Just got the whole range (140, 400, 600, 1200) from Bob Nash yesterday.
Took them for a spin this morning on a couple of my regular kitchen knives.
These knives aren’t a huge challenge. Both are carbon. A Fosters Bros chef knife from the ’60s and an Opinel paring knife.
I tried to focus on keeping the pressure light, throughout the session. It’s very easy to find yourself “pushing” them too hard.
The 140s cut quickly as expected but left a very rough edge, easily seen through a loupe. I expect this will improve as they break in.
The 400 & 600 refined it nicely leaving a very sharp, coarse edge. The feedback on these two is outstanding. Similar in some ways to the feedback I get from some of my Naniwa stones,
The 1200 seems to be a bit of a reach from the 600. It took a lot of passes to remove the lines left by the 600s. I’m not sure this will improve as the 400s & 600s break in as the 1200s will be breaking in further as well, but we’ll see. I think the addition of an 800 step would actually save time overall.
Overall I’m very happy with these plates. They cut fast and an informal estimate is they probably reduced the time spent on the chef knife by 15-20 minutes, leaving a nice toothy edge. I could have refined it further with ceramics and Naniwas but wanted to get a feel for how the edge will perform like it is. That will determine whether I go those extra steps in the future.
Ken
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