Thread: Naniwa 1k &5k water stone

Gouging is a risk with most stones, more so with a resin stone such as the Superstone. It's not guaranteed to happen, but it could. The big nicks a cooking knife tends to attract can be a real problem.

Lapping is the real issue. If the same stone does double duty, you will need to lap it often and thus shorten its lifespan. This is why I have separate knife and razor stones. If you have limited storage space and/or budget, you may decide it's worth the risk to just go with the smallest number of hones for now.

The Chosera 1K is hard enough to withstand knives with minimal lapping needed. At the next stage, I might go with a Super 5K for razors and one of those cheap King 6Ks for knives (I have one, it does a fine job) and then whatever you want from there on up. Going to 8K or higher on most kitchen knives is counterproductive, so those higher-grit stones are likely to be razors-only anyway.

+1 to all the above.

I can't speak with expertise to the straight razor side, but as for knives...

The Naniwa superstones are quite soft for learning to freehand knives on. You'll probably be okay with the 1k Naniwa SS, but 3k or higher you'll almost certainly put many gouges in as you're learning.

My suggestion would be to insert the above recommended Suehiro Riko at 5k -- it's a bit firmer and easier to freehand knives on.

For 8k+, you can probably get away with only trailing strokes for knives, so going with Naniwa SS will be okay. Though I personally don't take any of my knives any higher than 5k anymore.

And (strictly for knives), in case you haven't heard it before, make sure you're able to reliably get a good edge at each stage before you start in at higher grits. That is, get comfortable at 1k before attempting 3k or higher or you'll just be wearing out stones without putting any better edge on. It'll take time and practice to be able to hold a steady enough angle to make use of the higher grits.

Thank you all, I forgot to mention I do know how to freehand knifes. Razors not so much. Now that I have read and re-read the stickies I would think that I would be best served with 12k Naniwa to start to learn how to touch up. I am confident with the pasted strop at this point and have been straight shaving for 2 or so years now. So in conclusion I am thinking get the 12 k Naniwa for the razor and keep acquiring going backwards in grit (12-8-4) progression as I master each hone. For knives just buy Riko combination stone in 1k-3k. And a lapping stone off course. What do you think?

Update, my GF bought me Naniwa 3/8k for Christmas. I added Naniwa 220 lapping stone and King 250/1k to the collection. King was good value for the money and I will use it for knife sharpening. I will be carefull and use Naniwa 3k to finish my knife edges. Naniwa 8k I will use for razors only. I will try and touch up my Chisholm straight with it today and see how it goes in term of shaving comfort.

The shave off Naniwa 8K was suprisingly good. Super happy with the results.

Originally Posted by Muamero

The shave off Naniwa 8K was suprisingly good. Super happy with the results.

I read an earlier thread talking about getting good shaves of off a 1k, 4k and 8k stone. Tried the experiment, which, in the process taught me a lot about the value and importance of bevel setting, and got a good 1k bevel and edge, stropped it and got a DFS from it. Back to the stones and refined it on the 4k. DFS. Ditto for the 8k. Proved to me that all you are doing after a good bevel and 8k finish is polishing (and satisfying the need to chase an "ideal"). I do use a 12k when I feel the 8k is good but needs a touch more smoothing.

I think there is misconception to what soft and hard for a stone is.
Soft stones release a bunch of slurry and dish faster as a result, hard stones do not.
Any stone can be gouged by a sharp tip.

Super stones are not too soft at all, and thus work great for razors since we do not want a lot of free grit on the honing surface.
On the other hand Chosera are softer hence very popular for knife sharpening. Can Super stones be used for knives and Choseras for razors? Yes for sure and they work very well for the task, one just has to know the "limitations" so to say and play accordingly.

I have the 1K-3K-8K and the 12K naniwa stones and would never never never use them on any knife. straight razors only. for knives I get an different stone. just my opinion.

For knife sharpening, get an Edge Master belt sander. It will put a razor edge on the dullest knife in under 5 minutes, all while removing very little metal. My EDC is 10 years old and has been sharpened countless times, yet it looks like a factory edge, with no scratches on it.