Reddit mentions of Whetstone Sharpening stone SHAPTON Ceramic KUROMAKU #320

For anyone looking to get into whetstone sharpening, just know that it's really not all that difficult.

A good starter stone is the Shapton Pro 1k which can be found on Amazon for just $36. It's a splash and go stone that doesn't require any soaking and it's a hard stone that doesn't dish fast.

While the 1k is a good starting point for any knife that isn't already a butter knife, the 320 grit would be necessary for turning that butter knife into a real knife again.

If you want something with more polish and a higher level of sharpness, the 5000 grit will offer a good deal of edge refinement without going too crazy. However, this is pretty much pointless for any knife under 60 HRC (a Wusthof is at 58 HRC which is pushing it) since that softer steel won't hold a 5k edge for very long at all.

These Kuromaku stones are real Shapton Pros, but those manufactured for the Japanese market. The versions for the western market have differently labeling printed on the stones, but are otherwise identical. Prices for Kuromaku Shaptons vary widly on Amazon so it's worth waiting for a deal, and only a few are actually available at these lower prices.

An even cheaper option is the King 1k/6k combination stone which is viable, but not something I usually recommend. It dishes fast, the 6k side is overkill for most home cooks, and from what I've heard using the stone isn't a particularly good experience.

If you would like to learn about sharpening in general, or how to do it, start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/chefknives/wiki/sharpening

And if you're looking for a knife or how to care for it, consider stopping by /r/chefknives!

Here are some affordable and extremely high quality whetstones. I recommend getting at least the 320# and 1000# or 2000#. The $2-3 whetstones will be of shitty quality, not something I'd be happy to use on a kitchen knife.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004D2GCR6?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title


https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001TPFT0G?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001TPH8YG?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title

All the crappy farm tables and diy projects on r/woodworking a your post gets removed, wtf.

I have a rikon half speed 1850 rpm 8" grinder with a 80 grit CBN cubic boron nitride wheel and a veritas tool rest. Shapton ceramic 320, 1000, 5000, 12000 stones. A 36"x6" 3 cm thick piece of granite and use adhesive backed sandpaper rolls. I wax the granite to allow the paper to come off the granite easily.

grinder

cbn wheel


tool rest

stones

320 g

1000 g

5000 g

12000

sand paper

There are tons of stones out there and most of them will work for you. I would recommend starting out with a hard stone that isnt going to dish. That way you wont have to worry about flattening or regrinding the stone. Personally I would recommend this as a beginner stone that is still very high quality and inexpensive. Its an oil stone so you will need mineral oil or something similar with it. The spyderco ceramics are also great stones as they essentially never wear out.

If your set on getting waterstones I would say for the fibrox to not go much past 2k grit. The king deluxe stones are good, the shapton ha no kuromaku stones are also good and much harder making them a little easier to learn on. I would recommend against getting something like naniwa professional/chosera or shapton glass to start mainly because of the price.

The honing rod is fine I personally dont use them but thats more of a personal preference thing. I would rather use a benchstone than a honing rod. However a honing rod can help maintain your edge and quickly touch up the knife. Using a honing rod you can keep a knife sharp for quite a while before needing to sharpen it again. Which is great if you have your knives sharpened by a professional not quite as important if you do it yourself and your knives arent super expensive.

A leather strop can help quite a bit when you are first starting out to help remove burrs, and do minor touch ups between sharpenings. If you want to get really good a strop will end up being more of a crutch that lets you get away with not properly deburring the knife edge.

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a good tutorial video https://youtu.be/2Vu6Dq00v7I

ceramic stone

spyderco medium benchstone

waterstones

king deluxe 1000 grit

king 250/1000 combo

shapton ha no kuromaku stones reccommend 320 and either 1500 or 2k for these.

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There are also arkansas stones which are great I would suggest getting the soft arkansas stone and using that as a finishing stone.