get to that upgrade, the chance that I'll grab something by Baryonyx is not zero!

With that said, I think I want to move up to a finer stone this time around. I'm curious about all kinds of stones, but I have neither the budget nor the skills to properly make use of many of them. At this point, though, I feel like I'm making good use of the 1K grit, and could likely do some good work with something finer. (Then again, I do have a couple of Arkansas stones that I think would be appropriate to use after the 1K....)
 
Looks like you’re currently good through 1000 grit. I’d focus on a 2k and a 4K stone and then on pasted strops. A good rule of thumb is try to not exceed doubling the grit from one stone to the next (though doing so just means a little extra work).

For freehand honing I have awesome splash ‘n’ go Naniwa Professional stones from 400, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000, and a Suehiro Gokumyo 20k (stones above 5K I use for straight razors). For knives, after 5k I use diamond pasted strops.

Honestly these days I use a Wicked Edge system for my knives. 😁👍

TL;dr: I recommend a 2k and a 4k stone.
 
I forgot to mention in my OP that I have a Hapstone R2. For the most part, I use that for resetting damaged edges and a couple of nicer knives that I don't want to mangle with my ham-handed sharpening. Based on the responses, I think I'm on the right track for going finer by looking at 2-3K.
 
I think you will be very happy with the results you get off the SP2000. Before you use it, I would give it a quick lap under running tap water with your 600 grit diamond plate.
They come flat, but I have found that the very top surface when new doesn't cut all that well and loads up a bit. After that initial quick lap, they work amazingly.
If you don't already have one, would suggest buying or making a good leather strop. A quick stropping after sharpening on the SP2000 produces a scary sharp edge that is a joy to use in kitchen prep, or for that matter, any knife usage.
 
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