# Sharpening - how do you make your edges?



## Peco (Jan 2, 2012)

Inspired by another thread. 

What do you try to accomplish when sharpening your knifes - toothy edges, scary sharp edges etc.

How do you get your edges to be ecaxtly as you want? 

What kind of grit progress? 
Do you use synthetic, naturals or a combo of both?
Do you strop - if you do ... then what do you use?


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## Lefty (Jan 2, 2012)

I tend to lean towards somewhat toothy, but refined edges. My standard sharpening is:
1k King, 6k Suehiro, strop on newsprint. 
My favourite for scary sharp carbon is:
1k King, approx. 8k Suita (to give it a grit value), strop on newsprint. I find this combo gives less tooth, but more of a razor edge. I also tend to purposely convex my edges to maximize durability and to take away faceting.


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## Peco (Jan 2, 2012)

Lefty said:


> I tend to lean towards somewhat toothy, but refined edges. My standard sharpening is:
> 1k King, 6k Suehiro, strop on newsprint.
> My favourite for scary sharp carbon is:
> 1k King, approx. 8k Suita (to give it a grit value), strop on newsprint. I find this combo gives less tooth, but more of a razor edge. I also tend to purposely convex my edges to maximize durability and to take away faceting.



Interesting


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## Peco (Jan 2, 2012)

On my white 1 I usually go 1000 and 5000 ... followed by stropping on paper
My INOX is tuffer. On this I need to use 400, 1000, 3000 and 5000 grit (to make deburring as easy as possible). I strop on paper to finish of + run a few times thru cork.

Don't have any naturals yet ... so synthetics are used.


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## EdipisReks (Jan 2, 2012)

i convex nearly all of my edges. my current standard progression, from dull to finished, is a King 800 followed by an aoto (was a blue synthetic, but it finally fell apart, so i have a green brick incoming), then a suehiro 8000, followed by light finishing on a kitayama. i find that this gives a highly refined yet aggressive edge on most of my knives. i use a ss 10k to polish out bevels, but i don't usually use it on the actual edge, much. i sometimes stop with .5 CrO or .25 diamond on balsa, when i feel like it, but i rarely do, anymore. i find that the right amount of pressure on the kitayama gives most of the refinement benefits of stropping without taking away the toothiness. i kind of want to get a Rika, but i find that varying the pressure and slurry on the aoto allows me to go right to the 8000 stone. i'm sure i'll end up with a Rika, as i've really liked every suehiro stone i've owned (i kinda miss the 6k stone that i sold to a friend, and i occasionally use my 800 when i want to take off more steel than the king, but less than my bester 500). i have, and have had, a bunch of other stones, but i find this simple progression to work great. i'd love to get natural stones, but it seems like too much of a money sink, right now.


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## SeanRogerPierce (Jan 2, 2012)

Depends on the knife. 
Standard Solingen stainless: (400 Chosera), 1000 Chosera, Newspaper
High Quality stainless: (400 Chosera), 1000 Chosera, 3000 Chosera, Newspaper
Carbon: (400 Chosera), 1000 Chosera, 3000 Chosera, 5000 Chosera, Newspaper

In the near future I want to try the Takashima Awasedo as finisher for my Carbons, but just to have something new to play with, because my knives are plenty sharp with the setup I already have.


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## James (Jan 2, 2012)

usually just a 1k (king), 6k (arashiyama) and newspaper strop (NYTimes LOL). I'm just looking for an edge that shaves smoothly, which, as far as kitchen tasks are concerned, is usually more than sufficient.


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## Lefty (Jan 2, 2012)

Shaves the face, or arm smoothly? If you mean the face, I need to learn from you for my straight....


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## SpikeC (Jan 2, 2012)

Shobudani asagi with asano naguri gets my razor face shaving smoooooth.


