What grit water stone?

[shunofthedead]

Hi I have a question about what grit water stone i should buy. I have just purchased a new-west knife-works "the 9" and i also bought the DS4 Diamond Steel. My question is since the diamond steel sharpens as opposed to honing do I need to only get a polishing water stone with a high number grit? also how often do you use a diamond steel compared to a honing steel, will i still need to use a honing steel at all? Thanks!

 

[foodpump]

Don't really like or suggst you use a diamond "steel"

With sharpening, ther are two main rules to follow:

1) Keep your bevels or the two angles that meet at a point, consistant

2) The finer the grit you use, the longer your edge will last.

With a diamond "Steel" you don't have very much control over the angle, and the diamond is aggesive and will remove metal.  

I would get a minimum of a 4000 grit stone.  If the edge is badly nicked, super dull (edge rounded over) or the tip broken off, a 1000 grit to do the "Grunt work" to get things back in shape.

The regular "Steels" are just there for "orthodontics"  The cutting edge of a knife is tissue thin, and with use this gets bent over,  The grooves of the steel willl pull this curled over edge straight again.  You can do this multiple times, but after a while, the tissue thin edge willt fatigue from bending back and forth and break off--leaving you with a dull knife.

 

[boar_d_laze]

Pump, hardly a ray of sunshine, is too optimisitc. 

Briefly, it's a waste of time trying to fix problems caused by a coarse surface with a finer one.  The damage an abrasive rod causes cannot be repaired except by complete resharpening. 

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BDL