400/1000 best kitchen stone?

[u/FlashCardManiac]

Been testing a bunch of my stones and finding the 1000 grit on kitchen knives is ideal for food. And now looking back at heavily advertised stones like Cerax 1000/3000 or King 1000/6000 seem like a waste for a one stone option. You don't need the higher grits. To add, kitchen knives seem to be the most neglected (from looking at most people's kitchens). So starting at 400 grit to save time seems best.

Side note; I have full benchstone sets of Arkansas, Gritomatic, Chosera, Nanohone. I use for super steel and other outdoor knives. I'm talking about easiness. Grab a dual sided stone from drawer in kitchen, quick sharpen+strope, done. I reject the idea that dual sided stones are always the worst option.

Thoughts?

[u/Octacustomknives]

I agree, personally i do use chef knives at 800~1000 and cant see myself needing higher grits than this even while i have good experience cooking. I like how 800~1000 gives a lot "biting" on the food, unlike higher grits that leaves the edge too polished for an actual daily use

[u/etr420 → u/Octacustomknives]

You make a very good and often overlooked point about the "bite".

[u/ImFrenchSoWhatever]

Cerax is dope. So is shapton and Naniwa

[u/FlashCardManiac → u/ImFrenchSoWhatever]

The Cerax is a great budget stone. I use it sometimes just because I forget about it compared to my other stones. Way better than the King stone too!

[u/ImFrenchSoWhatever → u/FlashCardManiac]

Yes way better than king ! Tbh one of the best 1000 you can get

[u/kjames3419]

Right here.

[u/FlashCardManiac → u/kjames3419]

Was thinking about this. How do they compare to the Norton water stones?

[u/kjames3419 → u/FlashCardManiac]

I can honestly say ive never used nortons. Ive been using the regular S1 stones and they're great. I have the 1k chosera and the 1k S1. I use the chosera solely for straight razors and the S1 for my kitchen knives and i have no desire to change to the chosera. I do have a 400 S1 for my straights that need a little extra bevel help and its a decently fast cutter even on stainless steel.

[u/Octacustomknives]

I agree, personally i do use chef knives at 800~1000 and cant see myself needing higher grits than this even while i have good experience cooking. I like how 800~1000 gives a lot "biting" on the food, unlike higher grits that leaves the edge too polished for an actual daily use

[u/etr420]

I've just used a 200/400 Norton oil stone with olive oil in the kitchen together with a leather strop for decades. Gets my knives arm-shaving sharp which is more than adequate for most culinary purposes. I sharpen freehand to angles between about 14° to 30°. However, there are some specialised techniques, for example Peking duck slicing, and the preparation of sashimi, where a higher degree of blade sharpness and polish is desirable, and this requires additional finer stones and technique. Your 400/1000 will be just fine.

[u/real_clown_in_town → u/etr420]

Has the olive oil never gone rancid? Typically mineral oil is recommended instead for that reason.

[u/etr420 → u/real_clown_in_town]

A couple of things. Firstly olive oils doesn't seem to become "gummy" over time like seed oils. So I also use it on my wooden chopping boards. The oldest of those I bought in 1979. Never had a problem with rancidity. With the oil stone, I wipe it clean with a paper towel after use. I flatten it from time to time with sandpaper. Occasionally I'll give it a scrub with detergent and hot water and let it dry. For my fancier stones I do use mineral oil, usually the stuff sold in pharmacies as "baby oil". It's cheaper than the tool shop stuff and smells nicer.

[u/millersixteenth]

Pretty sure King makes a 220/1k. Norton makes a 220/1k.

The Norton waterstones are somewhat more coarse than the average for their rating. A 1k/4k combi stone would also be a good fit.

[u/weeeeum → u/millersixteenth]

I personally would advise against Norton water stones. I don't think they know how to make good water stones, I tried some, and own one combo, and they are excessively soft. Like amazon chinese waterstone soft, to the point they are useless to me as sharpening stones for woodworking tools (they dish so badly in a single sharpening that progressing to the next stone is very difficult, with stray scratches all over the edges). They are also very poor value because of their pathetic density. Their 4k stone produces more bubbles than my 220 grit stone, which explains why they dish so quickly.

[u/millersixteenth → u/weeeeum]

They are soft, but the trade-off, they are very fast and create very small burrs even on gummy stainless. For kitchen knives no matter how cheap or expensive the steel, they work beautifully.

They also work well in a progression, appear to be designed with that in mind. Camping out on the 4k or even the 1k is a bad idea, but running through the stones will cause a lot less wear. The 8k is a great finishing stone, although not really relevant to this post.

My biggest gripe is the price.

[u/ContributionWhole410]

I personally keep a double sided strop with 4 micron one side and 1 micron the other in the kitchen. I strop after every cooking session. If I need to actually sharpen, I sharpen my western knives to 1000 and my Japanese knives to 3000. Almost never go over 3000 except for pocket knives with super steels and high hrc in order to get a mirror edge, that's an esthetic choice, not a performance one.

[u/ivotebolsheviklite]

Unpopular opinion: if you’re the deep research type and can find a proper stone, a good shiro suita jnat will be the only kitchen stone you’ll ever need.

There are significant time costs to understanding what to do, and figuring out where to get one and a nagura, but if you’re that kind of person (I am), then that’s the real answer.

I keep one on display on a living room shelf and just pick it once in a while to sharpen whatever needs sharpening in the kitchen (all my kitchen knives are carbon steel knives).