After seeing your knife sharpening skills and I tried to apply it to a cheap knife, a cheap sharpening stone, slow slow sharpening and the result is relatively sharp. Compared to the knife, it's about 7/10, thank you very much. 🥰🥰
There are different opinions but Shapton are my favorites. Shapton 1000 is the stone when I get a new knife. 5000 is a superb polisher too. Yes, there is not too much feedback from the 5000 but the finish is impressive and I like it a lot too. :)
People tend to think that shaptons are sub-par to naniwa just because a given grit with Naniwa tends to polish better than the same grit with shapton. But speed is just as important i think. you only need the last stone in your progression to polish (if thats what you want). I love my Shaptons, as i do my Naniwas but for different reasons :)
Its a great stone. One has to get used to using it. It's very very hard and very very minimally friable. It's an excellent stone for deburring. I think it's a great stone for thse who want to learn and practice the motor skills of freehand sharpening knives to work on this stone, understanding though that it is a polishing/finishing stone of course. You can adjust your motor skills on this stone for hours and make little to no material changes to the knife or the stone. I think that's a great thing for learning. I also like to use this stone to do razors. Not for finishing, but if I have a little damage in the razor, I will use this stone to grind it out carefully, and from there go to a finishing stone like a 12k ss then strops. It's hard. Glassy. Does not release grit. Easy to get good results on carbon steel knives, once you learn how to use it you can get great results with anything that is abraded by white alumina.
@jeffhicks8428 what grit are you talking about and then what the hell are you talking about? You sound like a kid who learned a big word and is trying to use it all wrong.
Great and very informative video as usual, buddy! Did a similar test when I got my Shapton's, but landed on the 1000# and the 8000# for certain knife steels, whilst I prefer the Naniwa Chosera 1000# for my "daily use" for my kitchen knives. But Shapton's are great for reprofiling or remove small chips on the edge, but the higher grit stones, are as you say, muted as they are so hard. They don't change much with use either. Keep up the great work, Steffen! 🗡️👌
A 320 is a re-profiling stone, not a sharpening stone and that knife was not dull when you started (maybe down by the heel but not up at the tip. The Shapton range are anything under 1000 is re-profiling, 1000-3000 sharpening, 3000-5000 honing, 5000+ polishing.
Bro you can use 320 to sharpen, in fact it's better to use a coarse stone to sharpen your knife, since it takes much less time and effort to sharpen them. Also it's beginner friendly. I absolutely loved this advice from Alex, since I brought a cheap Chinese coarse diamond stone, which is not as good stone as he used, but still gets the job done. Also I was able to learn sharping on this due to its speed and coarseness. Now , I am upgrading to a better quality diamond stone along with a shapton
@@ahmedhajwani8980 You can use cobble stones to sharpen... Doesn't mean it's a good idea. I don't think 320 is beginner friendly as it takes so much material off. 1k really is the sweetspot (which is a little coarser, more like 800, on the Shapton Pros). THAT is beginner friendly, as it's quick, but doesn't take too much material off.
I watched this Video a lot now and i enjoy it every time. After i user the cheap amazon aluminium oxide stones i bought the 1000 Grit Shapton. I feels like a whole different world than what i was used to, and i think i will expand shaptons Lineup in my arsenal in the future. I think maybe the 320 would be a good add on for beat up edges, then the 1000 Grit and a 4 Micron strop at the End.
If i need a toothy edge that bites like crazy, for example my sujihiki, i sharpen both sides on the 320, polish one side after that with the 5k, and do edge leading strokes on both sides on it when i am done. After that i strop 5 times on leather with Green chrome stuff, (i like that more than diamond pastes, maybe it is like that because i am using cheap chinese diamond pastes 😂). This makes the knife to stay sharp very long and it bites into meat, tomatoes, peppers, sausages fatty meats etc. Love that performance ... Its similar to the shibata style of sharpening
That's very interesting! I'd never have thought of sharpening the 2 sides of a bevel with different grits... I imagine that the thooty side combines with the very smooth side for the best combo in the world, but no matter how much I think about it, I can't really understand how that could happen, since the edge of a blade is so fine that it doesn't really have any different faces... Anyway, I'll have to try that! Thanks for sharing. 🙏 Did you invent the concept?
@@stephanes6660 no its not my invention, i saw shibata (japanese blade sharpener) doing it kinda this way i just adapted it to my needs and equipment. Results can be different with different steels, it works crazy good with sg2/r2 (powdered steel) and carbon steels like aogami/shirogami
Thanks for the very extensive list of stones. However, I cannot identify three objects. The knife used in the test; I could not understand the knife's ID even by slowing down the video to .75 and .50 percent of the speed. Secondly, the "over the sink bridge". What brand is that? Thirdly, the "stone holder". Anyone, please answer, I would appreciate the IDs. Thank You.
Good vid! I use the 1.5k in place of the 1k in my shapton lineup… it’s close to 10microns like choseras 1k is about 11.5ish.. the shaptons 1k is like choseras 800 scratch pattern. Shaptons are abit weird to get use to.. a different kind of feedback but I have come to settle with them as they are a solid carefree system.
Shapton uses a larger abrasive particle in their mix than other brands like king and naniwa. That's why they seem coarser, are faster and gives a rougher result. :)
Hi man. Thanks for sharing first of all. I'm using shapton pro 2k and 5k for about a year now. I also tried 12k for a while but it is so weird, sold it later. For the 2k, I can really feel the grain so it has very nice feedback and cuts fast, also love the light lime color. For the 5k, I agree it is probably the worst synthehic stone for the feedback. The blade feels like just skids if only used with water. But, if you raise a little slurry with a dimaond plate at the beginning, it almost feels like kitayama with slurry, but if course still a little harder at the base stone. I mean with that slurry the feedback completely changes, it gets creamy, but of course it will require a little slurry control (thickness of the slurry). So I think with that, the 5k feels much better, you may want to give it a try. Another thing is, for the sake of video you were stropping between 1k and 5k, also between 5k and 8k. As you know stropping convexes the apex while cleaning up the edge, and the next time you hit the stone it takes more effort to re-establish apex and raise a burr. So normally in your daily use, you'd only strop at the very end of course, so you'd move your V apex (not a convex apex) from 1k to 5k or 8k, and with that straight V apex you'll get much better tactile and auditory feedback from 5k/8k, also the new 5k/8k apex will form much quicker since you won't be trying to convert convex apex to straight apex back. Enjoying your videos, keep up the great work. Today my green brick of joy arrived. It is great that it is both splash and go and soft. Without initial slurry, it loads up very bad but with initial slurry using a dimaond plate it doesn't load up and feedback gets much better. I don't know, these days I'm obsessed with raising initial slurry I guess :) Also tried to finish some white #2 steel on green brick but it wasn't possible without a burr with edge trailing, even with the lightest weight it still raises a burr with one strop movement. So I tried edge leading deburring and that really gave a clean edge very quickly, like much higher than 2k. So if you have some deburring difficulty with a combination of stone and steel, you can try focusing more on edge leading deburring. Of course it will need a flat stone. So I use the atoma 400 all the time. Just sharing.
