Reddit reviews KING K1000#1000 WHET STONE, One Size, Brown

HI there,

Congrats! hope you like working with your knife. i've been sharpening my knives on whetstones for about 2 years now and here's a few things.

1. you do not need 3, 4, 5 or however many stones with increasing grits. seriously, don't spend 150 on some natural 10000 grit stone from japan (not just yet) as its just not super useful to you. I would recommend one maybe 2 stone and a strop. personally i like the king stones (1000 and 6000) because the bang for the buck is amazing, and a stone fixer You can look up strops, they come in all shapens and sizes and you can normally make one from stuff you already have, even newspaper (see below.)
   
   
2. find a place where you can sharpen every now and again. i ruined tables and counter tops before i realized that sludge that comes off stones is super abrasive and scratches stuff real easy. you can either make a sink bridge from a 2x4 and some screws or buy one. or, alternatively, just get a good stone holder if you are going to be on counters. find something that works for you.
   
   
3. one more thing before i go all knife nerd. watch some videos, Korin has a channel on youtube that's really good, carter cutlery is cost concious and has a great technique stroping on newspaper... and you can look up bob kramer but his stuff is way way more high end.
   
   
   anyways that's my two cents. i got a 15 qt sterite container for all my stuff including the bridge and i offer knife sharpening to friend just to practice on different knives.
   
   Cheers and good luck. I think its a really nice time once you get a handle on it.

1000 grit

They also make some double sided stones (1000/6000 and 1000/4000), from my understanding 1000 is good enough to get a very sharp blade, 4000/6000 are ideal for getting it so shiny and sharp that it cuts atoms in half.

Eventually I'll probably add other grits, but I didn't want to spend too much for just starting out.

You don't actually need a polishing stone. I would learn how to sharpen and deburr on a medium grit stone first. A 1000 grit edge is still pretty sharp. I also wouldn't bother with no-name stones either.

I recommend these.. Don't spend $500. Not necessary

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000XT4GJO/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I4QACBKPAH6FZ&colid=POIYQUE8YZGH

https://www.amazon.com/KING-Grain-Sharpening-Stone-Medium/dp/B0016VC46A/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1501904887&sr=1-1&keywords=king+1000

King Deluxe 1K comes in at $22, and for a knife like either of the ones I suggested will be all you really need. If you can save more, the Shapton Ha No Kuromaku is a common recommendation.

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Also notice you asked in another comment about the difference between certain likes of knives. Your wording was a bit odd but I assume you are asking about the difference between the forged and the stamped lines? I can't speak about the Henkels knives, but Wusthof uses fewer steps when heat treating their stamped knives. This leaves them at around 56HRC instead of the 58HRC that their forged knives are hardened to. For a $35-$40 knife this isn't all that bad, but if you were looking at the Wusthof Gourmet line it's kind of silly.

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Edit: Knife hardness is actually a really complicated subject. There are far to many variables for me to explain here (partly because I'm not the most knowledgeable about all of them) but try not to get to caught up in it just yet. Here are three categories for you: Really hard knives (Japanese mostly), not so hard knives (European mostly), junk that looks like knives/costs more than makes sense (things that put most of the budget into marketing or aesthetics)

There are tons of stones out there and most of them will work for you. I would recommend starting out with a hard stone that isnt going to dish. That way you wont have to worry about flattening or regrinding the stone. Personally I would recommend this as a beginner stone that is still very high quality and inexpensive. Its an oil stone so you will need mineral oil or something similar with it. The spyderco ceramics are also great stones as they essentially never wear out.

If your set on getting waterstones I would say for the fibrox to not go much past 2k grit. The king deluxe stones are good, the shapton ha no kuromaku stones are also good and much harder making them a little easier to learn on. I would recommend against getting something like naniwa professional/chosera or shapton glass to start mainly because of the price.

The honing rod is fine I personally dont use them but thats more of a personal preference thing. I would rather use a benchstone than a honing rod. However a honing rod can help maintain your edge and quickly touch up the knife. Using a honing rod you can keep a knife sharp for quite a while before needing to sharpen it again. Which is great if you have your knives sharpened by a professional not quite as important if you do it yourself and your knives arent super expensive.

