Sharpening stones

[Gcckoka]

So the sharpeners I have are a 400grit medium stone and 1000 grit fine arkansas stone I also made a strop and am waiting for yellowstone white compound.
Now I was going though my amazon wish list and came across a few stones , I wonder do I need them ?
One was a lansky dual grit sharpener for axes , one was a 2000/5000 grit whetstone and one was a fallkniven dc4
So do I need this stones or not ?

 

[Mesquite]

The DC4 is probably the most useful of the three to get

 

[philipb]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Combinati...352747?hash=item5d62e858ab:g:1bYAAOSwe-FU9ZLp

I saw this low cost stone. do you think it would be any good to sharpen my mora knife?

 

[mrcharly]

You probably don't need them - a 1000 grit stone is fine enough to put a really good edge on a knife.

I think that you might be better off spending some money on getting some stropping compound and making a strop from some leather. That's easy to carry and very useful for touching up the edge when working. Stropping compound can be many things, some people use the buffing compound used for polishing cars, even toothpaste. I bought some aluminum oxide powder and use that.

 

[Gcckoka]

You probably don't need them - a 1000 grit stone is fine enough to put a really good edge on a knife.

I think that you might be better off spending some money on getting some stropping compound and making a strop from some leather. That's easy to carry and very useful for touching up the edge when working. Stropping compound can be many things, some people use the buffing compound used for polishing cars, even toothpaste. I bought some aluminum oxide powder and use that.

I have a strop and ordered a compound

 

[mrcharly]

Good.

The stone I found very useful was actually a coarser one - 250 grit. Very useful for reprofiling blades when the edge was damaged or when I wanted a different profile.

I don't know if you do any woodwork, but if you do, it can be useful to have a coarse stone (or a grinder) for repairing chisels and plane blades. Even when you are being careful, sometimes you will hit a hidden nail or very hard knot and chip your blade. Also, with care, you can hand sharpen drillbits.

 

[Robson Valley]

Whether it's freehand or powered, I think of the grit sizes with respect to the job before me.
60 - 250 for removing metal quickly. repair, reshaping, repurposing.
400 then 600 to refine the edge, to remove the gross scratches from earlier work.
800 & 1000 to get close to the edge and final bevel angle that I need.
1500, 2000 & 4000 to make an edge fine enough to leave a glassy cut surface on a wood carving.
Strop and honing compound make the difference between really sharp and "carving sharp." This matters more than I ever expected.

1. In everyday wood carving, 800, 1500 and honing is enough to give me the edges that I like. I'm not interested in shaving hair protein or carving fingers.
So, I have scraps of carving woods = that's the only test of edge quality that matters to me.
2. In the kitchen, I go as far as 2000 (as recommended by Porsche and others.) This seems to leave enough "tooth" on the edge for soft foods.
3. I have coarse 80 - 250 oil stones but I've not used any water stones in years. As all of my sharpening is freehand, I've switched to 3M fine automotive, wet/dry sandpapers.
Cheap and fresh as needed, 600, 800, 1000, 1500. My strop is cereal box or office filing card stock, charges with the green CrOx/AlOx honing compound.
4. My situation is complicated by also having many curves edges such as crooked knives and adzes. Stones are unsatisfactory.
5. Freehand took time for me to learn to hold the desired angle and be able to repeat that, any time needed. What ever the angle, consistency rules.

 

[Wayne]

I'm the wrong person to ask as the answer is you can never have too many sharpening stones. I have over 50 all different. Old and new and I'm still looking for the perfect stone. I have ones I use more often that others but the quest continues.