Excellent comment :) i will take everything into consideration. I was only stropping to see what kind of edge i was getting of each stone, and would never do that when i sharpen normally :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 One more update on green brick :) I wasn't satisfied with the last edge I got on a tojiro dp gyuto and I found that it is beacuse I was keeping factory edge angle but that felt too high compared to my other kitchen knives. It was wedging a little. Went ahead with dropping the angle to very low. With the green brick it took quite a while, normally you'd use a coarse stone ofc, but I had the chance to get more familiar with it. I see it more like a brick sized naniwa superstone but it is fun anyway. After some long time setting the low angle bevel, I came to the deburring part. I wanted to get back to the basics and tried burrfection countdown method edge trailing way with no slurry. Like 10 8 6 4 2 2 1 1 1. The result was amazing, didn't need any other finisher. Sorry I was wrong about edge trailing doesn't work, burrfection method plus low angle resulted in super nice edge. Don't have a bess scale but the keenness clearly felt when cutting some paper very quietly and effortlessly. It was similar to some 8k finished AS. I guess when someone repeatedly tries to rely on factory angle, the edge gets thicker and more convex over time. It reminded me murray carter's advice, go with the lowest angle the knife can hold. It makes a big difference.
@@enobil awsome to hear that you are having fun with your sharpening. Its all about the edge geometry in the end. How you get there can be very individual. :)
Shapton 1000 and a leather strop (0.5 micron and lower) is really about all 95% of home cooks ever need. Anything lower or higher is arguable, if you've got the money or you find them on a good sale, go for them. I would steer clear of the 5000 though, it's quite a useless stone and it's such an odd outlier in Shapton's line of great stones.
Great video man! One question, do you think the 2000 stone would be enough as the finishing stone for Wusthof knives? Or would it be an advantage to get also a 5000 stone? I read that maybe because of the soft steel in German knives, it is possible to chip one if it is finished with high grit stones? Thank you!
I'm using high end stones like chosera and shaptons for years. For soft steels I only use shapton pro 2k for regular maintenance. It takes less than a minute or two to get an edge with aggressive bite back. You can feel by lightly touching the edge, for me it is super evident with wet fingers. Also shapton 1k gives a super toothy edge but 2k is finer naturally. If you go above 2k, the edge gets over polished on soft steels and perform worse in my experience. But for steels like aogami super, safe to go for 8k etc. If I use strop at the end, it convexes the edge a little and next time bevel setting takes more time. So I skip stropping for soft steels. Even today I made a edge maintenance test. Chosera 3000 wasn't able to set a bevel quickly on a victorinox santoku with very soft steel (I'm talking about some isolated test with only stropping motion). But shapton kuromaku 2k, it took maybe less than a minute to get the aggressive tooth and yet refined edge. For that reason shapton 2k is a very special stone for me. Thanks for reading in case you went this far !
High grit stones will not chip your Wüsthof knives. In 8 years, I haven’t chipped a knife on a stone, and I have stones up to 10000 grit. A 5000 grit stone is not needed, but it can be used, and you will notice a difference. It takes some skill to maintain a toothy edge when using higher grits, but it is rewarding. They also work well for touching up edges that are dull but not damaged.
I bought the 1000, 5000, 8000 and the 12000. I'm considering buying the 30000 grit stone. The 12000 leaves you're knife very harp and with a jende 0.025 micron strop with the tormek stropping ointment that it'll leave the blade clean sharp enough to make clean vertical cuts while the paper stands. I also ordered the kangaroo leather strop with 2 0.025 micron jende solution.
... leaves your* knife very sharp. Do you only want to sharpen your knife or do you actually use it for cutting? 5000 is already enough even for cutting delicate stuff like expensive fish for sashimi, anything beyond is just polishing for its own sake and doesn't get you a more functional tool.
What do you use a 120-grit stone for if not for sharpening a butter knife or spoon? And grits beyond 8000, how sharp/shiny does your knife have to be before you use it for cutting?
Just bought 1000 and 4000 Shapton glass stones. Moving up from a cheaper king stone they are leagues ahead. I probably need to buy a lower one though as I found it best to use the 1000 side of my cheap stone to get bur/ bite first as it made sharpening a lot easier( this was on an already fairly blunt knife)
Like the sharpening videos! Only have the 5K from this line and find that is lacks significantly in feedback as you noted but finished very close to the Chosera 3K, also as you noted with their grit ratings. What I do enjoy about the 5K is the audible feedback is really great. I could even hear the burr manipulation in the video which can be a great indicator of whats going on. Very interested in the 320grit personally.
thanks for the comment :) yea im still using the 320 regularly for coarse work. In general if i need anything coarser than that, i tend to go with either the belt grinder or the tormek just to speed things up :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 I have a Work Sharp ken Onion blade grinder that is my "ultra coarse" repair setup but I would love a Tormek! Find yourself using it much other than for major steel removal?
@@EngineersPerspective701 , Not really. i just use it freehand with the stone it comes with, and go straight to stones after. But i might use the jigs if my costumer asks for specific angle or so. Im also getting more into woodworking as im starting to make more strops and some cutting boards. Then i might start sharpening my woodworking tools as well :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 Nice. I assume it's just for demonstration purposes for the video so you can show a pronounced difference, rather than there being some benefit to dulling before sharpening?
Do you think you could get away with using only the 2000 and a strop to maintain knives if you only wanted to buy one stone? Or is the 2000 too fine to remove anything significant. Also really appreciate your sharpening skills and how you check the edge with your fingers constantly. Far too often I see videos where people spend way too much time sharpening.
Depends on how often you sharpen them i guess. but with regular maintenance you should be just fine with only the 2k shapton. With some finesse you will get a nice edge from it :)
hi i have 2 questions 1 do you have to make a bur each of grit progression? or its only for coarse stone? 2. if the knife already not sharp do you start again from the coarse or you can start again from fine stone ?
Not a pro here, just purely my opinion: 1. bur is "dangling" material from the grinding of metal. In theory, each progression will create a bur as each progression grit will grind off some material. The more coarse the stone, the quicker the bur creation. 2. as long as the stone is harder than the knife, any stone will sharpen the knife. It is the matter of how quickly the knife will be sharpened and how mirror finished the edge becomes. Ex, it will take 20 mins to sharpen a dull knife by hand with a 18000 grit whetstone.
my plan is : Shapton pro 320, 1k , 2k, 5k, and Luxor compound green, grey and yellow. ( 3microns, 1 and 0.3 ) Not always all together.... would you advise me different? thank you
I've read quite a few reviews about this range of stones, and if I summarise them, the best seem to be #320, #1500, #2000, #8000. That doesn't mean that the other stones in the range are bad... But these stand out. The #1000 is actually closer to a #700/800) and digs much faster than the #1500 or #2000. The #5000 give a nice polish but is sorely lacking in feeback. The most popular of the range seems to be the #2000. In my opinion, you can get crazy sharp knive using only #320 + #2000, and a leather strop. Increasing the fineness of the grain will give you more shine and polish, but in my opinion it is far from essential, especially if you use stropping compounds after sharpening. Hope this help.
