Upping my sharpening game.

Tjstampa

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2019
Messages
447
i have a tri hone washita stones labeled course medium and fine. I also have dmt diamond bench stones in course fine and an extra fine on the way. Most of my knives are 440 series or 1095 with one new one in s35vn. I also have a set of kitchen knives in an unknown stainless that sharpen better on the diamond. Would a true Arkansas hard or other extra fine stone add much to my sharpening equipment or be a waste/redundant.
 
For the 440 and 1095, a hard or black Arkansas will give you a more refined and polished edge. I often just use the soft though. Depends on what you're after.
 
Would a true Arkansas hard or other extra fine stone add much to my sharpening equipment or be a waste/redundant.
Both / depends.
Here is a link further info and photos LINK > >>

I'm the sort of knife user that does a lot of push cutting . . . and I like it that way.
For push cutting I like a polished refined edge.
To attcheive that end I like fine grit stones. The fine grit stones I like the most are man made "engineered" stones. A must for the S35VN and work very well on the 440 and other steel you listed.

If you do mostly slicing like saw motion cutting then the super fine stone isn't all that critical.

That said I bought a super fine translucent Arkansas stone and it is a great product.
Mostly I keep it to look at but it works on the lower alloy and plain high carbon steel.
Just recently I bought one of their pocket size super fine translucent Arkansas stones that come in a little leather pocket slip. So you see I haven't given up on the natural stones.
 
I agree with Baron Mind about the Japanese water stones,for the S35vn you maybe better off finishing that steel with the Japanese water stones,I mainly use diamonds for everything and I use them first to do any heavy lifting then I use Aluminum Oxide Silicon Carbide or Japanese water stones to finish the edge in most case's.
 
Here's a good video by Jef Jewell on the subject. In posting this, I'm not in any way arguing Arkansas vs. Japanese stones. It's just relevant to my original statement about soft and hard.

Just one little slice of info is all.

 
Back
Top