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## maxim (Jan 2, 2012)

For debas and some softer steel western i stop at Aotos. For hard western knives i go to hakka or soft Jnat. For Yanagis or my Muki i take the hard Jnats 
i am also begin to use Daves felt pad between the stones with very good result  But usually for softer steels with pitta bure


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## Cadillac J (Jan 2, 2012)

I quit stropping on leather, and just finish by stropping on my 5K and I've been liking my edges better this way...refined with a bit of toothiness, and retention actually seems better (but that might just be placebo)

600-1200-5000

This is what I use for all my double bevels with glowing results, except I leave the honesuki with a rougher finish. Still use felt/diamond to deburr between each stone though.


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## karloevaristo (Jan 2, 2012)

Beston 500, 800 king, 1200 bester, 4000 king, 6000 king, 8000 king, 1 micron boron, .5 cr oxide... Don't really use them all... depends on what i feel like using... sometimes I just go for 1200 and 4000 if my edge doesn't need that much work... but lately, I barely use the 6k, 8k and strops... I just stop on the 4k and take out as much wire edge as I possibly can by deburring every after stone... and it cuts perfect... and the edge lasts longer too... 

Also... if I'm not doing anything... i'd go through the full progression up to cromium oxide and maybe cut some paper and feel happy...


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## tk59 (Jan 2, 2012)

Depending on the knife and how I'm planning on using it, I do a lot of different things. Sometimes I put several kinds of edges on different parts of the same knife. The standard treatment is: Gesshin 400 to G1k to G5k to 8k anything and strop on 1 micron anything, for a dead edge. I spend very little time on anything 5k and above. If I'm looking to liven up an edge, I'll start higher than 400.


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## jgraeff (Jan 2, 2012)

Depends on what i need done and what knife I'm using. Honesuki, and petty i only take to up to a 1k edge and strop on newspaper, or my Takashima if i have it out.

Normally i go from Gesshin 400, to King 1k, to suherio 6k, and finish on the Takashima for my gyuto and sujis. 

I don't normally spend much time on the 400 and use light pressure. I will take some time on the 1k and make sure to try to remove the burr before moving up to 6k. I use cork and edge trailing strokes as well as light pressure as i start to finish up. Don't spend much time on the 6k stone maybe a few minutes. Then i go to the j-nat and i take my time there, i don't have a nagura( i think thats how you spell it) so i usually start off with decent pressure and once i get mud building up i will just that to help refine and polish it.

I find that even though the takashima is a very refined edge it is still very toothy which is great for me.


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## karloevaristo (Jan 3, 2012)

i must say... newspaper really does work... 

anybody has an idea how it works? does it refine the edge? can it remove burrs?


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## Sarge (Jan 3, 2012)

I agree with whoever it was the said the Kitayama with varying pressure is amazing, it'll give refinement and tooth. For me at my current state of things it provides near perfect edges for food. I have a few naturals from around the local mountains and find them to be great at making edges with bite. So far the things I have been able to test I would say are in the 2k-4k range; sadly they cut rather slow so I currently only use it on my beater stainless knife for how and my KAI wasabi deba, but I do love the edges I get from the naturals I do have.

Oh normal progression goes

King 1.2k, Kitayama. No stropping no extras just deburr with Champagne corks. Although I am intrigued by newsprint


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## James (Jan 3, 2012)

Lefty said:


> Shaves the face, or arm smoothly? If you mean the face, I need to learn from you for my straight....



HAHA...I wish I could sharpen a knife well enough to shave my face smoothly; I'm talking about the arm and thigh (don't judge...I ran out of arm hair one day)


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## tk59 (Jan 3, 2012)

tk59 said:


> ...I spend very little time on anything 5k and above...


I thought I'd elaborate a little. I stay on the 5k until pretty much the entire burr/wire edge is gone which is usually no more than ten passes per side with fairly light pressure. I do just a few passes on and ~8k ish stone and then just a few passes on a strop and that it. Takes a couple minutes.


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## Andrew H (Jan 3, 2012)

Usually Bester 1200, Gesshin 5k, strop (balsa with different compounds). Rarely do I need a coarser grit for my own knives.