Absolutely love the Shapton 5k and 8k as finishers, harder and a bit less tactile feedback but they leave such a pristine edge and don't dish fast at all; absolutely prefer my Naniwa 1k as my general starting stone, such great feedback but it's hard enough to do serious work on without fast dishing.
well its a really difficult question. It all depends on the day really. But i like the coarse shapton stones, id go for a naniwa pro 1k for medium, and maybe a kitayama or arashiyama for fine, or maybe even the naniwa snow white. (junpaku) :)
There is just something about working on a large Chosera :) Personally i tend to favour the coarser shaptons, but the finer naniwas, as naniwa has smaller abrasive particles and more polishing agent than shapton does. I enjoy working on both, and tend to mix a bit. but its hard to beat the higher grit naniwa stones in general :)
I use a 400 grit diamond plate for edge damage or reprofiling, 1000 and 2000 grit Shapton Pro ceramic stones for sharpening, 5000 grit Shapton Pro ceramic stone for polishing and finish with leather strop with 1 and 0.25 micron diamond compound.
As far as I can see, you need two Shapton stones (#320 & #2000) and a leather strop. With this combo, you can get razor sharp edges. As for me, it is not worth going into higher grit levels, because you lose the extra sharpness at the very first cooking in the kitchen. Not mentioning how wives treat the knives when we are not at home...
I bought a bigger set of sliced Kuromaku stones for Edge Pro. I have all stones except the 1.5k & 30k. #320 is nothing special. It is similar to my cheap SiC stones. It works and okay, but the cheap local SiC stones can do the same for 1/10th. A #400 diamond plate is much better and you can use that for stone flattening too. I would not buy this one. #1000 is a great intermediate stone. It is good if you have higher grits, but for finishing it is too coarse. The feeling is good. #2000 is my favorite. It has the best feeling and it can be used as a finisher with a leather strop. #5000 is hard, but gives you a significantly sharper edge after the 2k. It is icy, but I like this. After the #1000, it is a great finisher stone. For kitchen, it is enough. The result is similar to the stropped #2000 blade. #8000 is my other favorite. It has the same suction feeling (when you do it right) what the 2k has. It gives you a finer, almost mirror edge. With the #2000 stone, this stone makes the best pair. #12000 has coarse feeling and particles get off the stone. I don't enjoy this after the 5k&12k. You would expect a coarser edge based on the feeling, but surprisingly the edge is like mirror and very sharp. After the 2k, the 5k gives you a sharper edge. Above 5k, you just polish the edge and the sharpness does not increase very much. I will test the Edge Pro sized Kuromaku stones what happens if I skip some of the stones. Finally, I will buy a full size 5k, or 8k, or 12k stone for my bigger kitchen knives as I already have the 2k stone.
Hey Mathew. The sink bridge is from Suehiro, and the stone holder goes by the name "mary" stone holder. マリーの砥石台 in japanese :) Thanks for the comment :D
im ordering from musashi in the coming weeks so that might be a good idea. i have the 6k arashiyama, and the 1k should be within reach soon if im not mistaken :) thanks for the suggestions man ! love it !
I own the 220, 1500 and 5000. The 220 is terrible, too soft, dishes like crazy and after 30 seconds it doesn’t cut well. Plus the slurry it develops is crazy. The 1500 is great bit overlaps too much with the 1000. For that i own an old Global orange 1000 grit which i suspect is the same stone as Shapton 1000. And finally the 5000 like many others say here, little feedback bit awesome results and fast cutting for a 5000. Just my 2 cents.
I didnt know there even was a 220 :) The 120 i find performs as you describe, but the 320 is one of my favourites :) Although nowadays the Suehiro LD-21 gets the most use in the lower grit range. thanks for the comment :)
I just glued someleather to some wood scraps and rubbed some green polishing compund to them :) (luxxor green). i think its equivalent to 8000 grit :) go make some, they work great :)
Yes. For regular sharpening both the 1,5k and 2k shouldnt be a problem. For polishing or knives with large bevels i would throw in an 800 in between :)
Before first use these stone ARE supposed to be soaked for 5min then after that you only need to wet them when you use them. However if you go several months without using them I'd still do a 5 min soak even though the manufacture says you don not have to. Soaking preserves the stone and is probably why you had a bit a of initial trouble getting water on the stone. I've also always been told when you get above 1000-2000 you should only go with the blade edge not against it same as you do with the strop. I'm about to pick up the Shapton 1000, 5000, 8000 and 12000 as they are not quite as fine as Chosera but I can get the 4 Shapton for less than two Chosera. The Shapton 12000 is more like a Chosera 8000 is what I have read. This was a great video though as it did help me decide to just go with the Shapton and save money over Chosera. I'm still looking at what lapping stone I want to get to keep the stones level. Thank you for the video.
Jea i am confused about this. Before a few days i sharpen with my dmt fine/x-fine. But i wanted to go higher for destination 8000 grit. After few YT vids i decided to choose shapton 8000. Everywhere its written, that i have just to splash it and go sharpening. Users manual was completly in Japan. After my first use i ask a Japanese friend to translate me this and He told me that the stones should be soaken 5-6 Minutes. So i do this everytime before sharpening or just one time?
@@TheDrBoost It depends on how long it has been. It's safe to do it every time, but if you use them more than once a month then just soak them for a few seconds. Basically you want a thin layer of water to sit on top of the stone.
I love the shapton pro series. They feel so clean, and the storage solution is not too bulky. That, and the fact that the stones are good offcourse :) Havent tried the 12k one yet. But i think i need it on my "list"
5k & 8k seem useless since no matter wheather using them or not if you can't avoid finishing with the diamond paste strop Thanks for the video evidence ;)
The best way to tell what is REALLY going on with sharpening stones is to examine the sharpened edges under a microscope. The issue with Shapton stones isn't that the grit is uniformly larger compared to other stones. That problem could be solved simply by choosing a Shapton stone with a higher grit number than other brands to achieve a comparable edge. Microscopic inspection of edges sharpened with other brands shows uniformly smaller scratches and less ragged edges as the grit number increases. Inspection of edges sharpened by Sharpton stones, on the other hand, shows both large and small scratches, and more ragged edges compared to other brands THROUGHOUT the Shapton line of stones. This indicates a lack of uniformity in the grits in each Shapton stone. In other words, there are some larger grits mixed in with (or, more accurately, not sifted out of) the smaller grits in each stone, and those larger grits cause the outsized scratches and more ragged edges. It's hard to explain in words, but there are several videos on TH-cam where the comparisons are unmistakable.
