Stone upgrade recommendations

[Jeff B]

I bought the Suehiro Debado 320, 1,000 and 3,000. I’ve only spent a couple hours with them. I really like these stones, I like them enough that I ordered the 6k from Japan when I saw it was gone here. All three stones have good feel and feedback, they do their job in short order. I’m waiting for someone with a more experience than me to have a go at them. I expect they will pleasantly surprised using them.

You're the only one who got them, Quickdraw. Mark's stone shipments come by ship and take a long time. If you can tell people about the speed, dishing, water consumption, polish, etc, you'd be blazing the trail.

You know Lepus I have little experience compared to many of you. I have a bunch of stones and definitely some favorites. These stones were a lot of fun. They have good feel, they didn’t load up much, I gave them a very short soak and they need little more after that in the way of water. The 320 was cutting quick, I backed of on the pressure with 1k and it did it’s job quick too, the 3k I used light pressure and the polish was great, reminded me of my Chosera 3000. But truth be told it would be better if someone else used them who just knows more than me.

If your interested I’d be happy to let you try them and you could blaze the trail. Seriously.

Very good response and all Lepus was asking for. It's a very good first impression of the stones and could easily help someone considering them.

[nakneker]

You're the only one who got them, Quickdraw. Mark's stone shipments come by ship and take a long time. If you can tell people about the speed, dishing, water consumption, polish, etc, you'd be blazing the trail.

You know Lepus I have little experience compared to many of you. I have a bunch of stones and definitely some favorites. These stones were a lot of fun. They have good feel, they didn’t load up much, I gave them a very short soak and they need little more after that in the way of water. The 320 was cutting quick, I backed of on the pressure with 1k and it did it’s job quick too, the 3k I used light pressure and the polish was great, reminded me of my Chosera 3000. But truth be told it would be better if someone else used them who just knows more than me.

If your interested I’d be happy to let you try them and you could blaze the trail. Seriously.

Very good response and all Lepus was asking for. It's a very good first impression of the stones and could easily help someone considering them.

Thanks Jeff, I’m enjoying using many different stones. I hesitate to comment too much though, there’s a few stones that are popular but I don’t jive with much at all, there’s several I really enjoy too. I feel theres a lot more to learn though to able to comment very much. I find just about every night I’m cleaning stone debris out from from my fingernails from another sharpening session, my wife thinks I’m MIA and is asking if I’m planning on making a career change and gonna sharpen for a living (she should know how obsessive I am by now). My first Naturals are in route, me and Ken are gonna talk this afternoon too, I kinda feel like I’m so far down the rabbit hole I can’t see the entrance anymore, I’m enjoying every minute of it too.

[Altadan]

...It wouldn't be well considered to build a set of $50-80 dollar stones around a $35 combo stone without considering replacing the combo stone. If you get the coarse stone and decide you still like the CO stone as its partner, you just need to add a 2-3000 grit stone. If the coarse stone convinces you to go another route, you can buy stones to replace the CO and have an efficient, compact three stone set or even just replace the 1000 grit side. If the CO stone is anything like similar stones I have tried I would rather replace the 1000 grit with something else to lead into the 6000 rather than buy another stone as a bridge between the combo stone.

You know, Lepus, I've been in this boat for close to a year now, and I keep postponing a stone purchase just because the 1k/6k I've got actually does a bang-up job on all my knives, and others' too. I even gave a banged up Tanaka deba a (decent?) polish on the 6k - though the muted\opaque polish it gave is - more than anything - a driver for me to explore finer finishers, and even yearn for a Jnat... but then again, I might just sell the deba. But now I'm rambling.

I was thinking of keeping touch-ups with the 6k, which is really quite alright, and then replacing the 1k side with the Kohetsu 2000 as a (albeit finer) beginning for "half-progression" touch ups, when I feel l need to drop down a little lower.
Then, in the future, add either chosera or a king coarse stone.
~
But bottom line, with the OP in mind, is that indeed most stones will keep a knife in good, serviceable condition. Upgrading might often be more a matter of convenience than of quality.
That stone I got for 32$ has yet to show any noticeable loss of mass, and I suspect that if I hold my fingers, I might sharpen my knives on the strength of those dollars for 3-4 more years easily. If, that is...

[JayBee]

Thanks everyone for the input. I ended up getting the cktg diamond plate, SG 500, SP 1k, and rika 5k. Took a W#2 nikiri to shaving sharpness on the 1k/5k combo last night, LOVING the feel on both of them!

[Jeff B]

Some good stones and a nice set....for now!

[old onion]

Some good stones and a nice set....for now!

You took the words right out of my mouth.