Thread: Help id'ing old waterstone and choosing new waterstones

Hi everyone,
I am new to straight razors and have just received a Dovo 5/8ths Best Quality razor with a strop from the Invisible Edge (UK based).

Razor works well, I've had a shave and no blood so far so all in all a great experience.

I had a question about waterstones.
Currently I have the following:

King 800
King 1200
King combination 1000/6000
King 6000
??? '10,000'

I got all of these over the years from axminster tools - I use them for sharpening wood working tools, penknives and kitchen knives (chisels/plane blades).

The '10,000' stone is on this link ( Japanese Fine & Polishing Waterstones - Japanese Waterstones - Sharpening - Hand Tools | Axminster Tools & Machinery ) but I think that it is a Kitayama 8,000 (12,000) (i.e. Kitayama 8000(12000) Grit Synthetic Whetstone Review )

I will be looking to hone my razor at some point in the future and also would like to buy some more waterstones.

Can anyone advise me on what stones / grits to buy to even out the gaps?

So far I have been looking at the following:
Naniwa Chosera 1000 (to maybe replace the King 800 and King 1200 - ie simplify the process).
Naniwa Chosera 3000 (to ease the step before the King 6000 )
Akatsuki 8,000 (as a step before the 'Kitayama' : Akatsuki®, Körnung 8000 | DICTUM GmbH - Mehr als Werkzeug )
Takenoko 8,000 (before Kitayama : Buy #8000 Grit Takenoko Polishing Stone at Japan Woodworker )

My current thinking is that the 'Kitayama' will be the last honing stone before another process (either plain stropping or once I understand it, stropping with some kind of compound before the final stage of plain stropping).

Any advice? These would be for all my sharp things.
Thanks,
island

Welcome to SRP island. I should think you would do fine with what you have. Though I don't personally have experience with those particular stones, from what I've read by various members over the years they will do the job. Since you know the stones from your tool sharpening it might be wise to stick with them until you become familiar with honing straights. It will be a different kettle of fish. If there was any additional stone I might recommed it would probably be a 4k as 1 to 6 is a pretty big step. Other members will be along with their take on it.

In a similar postition to yourself a few days ago I sold the King 1K/6K I've been using and ordered the Shapton pro 1.5K & 5K from Tools from Japan. The stones are still on the way to me so I can't make any comments on performance but they seem to have a good reputation & both of them delivered to the UK was cheaper than I could find for the Naniwa Chosera 3K alone.

I plan to go 1.5K>5K>coticule.

I was never particularly enamoured with the 6K side of the King, for the past few years I mainly went King 1K>coticule most of the time. I did use it for knifes but even then it gave way to my budget Muller grindstone.

On the other hand, with the possible addition of a little chromium oxide on balsa & leather, or a luxury finsher, you've got a decent set up already. I don't think the King 1K>6K is an unreasonable jump, the numbers may seem ambitious but the stones work just fine.

I don't have experience with the stones you mention but they can probably do the job, get yourself a cheap ass (gold dollar or second hand) razor and try to make it shave

the one thing I would look into is making sure your hones are lapped flat, I don't know how important that is in sharpening woodworking tools but in straight razors it's kind of important

I think the takenoko stone might actually be a 6k stone labeled as 8.

I haven't got a suggestion for what stone that you could get that's just money no matter what unless you get a much finer synthetic. If you wanted to try 40 natural stones, I could probably help there. Because with 40 natural stones, at least you'll get a couple that you like.

I am still learning and you say you got some experience sharpening wood tools, but if I could offer you any advice it'd be to start learning on synthetic stones and leave the naturals for later. Sharpening SR is something else, when you are sharpening a knife or a wood working tool, we tend to use a lot of pressure and I personally like hard sharpening stones for that, but for SR especially when learning the Naniwas super stones are a very good choice.
I specially like creating a new bevel on the 1000k Naniwa SS and finish it on the 12000k. With any other stone to fill the gap.