I love the shapton pro 120# awesome stone. I didn't like the 320# i sold mine and got a cerax 320# i love my shapton glass extra thick 500# . I have seen good things on there higher grit pro stones. I am the same with the logo.👍😊👏👏👏👏🔪🔪🔪🔪
@@einundsiebenziger5488 Do you just go around correcting people's spelling and grammar mistakes here? I've seen you do this multiple times now. Why? It's the YT comments section, not a professional publication!
My knife is about 1$, and the sharpening stone is about 1.3$, very cheap, the skill I learned mainly on the internet and recently can sharpen my own knife, in my country the knife sharpener's money is about 1$ 😂
I struggle to understand how to judge some mystery compound so quickly. I frankly don't trust my senses that way. I would need weeks of testing before I would feel comfortable making conclusions. Humans are severely cognitively biased and lack self awareness of this. Not saying you're wrong, but just for me I couldn't trust myself in such a way. As for such products. I never understood any of it. I don't use anything other than industrial grade diamond powder. Mono or poly doesn't really matter though technically the mono is more expensive, it doesn't matter because any of them will be some graded distribution the poly is generally a wider distribution. I digress. What matters much more is the concentration. The distribution of particles. The substrate used. And of course the technique. I like to use high concentration of a 1.5 to 3 um in high concentration, carried in a light oil, on a wooden substrate. I find this gives excellent and fast results, which actually brightens even the finish left by sub micron whetstones like a 16k sg or a 12k ss. It's aggressive enough for even real tenacious steels not normally used in kitchen knives. It costs less than 10 USD to purchase 5 grams of this abrasive which is can load many hundreds of stropping substrates if not more, idk but I'd estimate it would last even a professional many years. Once its loaded onto the substrate, I like to use birch wood, but it works great on any non sealed leather as well, at least in an oil based carrier. You could use other carriers like solvent or emulsion to load any kind of leather. Anyway once it's loaded it seems to last forever. Basically the strop substrate itself will fall apart before the abrasive is no longer effective. These people selling 10 cents of diamond powder in soapy water for $40 a pop or whatever must be making a killing.
I think you are pretty right on the money. Ive done quite a few first impressions, and its often just that. I tend to gravitate towards stuff that works for me, while still want to try something new. Stropping compounds are one such thing. At the end i revert to luxor green polishing wax. I do not know if its the "best" on a molecular level, but its the stuff that works the bost for me. And as you say, sharpening is a highly subjective subject, as we all like different things. Really appretiate your comment, and thanks for watching :)
sorry for my thumbs down but i caht appreciate sharpenings in the kitchen sink. all the abrasives and metal particles going down the drain. not _too_ bad for the waste water processing i guess but not to my liking anyway. thousands in the US do it like you. so never mind. leech? fair enough. thanks.
No don't worry. I have actually though a little bit about alternatives. It's just the only spot in my house now where I can close the door and film in peace. I used to sharpen above the box that's in the left sink. But it got a little hole in it, and I have just been lazy and not gotten a new one. Our waste water goes through a "lock" that catches heavy stuff, wich i empty regularly and the rest goes straight to the ocean. :) no water processing where I live. Water straight from the mountains, and straight to the ocean :) thanks for the comment and feedback. I really appreciate it 😁
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 hehe, mountain, fresh, ocean 🌊. just lovely! thanks for your comment too, appreciated. when i sharpen or touch up a knife, all i produce as waste is 1 sheet of 🚽 toilet paper, with some oil and metal particles in it, which goes straight to the paper basket bin, to be combusted in the end at trash recycle processing facility. Ocean's big enough though, you're right. 😂
@@perniciouspete4986 basically yes. We live in a very rural community with very few inhabitants and a very high degree of water exchange. And so it is not regulated or treated as it would in more urban areas. :)
If it works, stick to it :) i find that most of the stones actually are quite good and gets the job done, Its just that there are so many to choose from.
The best way to tell what is REALLY going on with sharpening stones is to examine the sharpened edges under a microscope. The issue with Shapton stones isn't that the grit is uniformly larger compared to other stones. That problem could be solved simply by choosing a Shapton stone with a higher grit number than other brands to achieve a comparable edge. Microscopic inspection of edges sharpened with other brands show uniformly smaller scratches and less ragged edges as the grit number increases. Inspection of edges sharpened by Sharpton stones, on the other hand, shows both large and small scratches, and more ragged edges compared to other brands THROUGHOUT the Shapton line of stones. This indicates a lack of uniformity in the grits in each Shapton stone. In other words, there are some larger grits mixed in with (or, more accurately, not sifted out of) the smaller grits in each stone, and those larger grits cause the outsized scratches and more ragged edges. It's hard to explain in words, but there are several videos on TH-cam where the comparisons are unmistakable.
After seeing your knife sharpening skills and I tried to apply it to a cheap knife, a cheap sharpening stone, slow slow sharpening and the result is relatively sharp. Compared to the knife, it's about 7/10, thank you very much. 🥰🥰
thats great to hear. keep ut the good work :D
There are different opinions but Shapton are my favorites. Shapton 1000 is the stone when I get a new knife. 5000 is a superb polisher too. Yes, there is not too much feedback from the 5000 but the finish is impressive and I like it a lot too. :)
People tend to think that shaptons are sub-par to naniwa just because a given grit with Naniwa tends to polish better than the same grit with shapton. But speed is just as important i think. you only need the last stone in your progression to polish (if thats what you want). I love my Shaptons, as i do my Naniwas but for different reasons :)
Its a great stone. One has to get used to using it. It's very very hard and very very minimally friable. It's an excellent stone for deburring. I think it's a great stone for thse who want to learn and practice the motor skills of freehand sharpening knives to work on this stone, understanding though that it is a polishing/finishing stone of course. You can adjust your motor skills on this stone for hours and make little to no material changes to the knife or the stone. I think that's a great thing for learning. I also like to use this stone to do razors. Not for finishing, but if I have a little damage in the razor, I will use this stone to grind it out carefully, and from there go to a finishing stone like a 12k ss then strops. It's hard. Glassy. Does not release grit. Easy to get good results on carbon steel knives, once you learn how to use it you can get great results with anything that is abraded by white alumina.
@jeffhicks8428 what grit are you talking about and then what the hell are you talking about? You sound like a kid who learned a big word and is trying to use it all wrong.
Great and very informative video as usual, buddy! Did a similar test when I got my Shapton's, but landed on the 1000# and the 8000# for certain knife steels, whilst I prefer the Naniwa Chosera 1000# for my "daily use" for my kitchen knives. But Shapton's are great for reprofiling or remove small chips on the edge, but the higher grit stones, are as you say, muted as they are so hard. They don't change much with use either. Keep up the great work, Steffen! 🗡️👌
A 320 is a re-profiling stone, not a sharpening stone and that knife was not dull when you started (maybe down by the heel but not up at the tip. The Shapton range are anything under 1000 is re-profiling, 1000-3000 sharpening, 3000-5000 honing, 5000+ polishing.