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## stevenStefano (Jan 3, 2012)

99% of the time just a Bester 1200 and Suehiro Rika 5k then newspaper or 0.5 chromium leather strop


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## Peco (Jan 3, 2012)

Interesting! Seems like most would only need 2-3 stones in total.


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## Miles (Jan 3, 2012)

I generally use a progression of Shaptons. 500 Glass, 1K Pro, 2K Pro, 5K Pro, followed by stropping with diamond paste on MDF. I'll use Dave's felt and spray in between, as needed. I'll also throw in the Naniwa 10K and a Shapton 16K Glass on occasion. I generally like a refined edge with some bite, which the diamond provides in spades.


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## Cadillac J (Jan 3, 2012)

Peco said:


> Interesting! Seems like most would only need 2-3 stones in total.



I really do agree that this is all you need for majority of kitchen knives...maybe my thoughts would be different if I was more into single-bevels, but still I'm not sure.

I've used fancier edges done by people with +6 different stones with multiple and stropping compounds on various substrates...yet thought some of my 'simple' edges were sharper, lasted longer and cut better on a larger variety of foods. 

MC had it right all along in my opinion.


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## stevenStefano (Jan 3, 2012)

Peco said:


> Interesting! Seems like most would only need 2-3 stones in total.



Personally I prefer to use very few stones and focus really hard on my technique, with less stones I think differences in technique are more noticeable. And another thing is that I am sorta impatient too and I wouldn't have the patience to progress through many more stones than that


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## Peco (Jan 3, 2012)

I don't know if it's just me, but if I progress thru all my stones I feel the edge becomes more fragile and needs to be sharpened more often. Mostly I just do 1000 + 5000 and stopping on paper - works fine for me.


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## Eamon Burke (Jan 3, 2012)

Peco said:


> Interesting! Seems like most would only need 2-3 stones in total.



I believe you can get by forever with a medium grit stone(2-4k) and a loaded strop, and still have razor sharp knives.

Unless you are only spending a tiny amount of time on the last stone, the last one is the only one that matters. You can do a 200, 600, 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k, 5k, or just spend an absurd amount of time on the 5k and it will be the same finish. Having more stones just changes how long you have to spend on different stones--I find super hard steel warrants more steps because it keeps me from rubbing on the next grit forever--I'd rather spend 1 minute each on a 500, 1k, 2k, 5k, than spend an hour on the 5k.


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## TB_London (Jan 3, 2012)

Tend to go 1k 6k strop, then strop to maintain. New knives or experiments get a 400 to start and I'll go up to 8k-12k sometimes just for kicks.
Still want a 10k SS for mirror finishing, and then there's jnats


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## aaronsgibson (Jan 3, 2012)

For stainless I do 400, 1.2, 2k, 4k, 6k then Kitayama 8-12 and then strops. 

Carbons get 400 geshinn (sp) then all natural from there. 1k, 2k aoto, long ass stone that begins with a J, then 8-10 (20k with just weight) then strops. Kind of surprising though, but I find that my edges will last a week in a pro environment, (with stropping after the day is done)


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## ecchef (Jan 3, 2012)

For stainless, I usually go with Shap Pro 1k, 5k, 8k (sometimes).

Western carbon gets 1.2k Bester, 5k Rika, light strop on a 6k King.

Japanese carbon 1.2k Bester, 3k Naniwa SS, 5k Rika, 8k Takenoko, naked leather strop.

Yeah..I'm weird.


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## Andrew H (Jan 3, 2012)

Wait, your western carbon gets a different treatment? :dazed:


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## Lars (Jan 4, 2012)

I have only double bevel knives and use Chosera 400, Chosera 2K, SS 5000 - I deburr on diamond loaded felt and sometimes I finish on balsa or leather.

Lars


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## 454Casull (Jan 6, 2012)

180/400 grit general purpose belts
36/16/6 micron Trizact belts
Leather belt /w Cr2O3 compound

All 1"x30", slack belt sander


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## slowtyper (Jan 7, 2012)

I guess I'm one of the rare few who treats all their knives the same...double or single bevel.


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