what 1000 grit stone should I get now

[Boondocker]

I've almost worn my naninwa ss to nothing, need to replace it now. kinda thinking about getting another king stone.

[ksskss]

You have so many better choices than a King stone. What do you sharpen and what traits do you like in a 1k stone?

---
Ken

[Cadillac J]

I think I will always have a Bester 1200 for the rest of my life. It is inexpensive, I like the feedback, it cuts well and I know it like the back of my hand.

[kcma]

i've grown to like and accustomed to jon's 2k stone. it's faster than most 1k stones and leaves a nicer finish. it's a bit more costly but it's also a massive stone.

[UA8]

If KC is talking about the Gesshin 2000 I agree that is a fantastic stone.

[Boondocker]

used for my work knives, stainless and carbon, gyuto sujis deba yanagi and butchery knives

[Keith]

I think I will always have a Bester 1200 for the rest of my life. It is inexpensive, I like the feedback, it cuts well and I know it like the back of my hand.

+1 I like both the bester 1000 & the 1200 wide stones,good action agressive cutters

[99Limited]

How about being a little adventurous and buy one of CKTG's new Nubatama Ume 1K stones.

[memorael]

These days I don't find that stones are really ultra superior than others. A king 1k is pretty fun if you ask me, has a good feeling and leaves a nice edge. I happen to like the finish of it and the feel. Then of course the spice of life is variety.

[Boondocker]

I want to go to something more muddy this time around. I like the naninwa ss, but I just don't think it gives as nice an edge as my chef's king does

[black.echo]

These days I don't find that stones are really ultra superior than others. A king 1k is pretty fun if you ask me, has a good feeling and leaves a nice edge. I happen to like the finish of it and the feel. Then of course the spice of life is variety.

+1 for King 1k. I think they get a bad rap from people calling them "beginner's" stones.

[thombrogan]

I want to go to something more muddy this time around. I like the naninwa ss, but I just don't think it gives as nice an edge as my chef's king does

King 800 is the stone for you. Muddy and leaves a sharp edge that's easily refined/polished with a King 8,000 should you be into that sort of thing.

[jmbullman]

Had great luck and 0 problems out of the shapton pro 1k and 2k I love them both so much I sold my bester 1200. Jmbullman

[Keith]

Had great luck and 0 problems out of the shapton pro 1k and 2k I love them both so much I sold my bester 1200. Jmbullman
I have used quite a few stones,never a Shapton,I like larger stones wt. no bases to put in my stone holder.I like my besters & several baseless chosera stones.I would not mind trying a shapton,but you need special holders & a lapping plate that costs about 400.00,I could be wrong but it seems that way to me.

That 2000 Gesshin looks tempting,I wonder why the Gesshin splash & go stones are a little cheaper at JKI

[jmbullman]

I have been lapping my shaPtons with dmt's just like you would lap any other stone and the shapton pro case has a built in holder with rubber feet. No problem and my knives are razor sharp. Don't believe every thing you read that is trying to be sold. Just my op. Jmbullman

[Seb]

I have been using the King #800 + #8K combo for a while now and it is an excellent no-frills, no-fuss, no-nonsense combo.

[blwchef]

I love my 800 king to naniwa as 5k

[mad_dog]

this shouldn't be said here
no mud...no maintenance
Lansky 1K diamond
have it
love it
feels good
and it get's a knife really sharp too.....:rolleyes:

[Boondocker]

thats not very zen like though :)

[thombrogan]

Zen again, maybe it is.

:p

[Yankchef]

I have never felt the need to buy the shapton lapping plate, i use a dmt plate and i also have a norton flattening stone that i will use on them when they need heavy duty lapping. I also got suckered into buying the glass stone base (which although overpriced is quite nice) but you dont need to. All you need is some small rubber discs and some gorilla glue and you can raise the stones up high enough so that they fit in a standard stone holder (thanks thom haha too bad it was already too late)
I love the glass stones, they cut fast wear slow are relatively low in price and are really easy to transport due to their compact size. I love the fact that they are no soak and backed with tempered glass to ensure that you will always have a flat surface on which to flatten your stones. Only other stones I have really used are shapton pros, kings and norton wet stones, so i do not have the experience with the broad range of stones that many others here have but that is my take based on what i have used.

[-dg]

+1 I like both the bester 1000 & the 1200 wide stones,good action agressive cutters

I love my Bester 1200. It cuts fast, stays flat for a long time, wears slowly, feels pretty good, and will produce shaving sharp edges. If I could only have one stone, it might be the one. There may be better stones, but not much better and not without spending more. On the other hand, I'd like to have a 1k glassstone for traveling with.