Bro you can use 320 to sharpen, in fact it's better to use a coarse stone to sharpen your knife, since it takes much less time and effort to sharpen them.
Also it's beginner friendly.
I absolutely loved this advice from Alex, since I brought a cheap Chinese coarse diamond stone, which is not as good stone as he used, but still gets the job done.
Also I was able to learn sharping on this due to its speed and coarseness.
Now , I am upgrading to a better quality diamond stone along with a shapton
@@ahmedhajwani8980 You can use cobble stones to sharpen... Doesn't mean it's a good idea. I don't think 320 is beginner friendly as it takes so much material off. 1k really is the sweetspot (which is a little coarser, more like 800, on the Shapton Pros). THAT is beginner friendly, as it's quick, but doesn't take too much material off.
I watched this Video a lot now and i enjoy it every time. After i user the cheap amazon aluminium oxide stones i bought the 1000 Grit Shapton. I feels like a whole different world than what i was used to, and i think i will expand shaptons Lineup in my arsenal in the future. I think maybe the 320 would be a good add on for beat up edges, then the 1000 Grit and a 4 Micron strop at the End.
The fact it went to 79 usd is crazy
Its the equivalent of 100~ usd for the 1000 grit one near my place
If i need a toothy edge that bites like crazy, for example my sujihiki, i sharpen both sides on the 320, polish one side after that with the 5k, and do edge leading strokes on both sides on it when i am done. After that i strop 5 times on leather with Green chrome stuff, (i like that more than diamond pastes, maybe it is like that because i am using cheap chinese diamond pastes 😂).
This makes the knife to stay sharp very long and it bites into meat, tomatoes, peppers, sausages fatty meats etc. Love that performance ... Its similar to the shibata style of sharpening
Interesting, have to try that !
Thanks for sharing
That's very interesting! I'd never have thought of sharpening the 2 sides of a bevel with different grits... I imagine that the thooty side combines with the very smooth side for the best combo in the world, but no matter how much I think about it, I can't really understand how that could happen, since the edge of a blade is so fine that it doesn't really have any different faces... Anyway, I'll have to try that! Thanks for sharing. 🙏
Did you invent the concept?
@@stephanes6660 no its not my invention, i saw shibata (japanese blade sharpener) doing it kinda this way i just adapted it to my needs and equipment.
Results can be different with different steels, it works crazy good with sg2/r2 (powdered steel) and carbon steels like aogami/shirogami
Thanks for the very extensive list of stones. However, I cannot identify three objects. The knife used in the test; I could not understand the knife's ID even by slowing down the video to .75 and .50 percent of the speed. Secondly, the
"over the sink bridge". What brand is that?
Thirdly, the "stone holder". Anyone, please answer, I would appreciate the IDs. Thank You.
Oh. sorry for the late answer. the knife is a Mcusta zanmai gyutoh 21cm (fire damaskus i think they call this particular line of knives)
Good vid! I use the 1.5k in place of the 1k in my shapton lineup… it’s close to 10microns like choseras 1k is about 11.5ish.. the shaptons 1k is like choseras 800 scratch pattern.
Shaptons are abit weird to get use to.. a different kind of feedback but I have come to settle with them as they are a solid carefree system.
Shapton uses a larger abrasive particle in their mix than other brands like king and naniwa. That's why they seem coarser, are faster and gives a rougher result. :)
But I've heard the 1k shapton is very fast and last a long time
@@dimmacommunication that shapton series are all pretty fast and are all pretty dense, yeah for sure.
@@bozoedge You know what ? I just bought one :) 😂 Don't like soft stones.
I'm used to diamond stones, so there you go...
Hi man. Thanks for sharing first of all. I'm using shapton pro 2k and 5k for about a year now. I also tried 12k for a while but it is so weird, sold it later. For the 2k, I can really feel the grain so it has very nice feedback and cuts fast, also love the light lime color. For the 5k, I agree it is probably the worst synthehic stone for the feedback. The blade feels like just skids if only used with water. But, if you raise a little slurry with a dimaond plate at the beginning, it almost feels like kitayama with slurry, but if course still a little harder at the base stone. I mean with that slurry the feedback completely changes, it gets creamy, but of course it will require a little slurry control (thickness of the slurry). So I think with that, the 5k feels much better, you may want to give it a try. Another thing is, for the sake of video you were stropping between 1k and 5k, also between 5k and 8k. As you know stropping convexes the apex while cleaning up the edge, and the next time you hit the stone it takes more effort to re-establish apex and raise a burr. So normally in your daily use, you'd only strop at the very end of course, so you'd move your V apex (not a convex apex) from 1k to 5k or 8k, and with that straight V apex you'll get much better tactile and auditory feedback from 5k/8k, also the new 5k/8k apex will form much quicker since you won't be trying to convert convex apex to straight apex back. Enjoying your videos, keep up the great work. Today my green brick of joy arrived. It is great that it is both splash and go and soft. Without initial slurry, it loads up very bad but with initial slurry using a dimaond plate it doesn't load up and feedback gets much better. I don't know, these days I'm obsessed with raising initial slurry I guess :) Also tried to finish some white #2 steel on green brick but it wasn't possible without a burr with edge trailing, even with the lightest weight it still raises a burr with one strop movement. So I tried edge leading deburring and that really gave a clean edge very quickly, like much higher than 2k. So if you have some deburring difficulty with a combination of stone and steel, you can try focusing more on edge leading deburring. Of course it will need a flat stone. So I use the atoma 400 all the time. Just sharing.
Excellent comment :) i will take everything into consideration. I was only stropping to see what kind of edge i was getting of each stone, and would never do that when i sharpen normally :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 One more update on green brick :) I wasn't satisfied with the last edge I got on a tojiro dp gyuto and I found that it is beacuse I was keeping factory edge angle but that felt too high compared to my other kitchen knives. It was wedging a little. Went ahead with dropping the angle to very low. With the green brick it took quite a while, normally you'd use a coarse stone ofc, but I had the chance to get more familiar with it. I see it more like a brick sized naniwa superstone but it is fun anyway. After some long time setting the low angle bevel, I came to the deburring part. I wanted to get back to the basics and tried burrfection countdown method edge trailing way with no slurry. Like 10 8 6 4 2 2 1 1 1. The result was amazing, didn't need any other finisher. Sorry I was wrong about edge trailing doesn't work, burrfection method plus low angle resulted in super nice edge. Don't have a bess scale but the keenness clearly felt when cutting some paper very quietly and effortlessly. It was similar to some 8k finished AS. I guess when someone repeatedly tries to rely on factory angle, the edge gets thicker and more convex over time. It reminded me murray carter's advice, go with the lowest angle the knife can hold. It makes a big difference.
