Why water stones?

This is a very good question, Scott…and it’s something I’ve wondered myself? And given that I’ve already stepped into the world of Wet Stones; Naniwa Super Stone 2K & 5K, and Shaptons 8K and 12K,I have my opinions, yet want to hear about their experiences before I share my novice thoughts on the matter. Regardless I’ll be curious to hear what our panel of experts have to say on this subject.

Well at least let me share why I jumped into the Wet Stones arena. After spending hundreds of hours learning to re-profile blades, to determine correct angles, deciding when to cut and use bevels, and general “burr” theory…..I still couldn’t get the polish and shine off my blades like in any of the YouTube videos. Don’t get me wrong, the knives I sharpened were wickedly sharp, but they lacked the shiny sparkle everyone else was achieving. That led me the Wet Stones and this is were I give credit to Steve Pinson of Better Edge and Knive Sharpening Systems for imparting his knowledge on the particulars of these stone type systems. So I’ve experimented with both stones on basic kitchen knives and I’m amazed at the results (more on that later). They were expensive, and I’m glad I bought them, but I’m still learning on them to develop my technique…..so this is where I stand for the moment and I’m getting better with them as I polish and practice more.

….Now let’me go get the popcorn ready!

One thing I can say in regard to the Chosera stones…for those who must have a bright and mirror-like surface to their edges, these stones excel. I don’t find them too messy(my wife does) and there is a different feel and sound to the sharpening process…I haven’t twigged onto those yet as I have with the diamonds, but I shall soldier on until my ear and my hand/touch are sensitive enough to tell me when I should move on to the next set of stones.
Having said all that, the difference in the keenness of the edge is slight but perceptible. Are they an absolute necessity…if you are a molecule polisher, yes. They are good to have at hand to add another dimension to your work for me at least.

Cheers
Leo

Scott,

I use the combo of Diamond and Wet Stone to achieve my desired results. I purchased the PP1 system and the Diamond plates are fast and efficient for re-profiling and I usually progress from 100 – 400 grit for “burr” development, then 600 – 1K grit for general blade sharpening.

Note that my wet stones are cut to shape and attached to blank WE platens so they fit my PP1 rod assembly perfectly. So no separate wet stone / water setup. I’ve used it dry and wet, with best results in the wet mode. I keep a spray bottle of water to the side of my setup to keep the stones wet during progressive stokes. The slurry that develops is what helps with the polishing and sharpening, and the mess is kept to a minimum. As for cleaning, rubbing the platens together helps keep the stones clean when I put them away, but always note to only rub like for like stones together only.

As for the progression, and this is a work in progress;
1. Diamond plate 100 (as necessary) – 400 burr development
2. Diamond plate 600 – 1K sharpmening
3. Naniwa Super Stones 2K – progression
4. Balsa Strope – 3.5 uM (green) Polishing
5. Naniwa SStone 5K – Polishing
6. Shapton 8K – 12K Polishing (optional)

From what Steve indicated stropping would not be necessary when going through the SStone progression, and maybe it’s due in part to the play in my PP1 arms, but it’s still not reflexive enough for me. So I find it necessary to strope the blade to get that level of shine as necessary.

The Shapton’s polish like crazy, and sometimes I’ll still strope with the 3.5 uM in the end to get that extreme shine and cut that I like.

The blade is both durable and polished for my needs and I can achieve it at minimal cost without going to the ceramics.

Just my $0.02 from experience.

First, I’m a die hard water stone guy. All my life I have sharpened by hand on a number of 3×8 stones. On my WEPS i have handles starting at 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 2000, 3000, 5K, 8K, 10K (several brands), 12K, and 15K. I like most will start on the diamonds to start a burr and them go right into the wet stones. Yes you have to keep them wet. Yes they are messy, no getting around that. You have to have an angle cube. Most of my stones are custom make and yes it takes a while to set the angles but you get used to it. The benefits, you will get a gorgeous mirror finish. Yes yu can still strop and I do on 3 x11 sheets of leather, balsa at various grits and nano cloth on glass. At that point it becomes a work of art. Do I do this for all the knives I sharpen? No way but if the client wants a very sturdy edge with a little tooth and a shiny mirror bevel to the naked eye I can do that.

You can get the shapton stones directly from Ken Schwartz. They are quite expensive, even significantly more money than the Choseras, which are not cheap in their own right.
I would be that what you saw on Tom’t site is the 30 K Shapton bench stone.
First someone has to buy the bench stone, then cut it, then mount it on paddles. You can easily see where it gets real pricey.

As I said, I don’t have the ceramics yet. I can’t say exactly. but I think you will get more polish out of the 10K chosera stone, even though at 1.76 micron its grit is larger than the finest ceramic. The only way to know for sure is pick up a set and give it a try 🙂

Phil

Also as a side question a bit off topic. I noticed in an old thread on this forum, WE used to sell Shapton stones about 8 months or so ago, but today they appear nowhere on the site and even discussions of them are mostly found in older threads. I went to the Jende site and found that they have the 30k stone not mounted on a WEPS paddle for $400, so a wild guess would be that they were not selling because of the cost. Or is it that you can do the same thing with Chosera for a good deal less cash lay out?

Daug, that was my first guess is you were going by grit size. I have looked at the grit comparison chart and see that stopping does more polishing than anything. I was wondering if you “undo” the polish you get after the first stropping with stones but if the next stone is fine enough then I guess not. I had always thought you “finish” with strops and don’t go back to stones.