Whetstones for Global and Chroma knives

[Soop]

I was thinking about getting the fine stone just for topping up my knives. Would it be ok for global and chroma? How about the guides? I have a GF-33 and a chroma santoku and pairing knife.

Plus, I know from the guides that I've read that I should be aiming to raise a burr - is it the same if you start with a fine stone?

[scubadoo97]

Do you want a guide system like the EdgePro or do you want to do free hand sharpening?

[Soop]

The ends justifies the means really - I just want sharp knives. But I read up about the edgepro and they're £150 minimum. So I suppose it's probably going to have to be whetstones!

[knet]

I've said this before in other posts but I am a firm believer in the MinoSharp for my Global knives. I know you can get it in the UK, not too expensive and I have used it on mine for 8 years. I got it because it is so difficult to find a professional who knows how to sharpen Global but it has done such a fantastic job, I'm completely satisifed.

[scubadoo97]

I've spent more on whetstones than what my edgepro cost. What's your budget?

For basic resharpening think 1000 grit as a minimum basic stone. Aggressive enough and most knives out of the box are not sharpened beyond 1000 grit. A coarser stone, maybe 500 grit, can come in handy if you want to change your bevels or to quickly fix chips. If you want to get finer than 1000 grit think 4000. There are some combo stones that are 1000/4000 grit. Very cost effective.

For refinement you can make your own leather strop. I made one out of a piece of leather from Hand America and an old cigar box. Dry chromium oxide works better than the green crayon stick. No matter what stone I finish with, a little time stropping on leather really improves the edge. With stropping if you do it wrong and round the edge you will only make the edge worse so good technique is key.

[Soop]

My budget is as little as possible to touch up, and maybe slightly improve the out-of-the box sharpness. I'm not a pro, but I'm aware that there's no point in having good knives if they're not kept sharp.

I think the chroma one for £15 or so is a pretty good deal, considering global stones are probably very similar and about £70!

[scubadoo97]

Take a look at some of these combo stones at Korin. You have to include a stone fixer/flattener. It's essential.

http://korin.com/Shop/Two-Sided;jsess...

[Soop]

Those would be good, but I'm in the UK.
If I look for similar things here, is there anything I need to look for in particular?
And even if it's made of the same material, is it possible one would be vastly inferior to another? Or are they probably made by the same handful of companies?

[bgazindad]

http://www.fine-tools.com/japwas.htm

check out this German site above. I found it helpful

[scubadoo97]

That's an interesting site. Thanks

[Soop]

Thanks man

[alanbarnes]

I tried sharpening freehand on whetstones. I now own a combination whetstone **and** an Edgepro. Would have been cheaper just to bite the bullet and buy the EdgePro in the first place. That's just me, though.

BTW, £150 sounds steep. At least in the US you can get a basic setup for just over $150 (less than £100). Still not cheap, but not quite so bad...

[scubadoo97]

The level 1 kit is around $155 but the level 4 kit with all the stones, polishing tapes, DVD and ceramic rod is around $225

http://edgeproinc204.corecommerce.com...

[alanbarnes]

I got the Level 4 kit. The ceramic rod leaves much to be desired, the DVD is useful but not necessary, the coarse stone is overkill for nearly every job, and the ultrafine stone and polishing tapes are nice but not necessary. If I had it to do over, I'd go for Level 1 and maybe add an ultrafine stone.

[scubadoo97]

I usually only go to the 600 grit ultrafine stone. I use to use the polishing tapes but now just go to my leather strop.

I got an inexpensive carbon kiritsuki that came sharpened for left hand which I had to reprofile as best I could for a right hand user. The low 120 grit stone did a fair job of that task. I would now use a XXC DMT diamond plate but that got me into the ball park. The coarse stone also wears very quickly. The 220, 320 and 600 all wear very slowly. I would highly recommend a flattener like a Norton stone flattener. You can pick these up for around $25 but it will keep those EP stones nice and flat. Something I didn't have much appreciation for when I first started.