@@enobil awsome to hear that you are having fun with your sharpening. Its all about the edge geometry in the end. How you get there can be very individual. :)
Shapton 1000 and a leather strop (0.5 micron and lower) is really about all 95% of home cooks ever need. Anything lower or higher is arguable, if you've got the money or you find them on a good sale, go for them.
I would steer clear of the 5000 though, it's quite a useless stone and it's such an odd outlier in Shapton's line of great stones.
In your opinion how do they compare to a Arkansas stone? Do they leave a better edge?
Great video man! One question, do you think the 2000 stone would be enough as the finishing stone for Wusthof knives? Or would it be an advantage to get also a 5000 stone? I read that maybe because of the soft steel in German knives, it is possible to chip one if it is finished with high grit stones? Thank you!
SP 2k and a Dickoron *micro* are perfect
I'm using high end stones like chosera and shaptons for years. For soft steels I only use shapton pro 2k for regular maintenance. It takes less than a minute or two to get an edge with aggressive bite back. You can feel by lightly touching the edge, for me it is super evident with wet fingers. Also shapton 1k gives a super toothy edge but 2k is finer naturally. If you go above 2k, the edge gets over polished on soft steels and perform worse in my experience. But for steels like aogami super, safe to go for 8k etc. If I use strop at the end, it convexes the edge a little and next time bevel setting takes more time. So I skip stropping for soft steels. Even today I made a edge maintenance test. Chosera 3000 wasn't able to set a bevel quickly on a victorinox santoku with very soft steel (I'm talking about some isolated test with only stropping motion). But shapton kuromaku 2k, it took maybe less than a minute to get the aggressive tooth and yet refined edge. For that reason shapton 2k is a very special stone for me. Thanks for reading in case you went this far !
High grit stones will not chip your Wüsthof knives. In 8 years, I haven’t chipped a knife on a stone, and I have stones up to 10000 grit. A 5000 grit stone is not needed, but it can be used, and you will notice a difference. It takes some skill to maintain a toothy edge when using higher grits, but it is rewarding. They also work well for touching up edges that are dull but not damaged.
I bought the 1000, 5000, 8000 and the 12000. I'm considering buying the 30000 grit stone. The 12000 leaves you're knife very harp and with a jende 0.025 micron strop with the tormek stropping ointment that it'll leave the blade clean sharp enough to make clean vertical cuts while the paper stands. I also ordered the kangaroo leather strop with 2 0.025 micron jende solution.
... leaves your* knife very sharp. Do you only want to sharpen your knife or do you actually use it for cutting? 5000 is already enough even for cutting delicate stuff like expensive fish for sashimi, anything beyond is just polishing for its own sake and doesn't get you a more functional tool.
What do you use a 120-grit stone for if not for sharpening a butter knife or spoon? And grits beyond 8000, how sharp/shiny does your knife have to be before you use it for cutting?
Just bought 1000 and 4000 Shapton glass stones.
Moving up from a cheaper king stone they are leagues ahead.
I probably need to buy a lower one though as I found it best to use the 1000 side of my cheap stone to get bur/ bite first as it made sharpening a lot easier( this was on an already fairly blunt knife)
Like the sharpening videos! Only have the 5K from this line and find that is lacks significantly in feedback as you noted but finished very close to the Chosera 3K, also as you noted with their grit ratings. What I do enjoy about the 5K is the audible feedback is really great. I could even hear the burr manipulation in the video which can be a great indicator of whats going on. Very interested in the 320grit personally.
thanks for the comment :) yea im still using the 320 regularly for coarse work. In general if i need anything coarser than that, i tend to go with either the belt grinder or the tormek just to speed things up :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 I have a Work Sharp ken Onion blade grinder that is my "ultra coarse" repair setup but I would love a Tormek! Find yourself using it much other than for major steel removal?
@@EngineersPerspective701 , Not really. i just use it freehand with the stone it comes with, and go straight to stones after. But i might use the jigs if my costumer asks for specific angle or so. Im also getting more into woodworking as im starting to make more strops and some cutting boards. Then i might start sharpening my woodworking tools as well :)
I just ordered the 120. I can't wait!
I have the 320. Works so well. Eventually I'll have them all
You need to order all the grits up to 12,000. The 30,000 is very expensive but once i have enough money I'll buy it as well
@@DawahTrucker2024 I think the 30,000 is a waste of money. People who have it don't even use it
What were you using to dull at the start if you don't mind me asking?
Offcourse. I was just using an old zwilling 1k stone that i have :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 Nice. I assume it's just for demonstration purposes for the video so you can show a pronounced difference, rather than there being some benefit to dulling before sharpening?
@@impishgrin absolutely, its just to demonstrate that the knife is dull before i start sharpening. There is no reason other than that :)
Interesting progression, I've heard people doing about doubling of the grit, not 6-8x. Seems to work though.
Do you think you could get away with using only the 2000 and a strop to maintain knives if you only wanted to buy one stone? Or is the 2000 too fine to remove anything significant.
Also really appreciate your sharpening skills and how you check the edge with your fingers constantly. Far too often I see videos where people spend way too much time sharpening.
Depends on how often you sharpen them i guess. but with regular maintenance you should be just fine with only the 2k shapton. With some finesse you will get a nice edge from it :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 Thank you! I’ve wondered this for a while.
hi i have 2 questions
1 do you have to make a bur each of grit progression? or its only for coarse stone?
2. if the knife already not sharp do you start again from the coarse or you can start again from fine stone ?
Not a pro here, just purely my opinion:
1. bur is "dangling" material from the grinding of metal. In theory, each progression will create a bur as each progression grit will grind off some material. The more coarse the stone, the quicker the bur creation.
2. as long as the stone is harder than the knife, any stone will sharpen the knife. It is the matter of how quickly the knife will be sharpened and how mirror finished the edge becomes. Ex, it will take 20 mins to sharpen a dull knife by hand with a 18000 grit whetstone.
Stone shapton kurumaku os good Sharpening 👌
my plan is : Shapton pro 320, 1k , 2k, 5k, and Luxor compound green, grey and yellow. ( 3microns, 1 and 0.3 ) Not always all together.... would you advise me different? thank you
I've read quite a few reviews about this range of stones, and if I summarise them, the best seem to be #320, #1500, #2000, #8000. That doesn't mean that the other stones in the range are bad... But these stand out. The #1000 is actually closer to a #700/800) and digs much faster than the #1500 or #2000. The #5000 give a nice polish but is sorely lacking in feeback. The most popular of the range seems to be the #2000. In my opinion, you can get crazy sharp knive using only #320 + #2000, and a leather strop. Increasing the fineness of the grain will give you more shine and polish, but in my opinion it is far from essential, especially if you use stropping compounds after sharpening. Hope this help.
