Thread: Starting Out-Guidance Please

Originally Posted by Utopian

First, practicing the honing of knives will not help you at all for honing razors. They are honed entirely differently. A common quote from experienced knife honers when they begin razor honing is "sharp is sharp," but they quickly learn it ain't true.

i have found this to be a very true statement, through trial and error, i class myself as extreme novice to honing a razor but im pretty comfortable with knives, first razor i honed from start still shaves like a dream, the two after that i have issues with but im learning.
as a result i have taken a much greater interest in rocks and hones than i ever did when my only sharp shineys were knives

The most i ever took to a knife was 6k and that was a knife that holds special place for me, I have seen sales demos on youtube aimed at chefs for stuff like a naniwa super stone 12k, and saw comments from chefs that 6k is to polished for a kitchen knife and that the edge starts to loose it "bite" above 6k. This opinion may eve vary between chefs, one may be chopping carrots and potatoes with steel, the other maybe a sushi chef with a love of ceramic blades ect.....

i would agree with Utopian that something around 400 600 would be very useful in the kitchen, i would maybe even go down to about 240 depending on the condition of your knives edges. If you did want to go to a finer finish than that perhaps something like a naniwa 1k/3k or a norton 1k/4k would be a good way to go and would give you the chance to find out if the finer edge really does agree with kitchen knives and give you the ability to compare it to a 1k finish.

Yep.....I am a very big fan of the Spyderco stones. Worth your while to check those out.

I know you are talking about the spyderco ceramics benchers Avant, but have you used the pocket spydercos? i was actually looking at those not too long ago but was torn between those and the Fallkniven ones, great things said about both.

a king 1/6 is a top notch knife hone imo .i have sharpened knives for pay for many years with those two grits. I have quite a few king hones 800 through 10,0000 and enjoy them greatly although i use arkansas stones on my razors.cheers and good luck .

For starting to hone knives I would start with the Smith's Tri-Hone. I think it costs around $50 (USD) and comes with a plastic blade guide to teach you the correct angle for most knives. It is fine for pocket knives, hunting knives, and a good start for kitchen knives and skinning knives. Get a King or Norton 1k as a prefinisher for the kitchen knives, and then either a Norton 4/8k combo or King 3/5k combo to do the final finishing on. So that's my recommendation for a cheap start.

King and Norton both make good hones. Some people like one brand over the other, but I own multiple hones from both companies and they all work well.

I think there is a carry over between honing knives and honing razors - the sound and feel of the blade when it is ready to move on to the next hone is the same.

I do have a pocket Spyderco I keep in my tackle box and have been very pleased with it. You are correct though, I normally use the ceramic bench stones, I only have the one pocket stone.

Thanks all. I really appreciate your input!