Poll: How many grades of stone do you use for a full sharpening session?

[Tippet]

There are nearly as many preferred sharpening methods as there are knives- but when it comes to chefs, both professional and amateur, I see a distinct preference for stones.

I've been happy for quite some time with a King 1000-grit home stone and a King deluxe 800/4000 combo stone, with a somewhat worn-out Japanes natural stone for polishing. I knda want to put that natural stone in a glass display and hang it on the wall, the thing has a way of mesmerizing me. It's eery.

I learned how to sharpen many years ago, working on factory trawlers and in shore plants for Norwegians and Japanese in Alaska.

Those days are gone. In the last few months, the doors you good people have opened for me have convinced me it's possible to refine my knives edges by a significant amount.

Don't get me wrong- my knives could hold their own at any kitchen or fish-processing station.

But I'm an addict. Please help a fellow addict take it to the next level!

I'm considering dropping some serious coin on a collection of stones, and like so many other knife/sharpening addicts I just have to bath in the anticipation of it all. It's everything I can do not to pull the trigger right now, but after reading everything I can find here about stones I want to do a poll. I'm hoping to quantify the methods our people here at Fred's forum use. I ask you to vote in the poll and then post a description of your sharpening system.

Seb, please keep it to 100K words or less and no more than 6 posts per page LOL (JK brother, you know I'm counting on your input)

Thanks in advance everyone!

[willspear]

varies but 400-1k-3k-5k-10k is pretty standard

I tend to not drop really low all the time but once in a while as I carry on with polishing stones

[Pensacola Tiger]

400, 1K, 3K and 10K Naniwa Superstones (freehand).

220, 1K, 2K, 5K, 8K, 15K Shapton Pros (Edge Pro)

[D_R_Sharpening]

Beston 500x

Bester 1200x

Suehiro Rika 5k

Kitayama 8k

JKS 10k


Best combination of stones I've ever put together.

[khman]

DMT Diasharp fine
KASUMI Hidemoto 秀 #1500/3000 Double Sided Ceramic Whetstone
Naniwa Super Stone (SS) 8k
MuJingFang 木井方 滑石 (Chinese 12K) natural stone with oil
translucent hard oil stone (German)

[Boondocker]

320 grit king sun tiger stone
1k naninwa SS
either natural stone (around 4-5k) or 5k SS

[thombrogan]

I use a DMT D8XX and/or D8C to set the bevel; a D8F, a Sigma Power 1,000 grit waterstone, Norton 1,000 grit waterstone, King 1,200 grit waterstone, or 15 micron SiC lapping film to polish away the diamonds' scratches; a Suehiro Rika 5,000 grit stone, King 4,000 grit stone, Norton 8,000 grit stone, D8E and or D8EE (very rarely), or 5 micron SiC lapping film to provide an intermediate polish; and a King 8,000 grit stone, 1 micron AO polishing paper over glass, 1 and 0.3 micron AO lapping film, or hubcap polish on either leather or printer paper for the final polish.

OR

Either a DMT Coarse/Fine folding sharpener or Spyderco Doublestuff ceramic sharpener.

And the belt sander will probably be used this Summer as well.

[boar_d_laze]

Waterstones:
Beston 500 -- Profile and repair
Bester 1200 -- Pull the wire
Chosera 3000 -- Chase the wire
Naniwa SS 8K -- Polish

Oilstones:
Norton Coarse India -- Serious profile and repair
Norton Fine India -- Light profile and repair; pull the wire
Hall's Soft Arkansas -- Chase the wire
Hall's Black Arkansas -- Polish

BDL

[Rob Babcock]

It really depends on the knife. For German/Euro knives I usually go DMT-XC, DMT-C, then 2k Naniwa "Green Brick." For cheaper J-knives I start with a 320 Shapton (if necessary), then go up the Shapton Pro line: 1k, 2k, 5k, 8k (and if I feel like it, 15k). For better ones I'll use Choceras: 1k, 2k, 5k & 10k. Of course, I'll start with the 400 or 800 if necessary but it almost never is- the Chocera 1k will remove steel pretty quickly.

[Newbflat]

Beston 500
Bester 1200
Rika 5000
Kitayama 8000
JKS 10,000
Honyama ?
Chinese 12K natural.
CrOx on wood.

Of late i have a new batch of stones replacing some that were nearly done. They are the Beston, Rika and JKS. I haven't used them long enough to make a firm opinion other than I'm falling in love with the Rika...don't tell anyone! I dragged out my Chinese 12k..? the other day and used it after the JKS..... im impressed. Finer scratches than the JKS and a more aggressive edge.... give it a try if you have one sitting around. But only after something really fine as it is one sloooooooo cutter.