Absolutely love the Shapton 5k and 8k as finishers, harder and a bit less tactile feedback but they leave such a pristine edge and don't dish fast at all; absolutely prefer my Naniwa 1k as my general starting stone, such great feedback but it's hard enough to do serious work on without fast dishing.
I've seen in the description something about vitrified stones , what are their caracteristics ?
btw loving my shapton cream stone :)
Nice video bro.
What's your fav if only can get 3 stones course medium & polish.
Thx for ans.
well its a really difficult question. It all depends on the day really. But i like the coarse shapton stones, id go for a naniwa pro 1k for medium, and maybe a kitayama or arashiyama for fine, or maybe even the naniwa snow white. (junpaku) :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 thx bro ^_^
Naniwa 800, 3000 and kitiyama 8000
Love the Shapton Glass.
While the regular Shaptons are by no means a bad stone, I have a hard time picking them over a Naniwa Chosera or Pro.
There is just something about working on a large Chosera :) Personally i tend to favour the coarser shaptons, but the finer naniwas, as naniwa has smaller abrasive particles and more polishing agent than shapton does. I enjoy working on both, and tend to mix a bit. but its hard to beat the higher grit naniwa stones in general :)
I use a 400 grit diamond plate for edge damage or reprofiling, 1000 and 2000 grit Shapton Pro ceramic stones for sharpening, 5000 grit Shapton Pro ceramic stone for polishing and finish with leather strop with 1 and 0.25 micron diamond compound.
which brand of compound ? thank you
Love your work.Good job!
Thanks man. Appreciate it :)
What’s your views on the glass series?
What's your view*
As far as I can see, you need two Shapton stones (#320 & #2000) and a leather strop. With this combo, you can get razor sharp edges.
As for me, it is not worth going into higher grit levels, because you lose the extra sharpness at the very first cooking in the kitchen. Not mentioning how wives treat the knives when we are not at home...
You would do very well with a 320/2000 grit progression. And with a strop after, you could easilly get really nice edges :)
I bought a bigger set of sliced Kuromaku stones for Edge Pro. I have all stones except the 1.5k & 30k.
#320 is nothing special. It is similar to my cheap SiC stones. It works and okay, but the cheap local SiC stones can do the same for 1/10th. A #400 diamond plate is much better and you can use that for stone flattening too. I would not buy this one.
#1000 is a great intermediate stone. It is good if you have higher grits, but for finishing it is too coarse. The feeling is good.
#2000 is my favorite. It has the best feeling and it can be used as a finisher with a leather strop.
#5000 is hard, but gives you a significantly sharper edge after the 2k. It is icy, but I like this. After the #1000, it is a great finisher stone. For kitchen, it is enough. The result is similar to the stropped #2000 blade.
#8000 is my other favorite. It has the same suction feeling (when you do it right) what the 2k has. It gives you a finer, almost mirror edge. With the #2000 stone, this stone makes the best pair.
#12000 has coarse feeling and particles get off the stone. I don't enjoy this after the 5k&12k. You would expect a coarser edge based on the feeling, but surprisingly the edge is like mirror and very sharp.
After the 2k, the 5k gives you a sharper edge. Above 5k, you just polish the edge and the sharpness does not increase very much.
I will test the Edge Pro sized Kuromaku stones what happens if I skip some of the stones. Finally, I will buy a full size 5k, or 8k, or 12k stone for my bigger kitchen knives as I already have the 2k stone.
Looks good mate
What is your sink bridge and stone holder set up?
Hey Mathew. The sink bridge is from Suehiro, and the stone holder goes by the name "mary" stone holder. マリーの砥石台 in japanese :) Thanks for the comment :D
These are Kuromakus, not pros. Pros have P in front of their numbers. I don’t know if there’s any difference.
what's grit number for slaughter?
Hi. Please cover Musashi Toishi #8000 finishing stone. As well as the Arashiyama #1000 and #6000. I'd be most obliged.
im ordering from musashi in the coming weeks so that might be a good idea. i have the 6k arashiyama, and the 1k should be within reach soon if im not mistaken :) thanks for the suggestions man ! love it !
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 Thanks my friend.
Great video and information.
Thanks :) thats really good to hear.
I own the 220, 1500 and 5000. The 220 is terrible, too soft, dishes like crazy and after 30 seconds it doesn’t cut well. Plus the slurry it develops is crazy. The 1500 is great bit overlaps too much with the 1000. For that i own an old Global orange 1000 grit which i suspect is the same stone as Shapton 1000. And finally the 5000 like many others say here, little feedback bit awesome results and fast cutting for a 5000. Just my 2 cents.
I didnt know there even was a 220 :) The 120 i find performs as you describe, but the 320 is one of my favourites :) Although nowadays the Suehiro LD-21 gets the most use in the lower grit range. thanks for the comment :)
It seemed the Luxor .3 micron stropping really make a difference. Thanks for posting, very informative
Thank you. Yes stropping usually takes it to another level :)
Where do you get the diamonds strops?
I just glued someleather to some wood scraps and rubbed some green polishing compund to them :) (luxxor green). i think its equivalent to 8000 grit :) go make some, they work great :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 Do you have a link for the Luxxor paste?
Would you go King 300 to Shapton 1.5k or 2k?
Yes. For regular sharpening both the 1,5k and 2k shouldnt be a problem. For polishing or knives with large bevels i would throw in an 800 in between :)
Before first use these stone ARE supposed to be soaked for 5min then after that you only need to wet them when you use them. However if you go several months without using them I'd still do a 5 min soak even though the manufacture says you don not have to. Soaking preserves the stone and is probably why you had a bit a of initial trouble getting water on the stone. I've also always been told when you get above 1000-2000 you should only go with the blade edge not against it same as you do with the strop. I'm about to pick up the Shapton 1000, 5000, 8000 and 12000 as they are not quite as fine as Chosera but I can get the 4 Shapton for less than two Chosera. The Shapton 12000 is more like a Chosera 8000 is what I have read. This was a great video though as it did help me decide to just go with the Shapton and save money over Chosera. I'm still looking at what lapping stone I want to get to keep the stones level. Thank you for the video.
Jea i am confused about this. Before a few days i sharpen with my dmt fine/x-fine.
But i wanted to go higher for destination 8000 grit. After few YT vids i decided to choose shapton 8000. Everywhere its written, that i have just to splash it and go sharpening. Users manual was completly in Japan. After my first use i ask a Japanese friend to translate me this and He told me that the stones should be soaken 5-6 Minutes. So i do this everytime before sharpening or just one time?
@@TheDrBoost It depends on how long it has been. It's safe to do it every time, but if you use them more than once a month then just soak them for a few seconds. Basically you want a thin layer of water to sit on top of the stone.
dom är riktigt härliga.. mina favoritstenar,
Uten tvil veldig gode steiner det her. Gleder meg til jeg får tak i de andre korningene også for å teste dem :)
How to buy?
I recently bought the 12,000 in addition to my 320,2000 and 8000. My knives are now sharper than a razor. Almost scary.....
