New Knife Sharpening Impressions

gladius
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by gladius »

Kit Craft wrote: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:31 pm For me it highly depends on what I am using. Natural vs synthetic. Stainless vs carbon. Coarse vs fine grained steel. Harder or softer heat treat. Alloyed or simple steel. Meat vs veg. I don't find there to be a one size fit all, for me. If there was then I wouldn't own so many stones...

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Those are all high-end fine grained Sakai carbons...curious, how would you finish them?
ChipB
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by ChipB »

@gladius, out of curiosity, how many of these same knives do you own and have sharpened with any regularity and across how many different stone combinations? Kit has it spot on. Each steel and smith's interpretation of said steel behaves differently on each stone. Most ultra refined j-nats are meant for aesthetic finishing purposes anyway and aren't applied to usable edge bevels (straight razors aside). There's no dogmatic answer here as the variables b/w steel and stone characteristics result in an unknowable number of permutations.

As I suggested previously, you've also created a straw-man on this topic as literally 1/2 of the knives reviewed on the stones received progression through a more refined j-nat. Out of the knives that were "only" finished through an aoto, which ones struck you as particularly objectionable and why? What have you done differently with the same smiths' use of the same steels? Are you sure I haven't taken said smith/steel to a higher level of finish before?

The point of this thread was to describe my impressions of the various knives' performance on the stones. The progressions were detailed to give the reader some context. If you have had different results with different stones that you particularly enjoy with any of the above knives, that would be very interesting.
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Kit Craft
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by Kit Craft »

gladius wrote: Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:55 pm
Kit Craft wrote: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:31 pm For me it highly depends on what I am using. Natural vs synthetic. Stainless vs carbon. Coarse vs fine grained steel. Harder or softer heat treat. Alloyed or simple steel. Meat vs veg. I don't find there to be a one size fit all, for me. If there was then I wouldn't own so many stones...

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Those are all high-end fine grained Sakai carbons...curious, how would you finish them?
Generally speaking and most of my other factors aside I will take white steel to about 4-8k and more often than not probably 8k. Specifically my Kitayama if I stick with a synthetic. Takashima if I go natural. Any higher than that I a don't see a lasting improvement. However, I could step down to the right 5-6k stone without noticing any hindrance too.

Will check to make sure this post made sense after this coffee...lol. Slept like crap.
gladius
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by gladius »

ChipB wrote: Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:30 pm Each steel and smith's interpretation of said steel behaves differently on each stone.
I totally agree
Out of the knives that were "only" finished through an aoto, which ones struck you as particularly objectionable and why? What have you done differently with the same smiths' use of the same steels? Are you sure I haven't taken said smith/steel to a higher level of finish before?
No objections, I was just surprised THAT you stopped where you did. Most of those (I have most of the Fujiyama steels except Togo Reigo - I am assuming that Geigo is a typo) I finish using a fine grit stone and a little higher up at 8-10k and beyond to 1 micron as they can support the finer edge and perform better in my experience. This is not an unreasonable level for these type blades.

I was curious about Kit's approach as he is a freehander with many stones available and with many knives, finishes at a medium grit (as do I depending on knife). The Kitayama (8-10k) and Takashima are two stones I often use as well on the higher-end blades like Fujiyama. The exception is Sujihiki where I finish slightly lower at 4-5k.
The point of this thread was to describe my impressions of the various knives' performance on the stones. The progressions were detailed to give the reader some context. If you have had different results with different stones that you particularly enjoy with any of the above knives, that would be very interesting.
Got that and it is nicely detailed and informative, thanks Chip.
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by gladius »

Kit Craft wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:25 am Generally speaking and most of my other factors aside I will take white steel to about 4-8k and more often than not probably 8k. Specifically my Kitayama if I stick with a synthetic. Takashima if I go natural. Any higher than that I a don't see a lasting improvement. However, I could step down to the right 5-6k stone without noticing any hindrance too.

Will check to make sure this post made sense after this coffee...lol. Slept like crap.
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Makes sense and thank you for your response. Kitayama and Takashima are two of my most used and favorite stones as well. I will sometimes also follow the Kitayama with the Takashima for a slightly nicer finish!
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by ChipB »

@gladius, thanks for the clarification. Looks like we are generally on the same page and had some wires crossed. I probably will take a a few of the knives that got finished through an aoto through higher progressions as I play around with different stone combinations, just so happened that on this occasion, I didn't
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Kit Craft
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Re: New Knife Sharpening Impressions

Post by Kit Craft »

gladius wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:56 am
Kit Craft wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:25 am Generally speaking and most of my other factors aside I will take white steel to about 4-8k and more often than not probably 8k. Specifically my Kitayama if I stick with a synthetic. Takashima if I go natural. Any higher than that I a don't see a lasting improvement. However, I could step down to the right 5-6k stone without noticing any hindrance too.

Will check to make sure this post made sense after this coffee...lol. Slept like crap.
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Makes sense and thank you for your response. Kitayama and Takashima are two of my most used and favorite stones as well. I will sometimes also follow the Kitayama with the Takashima for a slightly nicer finish!
Me too. Using them one after the other can lead to a stellar edge as long as I am on my game.
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