[phan1]

No more 1000k stone for me! It's gone from my lineup, because the Gesshin 500 stone is just that damn good. It cuts like a 500 stone but leaves a great finish that could easily be jumped to the 4k+ range. It's a big time saver, and very practical and effective from a working man's standpoint. I just don't want to spend all day sharpening my knives. My lineup is 1) Gesshin 500 and 2) blue Aoto. DONE.

[JBroida]

fyi its a 400 grit ;) but glad you like it

[UA8]

Even though I don't need it you keep tempting me to buy that damn Gesshin 400 Phan! And that's after even John has told me I don't need it lol.

[99Limited]

Jon is modest to a fault. Of course you need a G400 stone. It's such a great stone. People just don't know what they're missing until they try one.

[phan1]

Oh, I do use sharpen my yanagi differently though. For yanagi, it's Blue Aoto and then Gesshin 8000. I only need 3 stones in my life: G400, blue Aoto, G8000.

[Schtoo]

When are the #400 back in stock?

Stu.

[JBroida]

F***.... i still have yours set aside here... i totally forgot about it until just now. Let me try to get it in the mail tomorrow. I'm sending myself an e-mail reminder now.

[UA8]

Phan can I get a link to the blue Aoto. I've heard god things but haven't managed to find one.

[thombrogan]

Not phan1, but I've seen the blue synthetic aoto here (http://www.hidatool.com/shop/woodworking/stone/w_stone.html), here (http://www.japaneseknifesharpeningstore.com/category-s/107.htm), here (http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=04%2E002&dept_id=13118), here (http://www.epicedge.com/shopexd.asp?id=80022), and here (http://www.chefknivestogo.com/blueaoto.html).

[phan1]

Yeah that's the one I use. 2000 blue Aoto. And I permanantly permasoak mine, hehe. Last time that stone crumbled right in half on me (right in my freakin hands!), but I think that's because I let it dry out once cause I wanted to transport it. This time, it's ALWAYS going to be stored in water. So far so good! So a word of warning, it can break right in half on you, and the safest way to use it is to use it as a splash and go.

It's a very soft stone (definitely the softest stone that's regularly talked about here) that leaves more of a 4k-like edge. It actually leaves a nice hazy finish. I have about 5 knives that are in constant use and rotation, so a 3-4 stone setup for each knife is just too exhausting. I got the idea of just stopping on the blue Aoto from Blwchef, and it works pretty good for me!

[Boondocker]

1k then aoto?


one of the cooks at castagna showed me a demo on his aoto and it left quite a nice edge I have to say.

I have 4 to 10 knives I sharpen depending on butchery projects that day so I generally just use my 1 k for them all

[UA8]

Wow so now I feel stupid. I somehow have never noticed that on cktg, oops.

[jmbullman]

I was once told by a former member and vendor that all I would ever need was a bester 1200 and I found it just wasn't the feeling I was looking for. The least I stop with is a 5k naniwa ss or a 5k suirio rika or a shapton pro 5k, I have tried to stop with just a 3k nanwa or 4k gs or 4k norton and it just wasn't enough for me. But everybody has his own feel and stopping with anything less just doesn't have the feel I like now that being said I have never used a blue aoto and that might have the feel I want the closest I have is the naniwa big green brick and now I will say I have stopped with that before and had decient results but I still missed the higher grits, peace to all and merry Christmas or chanuakka. Jmbullman

[Keith]

I often stop with the 5K rika it puts such a great edge on my carbons.Still I like the flow of steel on stone with my Kitayama.

[Boondocker]

I started noticing some structural instability in the superstone yesterday, then a fissure firmed in the northeast quadrant and it.finally broke apart today.

RIP superstone

http://img.tapatalk.com/aefd8a25-3acb-2929.jpg

[thombrogan]

There's plenty of life left in that puppy. Just smooth over where it cracked and tell yourself it's a synthetic Amakusa. Keep the small end as a nagura or in your pocket as a handy touch-up stone: just spritz it with Sprite to restore your knife's bite!

Or, if it's already in the garbage, which replacement are you getting?