I love the shapton pro series. They feel so clean, and the storage solution is not too bulky. That, and the fact that the stones are good offcourse :) Havent tried the 12k one yet. But i think i need it on my "list"
Did you make HHT?
5k & 8k seem useless since no matter wheather using them or not if you can't avoid finishing with the diamond paste strop
Thanks for the video evidence ;)
Especially true with stainless. When sharpening for costumers I will most times stop at 3000 with stainless steel, and a bit higher for carbon :)
The best way to tell what is REALLY going on with sharpening stones is to examine the sharpened edges under a microscope.
The issue with Shapton stones isn't that the grit is uniformly larger compared to other stones. That problem could be solved simply by choosing a Shapton stone with a higher grit number than other brands to achieve a comparable edge. Microscopic inspection of edges sharpened with other brands shows uniformly smaller scratches and less ragged edges as the grit number increases. Inspection of edges sharpened by Sharpton stones, on the other hand, shows both large and small scratches, and more ragged edges compared to other brands THROUGHOUT the Shapton line of stones. This indicates a lack of uniformity in the grits in each Shapton stone. In other words, there are some larger grits mixed in with (or, more accurately, not sifted out of) the smaller grits in each stone, and those larger grits cause the outsized scratches and more ragged edges. It's hard to explain in words, but there are several videos on TH-cam where the comparisons are unmistakable.
I love the shapton pro 120# awesome stone. I didn't like the 320# i sold mine and got a cerax 320# i love my shapton glass extra thick 500# . I have seen good things on there higher grit pro stones. I am the same with the logo.👍😊👏👏👏👏🔪🔪🔪🔪
... on their* higher-grit stones.
@@einundsiebenziger5488 Do you just go around correcting people's spelling and grammar mistakes here? I've seen you do this multiple times now. Why? It's the YT comments section, not a professional publication!
My knife is about 1$, and the sharpening stone is about 1.3$, very cheap, the skill I learned mainly on the internet and recently can sharpen my own knife, in my country the knife sharpener's money is about 1$ 😂
I struggle to understand how to judge some mystery compound so quickly. I frankly don't trust my senses that way. I would need weeks of testing before I would feel comfortable making conclusions. Humans are severely cognitively biased and lack self awareness of this. Not saying you're wrong, but just for me I couldn't trust myself in such a way. As for such products. I never understood any of it. I don't use anything other than industrial grade diamond powder. Mono or poly doesn't really matter though technically the mono is more expensive, it doesn't matter because any of them will be some graded distribution the poly is generally a wider distribution. I digress. What matters much more is the concentration. The distribution of particles. The substrate used. And of course the technique. I like to use high concentration of a 1.5 to 3 um in high concentration, carried in a light oil, on a wooden substrate. I find this gives excellent and fast results, which actually brightens even the finish left by sub micron whetstones like a 16k sg or a 12k ss. It's aggressive enough for even real tenacious steels not normally used in kitchen knives. It costs less than 10 USD to purchase 5 grams of this abrasive which is can load many hundreds of stropping substrates if not more, idk but I'd estimate it would last even a professional many years. Once its loaded onto the substrate, I like to use birch wood, but it works great on any non sealed leather as well, at least in an oil based carrier. You could use other carriers like solvent or emulsion to load any kind of leather. Anyway once it's loaded it seems to last forever. Basically the strop substrate itself will fall apart before the abrasive is no longer effective. These people selling 10 cents of diamond powder in soapy water for $40 a pop or whatever must be making a killing.
I think you are pretty right on the money. Ive done quite a few first impressions, and its often just that. I tend to gravitate towards stuff that works for me, while still want to try something new. Stropping compounds are one such thing. At the end i revert to luxor green polishing wax. I do not know if its the "best" on a molecular level, but its the stuff that works the bost for me. And as you say, sharpening is a highly subjective subject, as we all like different things. Really appretiate your comment, and thanks for watching :)
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 i just order Luxor green, gray and yellow , have you tried them? how you apply ? thank you, excellent video
Just ordered 1000, 5000, 12000
12000 is nonsense, won't make your knife any sharper.
sorry for my thumbs down but i caht appreciate sharpenings in the kitchen sink. all the abrasives and metal particles going down the drain. not _too_ bad for the waste water processing i guess but not to my liking anyway.
thousands in the US do it like you. so never mind. leech? fair enough. thanks.
No don't worry. I have actually though a little bit about alternatives. It's just the only spot in my house now where I can close the door and film in peace. I used to sharpen above the box that's in the left sink. But it got a little hole in it, and I have just been lazy and not gotten a new one. Our waste water goes through a "lock" that catches heavy stuff, wich i empty regularly and the rest goes straight to the ocean. :) no water processing where I live. Water straight from the mountains, and straight to the ocean :) thanks for the comment and feedback. I really appreciate it 😁
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 hehe, mountain, fresh, ocean 🌊. just lovely! thanks for your comment too, appreciated. when i sharpen or touch up a knife, all i produce as waste is 1 sheet of 🚽 toilet paper, with some oil and metal particles in it, which goes straight to the paper basket bin, to be combusted in the end at trash recycle processing facility. Ocean's big enough though, you're right. 😂
@@lofotenknifeworks2278 Are you saying that the waste water where you live isn't treated in any way before it's emptied into the ocean?
@@perniciouspete4986 basically yes. We live in a very rural community with very few inhabitants and a very high degree of water exchange. And so it is not regulated or treated as it would in more urban areas. :)
I'm so confused on today's stones..so much junk out there..I guess I'll just stay with my 50 year old Norton stones
If it works, stick to it :) i find that most of the stones actually are quite good and gets the job done, Its just that there are so many to choose from.
Jealous
Точилку нормальную купи ,не замудохался мастурбацмей?
The best way to tell what is REALLY going on with sharpening stones is to examine the sharpened edges under a microscope.
The issue with Shapton stones isn't that the grit is uniformly larger compared to other stones. That problem could be solved simply by choosing a Shapton stone with a higher grit number than other brands to achieve a comparable edge. Microscopic inspection of edges sharpened with other brands show uniformly smaller scratches and less ragged edges as the grit number increases. Inspection of edges sharpened by Sharpton stones, on the other hand, shows both large and small scratches, and more ragged edges compared to other brands THROUGHOUT the Shapton line of stones. This indicates a lack of uniformity in the grits in each Shapton stone. In other words, there are some larger grits mixed in with (or, more accurately, not sifted out of) the smaller grits in each stone, and those larger grits cause the outsized scratches and more ragged edges. It's hard to explain in words, but there are several videos on TH-cam where the comparisons are unmistakable.
I read this a couple of times under these Shapton videos. Seems to be copy & paste and therefore extremely sus. On what kind of mission are you?
Anti-Shapton bot. Any review that says something nice about the (universally praised) Shapton lineup attracts this auto-comment. Naniwa at work?