Author: jendereedknife
Date: 2007-11-25 21:22
I agree with Elmore. But natural Japanese stones can be extremely expensive, and require great care and respect when using and storing.
They are not easily available, either. Some places like Japanese woodworker do carry some of the coarse and medium stones along with a couple of "fine" grit stones, but nothing of the selection to be found in Japan. Also, most natural stones are meant for sword sharpening, each one reacts differently to the steel (or, the steel reacts differently to the stones). It is very important to match the stone to the steel for optimum results.
I suggest finding King Stones, They are relatively cheap synthetic stones, and perform quite well for the common sharpener. They go up to #6,000 grit. I recommend using their #1,000 or #1,200 stone to shape and sharpen, and the #4,000 with a nagura stone for polishing.
Norton waterstones do a decent job, too. You can get a set of 4 stones #220, #1,000, #4,000 & #8,000. I use the 4,000 and 8,000 stones with the nagura stone and get a good polish. The #8,000 works well without the nagura stone, also.
For reed knives, I only use Shapton Ceramic stones. The idea is to create a consistant burr that acts as a bulldozer. The stones have abrasive action at every level, and form no paste. With the other stones mentioned above, I find that they make for much better slicing edges, not reed scraping ones because they polish the metal, making it less resistant to friction.
I use my Kings and Nortons for my straight razor, and finish with 1 pass on the Shapton #30,000 stone. Wow! However, If I sharpen my razor with Shaptons only, the result is quite different because their is more friction between the blade and my skin. But, a reed knife sharpened on Shaptons is WOW, and not so with the other!
To each his own!
Sincerely,
Tom Blodgett
President,
Jende Industries, LLC
www.jendeindustries.com
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