A leather strop can help quite a bit when you are first starting out to help remove burrs, and do minor touch ups between sharpenings. If you want to get really good a strop will end up being more of a crutch that lets you get away with not properly deburring the knife edge.

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a good tutorial video https://youtu.be/2Vu6Dq00v7I

ceramic stone

spyderco medium benchstone

waterstones

king deluxe 1000 grit

king 250/1000 combo

shapton ha no kuromaku stones reccommend 320 and either 1500 or 2k for these.

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There are also arkansas stones which are great I would suggest getting the soft arkansas stone and using that as a finishing stone.

In my opinion it is worth spending the money on a synthetic japanese water stone. If you only want to buy one, I would recommend 1000 grit. I have two of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016VC46A/ref=sxts_kp_tr_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=8778bc68-27e7-403f-8460-de48b6e788fb&pd_rd_wg=ZevEp&pf_rd_r=6RWFDQGMDP6Y8E8EQDDF&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-top-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B0016VC46A&pd_rd_w=PumnQ&pf_rd_i=king+stone&pd_rd_r=97632aa7-6927-4cf7-8a9f-a6417345a1d2&ie=UTF8&qid=1539910409&sr=2

They last forever. Mine are over 30 years old and still almost full thickness. They start out really thick to begin with so the 1/8" that 30 years of sharpening has used up is insignificant. It is also much easier to keep japanese water stones flat, compared to traditional American oil stones.

If you want to get things super sharp, especially for tools like wood working chisels, plane blades and the like, an additional stone in 5000 grit is very nice. After that I also strop with a super fine abrasive on a block of poplar.

If you tend to abuse your blades before you resharpen, you might want to consider a dual grit stone in 400/1000 grits, or, as has been suggested, if you have a knife that is seriously damaged, you can use wet/dry sand paper. I suggest gluing it down to something really flat like plate glass or granite. I use rubber cement to glue it down because the paper is easily removed and the glue cleans up easily as well.

I think you will find that Japanese abrasive stones will cut harder steel than the stones traditionally used in the U.S. Stones like the Washita and Hard Arkansas stones don't cut very well when your steel gets above 60 RC or so. I also prefer to use water (water stone) instead of oil as a lubricant. It is less messy and does less damage to your skin.

If you are in need of one stone to begin with and learn on I would suggest the King 1,000 grit. It's right at $20, and the 1k will be sufficient enough to produce a pretty damn sharp edge as long as you strop on old leather or newspaper afterwards.

Sharpening stones can come cheap as low as $20 U.S. dollars and up to $150 U.S. dollars.

Ultimately you will only need 2 stones for all your sharpening needs. 1 rough grit stone, 1 medium grit stone, and possibly a leather strop.

Rough grit stone
Chosera 600

Medium grit stone
King deluxe stone 1000

Strop

These are all priced in US Dollars.

I strongly recommend you try a water stone. I have the 1000 grit one from King and love it. They also have double sided ones so you get multiple grits in one stone but I have heard they can be of lower quality.

https://www.amazon.com/KING-Grain-Sharpening-Stone-Medium/dp/B0016VC46A/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1536859785&sr=8-5&keywords=king+water+stones+for+sharpening

Just roll with the Victorinox fibrox 8 inch, a good whetstone and steel if you're trying to be cheap.

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-45520-Frustration-Packaging/dp/B008M5U1C2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001N0ULJG/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0016VC46A/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501371759&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=king+1000+whetstone&dpPl=1&dpID=31xyvQ0MXCL&ref=plSrch

https://smile.amazon.com/King-1000-Grit-Whetstone-Plastic/dp/B000OT1ZOC/

https://smile.amazon.com/KING-Grain-Sharpening-Stone-Medium/dp/B0016VC46A/

https://smile.amazon.com/KING-1000-Grit-Combination-Waterstone/dp/B0000Y7LAS/

a few options here

Start with this one, and don't worry about ruining your knives. If you get into this, you'll probably pick up many more knives along the way, and whatever you do to your current knife will be worth it for the experience.