Starter whetstone set

[ScottStoef]

I am wanting to try my hand at hand sharpening. I have an edge pro, but it is time the learn a new skill.

I looked at Amazon, but the stones do not seem to be of good quality. I have purchased all of my knives and knife equipment from CKTG, but it has been a while. It seems like the offerings are a bit limited currently.

I would like to get a 400, 1000ish, and 5000ish. I am not against using diamond plates too, but I want something fine to polish the edges on my good J-knives.

[trancher]

You have a great grit setup there. Except for removing large chips, you would be able to tackle most anything. And something like high end polishers can wait until you get the technique down as those high-enders require more control of the knife to not bung up the edge.

Here are some stones that I enjoy using quite often.

Imanishi 400

Bester 1.2K

Suehiro Rika 5K

These angle guides really helped guide me along when I was a neophyte in freehand sharpening.

You'll also need a lapping plate, and something for a sharpening base. Some people use sink bridges, some wooden boards, others sharpening ponds.

I would also recommend using the sharpie trick for a while, which is coloring in the cutting edge before sharpening and while you are sharpening, you can check to see where the marker has worn, thus giving you a visual indication of what you are achieving on the blade.

[Radar53]

Hi there Scott. I took up freehand sharpening after nearly 20 years on an Edge-Pro and it took quite a while to get to grips with. What I found was that the coarser grit stones gave me more feedback & feel for finding the edge-of-the-edge. So I spent a lot of time learning on a Nubatama Bamboo 150 before moving onto finer grits. There's always a temptation to move onto finer grits, but for me I just practised on a "dummy" knife until I could get a reproduce-able flat bevel.

As the Nubatama 150 is no longer available, I think that it's could be worth considering a 220 grit stone rather than a 400. The jump from 220 grit to 1K should be quite manageable. HTH

[ex1580]

I like starting on a 400 or 600 grit diamond plate (assuming no significant damage). The Atoma diamond plates are nice. I've had a few stones over the years and when you get below 500 grit they usually tend to dish pretty fast and you have to flatten them more often. Diamond plates are always flat so it's one less task which makes it easter for me to get my edge right before I move up.

From there it depends on if you want to soak a stone or go with something splash and go. I have gravitated toward the splash and go stones for convienience even though they don't feel quite as nice. Looking at what is in stock right now, the Shapton Glass stones get the work done consistently but are lacking in feel so your hands need to know what they are doing. With that in mind it's hard to find a better value than the Arashiyama 1k. It's a really nice 1k stone!

What you follow the 1k with is some sort of trick question. A Rika 5k? A Cerax 6k? The Arashiyama 6K? Yes. Those will all work fine and feel wonderful. If you bought the knife from Mark you could always call and ask him what he would use. Also, don't forget a 140 grit diamond plate for stone maintenance.

[LarryAllDay]

King combo 1k/6k. IMO the starting standard, affordable around $25-$35 from Amazon to most on/off branded kitchen supply retail stores. Practice and make mistakes and try techniques on this stone, when you get good, Buy some of the nicer stuff mentioned above. Also get yourself a stone fixer which should cost around $15-$20 for basic one.

[ronnie_suburban]

Plenty of great affordable options here. No reason to send folks to the Evil A for something they can buy here. SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESS!! (especially CKTG)

[taz575]

The King 1K/6K combo stone was one of my first waterstones. When I got the Bester 1200 and Rika 5K, I realized how slow and bad the King stone was! It's cheap for a reason! Super soft, slow cutting and fast dishing, it made learning to sharpen much harder.

The Bester 1200 cut faster and was nicer to use and the Rika 5K is a creamy, smooth feeling stone that can really refine an edge! Follow up with a bare leather strop after the Rika 5K and you will have a scary sharp edge! Bester 1200/Rika 5K is a great recommendation!

However, I would go with this:
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/ckcodipl40.html

and the Rika 5K.

The diamonds work quickly on any steel and since they work fast, there is less chance to wobble and mess up the edge. The plate will stay flat as well, which will help when learning. I found with slower stones, any wobble was magnified as I got more tired and got sloppy. The diamond cut faster, so it was easier to get a nice edge and not get too worn out or frustrated.

I used to use waterstones a lot, but honestly, my water bucket has dried out with my stones in it lately. I haven't touched my Bester or Rika since trying out diamond plates. I got a few different ones (400/1000 diamond/8000 ceramic tri hone and a 325/1200 diamond plate) and I can get a very nice edge that's ready for further refining/stropping very quickly and easily, even on super steels like S90V, CPM 20CV/M390, Elmax, Magnacut, R2, etc. I use strops (5K diamond compound) after the 1200 grit diamond stone I have, but the Rika 5K will do the same job refining the edge as the strop does!