[Boondocker]

I still have it, a small piece to keep so at work might be handy for touchups.

a far as a replacement its a tossup between king or bester 1200

[phan1]

I don't necessarily pay attention to grit size, because some stones put such a great cutting edge on a knife that you just don't care what grit they are. The blue aoto and the Rika both come to mind. You can go higher, but I personally don't find it practical. I pick the aoto over the Rika cause it's more fun to use. :)

[ksskss]

How about being a little adventurous and buy one of CKTG's new Nubatama Ume 1K stones.


I responded to this over in the trading post section, as per Fred's request that commercially related postings be located there.

---
Ken

[scubadoo97]

I have never felt the need to buy the shapton lapping plate, i use a dmt plate and i also have a norton flattening stone that i will use on them when they need heavy duty lapping. I also got suckered into buying the glass stone base (which although overpriced is quite nice) but you dont need to. All you need is some small rubber discs and some gorilla glue and you can raise the stones up high enough so that they fit in a standard stone holder (thanks thom haha too bad it was already too late)
I love the glass stones, they cut fast wear slow are relatively low in price and are really easy to transport due to their compact size. I love the fact that they are no soak and backed with tempered glass to ensure that you will always have a flat surface on which to flatten your stones. Only other stones I have really used are shapton pros, kings and norton wet stones, so i do not have the experience with the broad range of stones that many others here have but that is my take based on what i have used.

I too use a DMT XC for lapping my glass stones. The stones fit into my generic rubber/2 rod stone holder without any modification. They sit high enough that I can sharpen without any problems. Not sure that will be true as they get worn down but after a few years they still look new as far as thickness goes and I flatten often.

I have never used a stone that needed soaking so the glass stones are my reference stones. Sometimes I wonder if mud would be a good thing. More feedback on a softer stone but I think the harder glass stones require good technique. Maybe better technique than a softer stone. Less forgiving

[Boondocker]

I have a bester 1200 on its way, finally. I am excited to give it a whirl, haven't used a muddy stone in a few years.

[jmbullman]

Unfortunately the bester 1200 doesn't get all that muddy unless u hit it with a dmt first and make alot of mud, but don't expect alot. Just from personal experience u may have better luck getting the mud to come out. Peace boondocker, jmbullman

[thombrogan]

We'll have to wait and see. I remember the first several uses of my Naniwa 5K SS had me wondering why so many great sharpeners (jmbullman, kcma, pwet, Schtoo, blwchef, Benuser, tk59, and many, many more...) liked that infernal piece of disappointment so much. And then I must've worn through the protective layer because it roared to life.

[Boondocker]

We'll have to wait and see. I remember the first several uses of my Naniwa 5K SS had me wondering why so many great sharpeners (jmbullman, kcma, pwet, Schtoo, blwchef, Benuser, tk59, and many, many more...) liked that infernal piece of disappointment so much. And then I must've worn through the protective layer because it roared to life.

I needed to learn how to sharpen before it did me any good :)

[jmbullman]

That naniwa is a great stone once I learned how it wanted to be used, it's like the imanishima (excuse spelling) 10 k most People can't stand it but once I figured out how she wanted to be stroked it has become one of my favorite finishing stones all together. The one thing I like about the naniwa 5k if used rite it looks like a 10k finish or higher and cuts like that to. The bester1200 is a good stone it just like anything else you have to play with it and learn it's idiosyncraticies. Peace and happy sharpening. That stone can be a sub if u want and stay in the water at all times unlike the naniwa or the imanishia.

[Boondocker]

bester 1200 arrived today, can't wait to give it so spin in the morning!

[thombrogan]

Morning?! Why can't you soak it now? Why can't you lap it flat right after that? And use it right after that? And say whether your first impressions were positive, negative, or neutral right after that?

[Boondocker]

because I'm st work, I should have brought it with me didn't know it would be do slow this afternoon! I may soak it while I drink a beer after work though

[thombrogan]

I was home sick yesterday (and now sick at work today), so I may have been, as they say, manically impatient to hear about your new toy.

[Boondocker]

you can hear now! I used it this morning. works much faster than the naninwa 1k, leaves more scratches but a much much better edge, after the 5 k my slicers have more bute than they did off the naninwa 5 k. didn't polish my gyuto, but man its scary sharp going to se how thin I can cut stuff today weeee

[thombrogan]

That's very awesome! Thanks for sharing and may you experience a sea of translucent slices.

[Boondocker]

nothing translucent but my nenox made quick work of 40 lbs of whitefish and can still shave paper! I give it two thumbs up

[Keith]

Glad to hear you like that stone,it cuts like a demon,just keep it flat:)