Thread: King

Kitchen knife guys generally leave many of the Kings soaking all the time. It is thought that repeated soaking and drying can cause them to crack. ASFAIK whether a stone reacts well to extended soaking depends on its composition. Many Kings are composed of clay and silicon carbide. Those stones are sort of muddy and respond well to soaking.

Japanese carpenters also leave the red ones soaking all the time. I'm not a japanese carpenter, but I've got a big red brick soaking right now, along with a bester 1200 and sigma 1200. It's a stone by stone thing.

I haven't ever soaked a finisher indefinitely, but I wouldn't want to, either.

As far as the knives go, if they're soft enough to be steeled, don't worry too much about a perfect edge, just hone them to remove any wear and dings and then do a quick stropping. They take damage so fast (but that can be corrected by steeling them with a non-slotted steel) that it's kind of pointless to be too precise with them.

I usually sharpen my german stainless knives through a medium arkansas stones and then steel them and that's it (they'll still shave hair off of your arm, but they will not hold the type of edge a 62 hardness knife will. They'll also be less sharp off of the same stone because the abrasives can cut softer steel deeper).

I have used a number of these stones (combo King 1k/6k) and never had an issue with them. True, the 1k side is more like 1.5k or even 2k and the 6k side is more like 5k, but very nice hones to work with, although the 1k side requires rather frequent lapping.

I never soaked mine much - just submerged them for 5 - 10 mins, then used a water spray on them when necessary. Never seen one crack or split, but have experienced cracking with the Chosera 10k - the company replaced the first one, but now the second one has craze-like marks all over the surface). Chefs that have soaked/dried the Chosera 10k have had it split, crack and fall apart.

Regards,
Neil

Never heard of Kings dissolving in water but also never heard of people storing 4k or 8k Kings in water.

It's the modern ceramic based stones that dislike soaking not the clay ones which are pretty bombproof.

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

I have used a number of these stones (combo King 1k/6k) and never had an issue with them. True, the 1k side is more like 1.5k or even 2k and the 6k side is more like 5k, but very nice hones to work with, although the 1k side requires rather frequent lapping.

I never soaked mine much - just submerged them for 5 - 10 mins, then used a water spray on them when necessary. Never seen one crack or split, but have experienced cracking with the Chosera 10k - the company replaced the first one, but now the second one has craze-like marks all over the surface). Chefs that have soaked/dried the Chosera 10k have had it split, crack and fall apart.

Regards,
Neil

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I too have craze-like marks all over the surface of my Chosera 10. Sort of like dried mud pattern in the desert. However the Chosera 10k yields a quite nice shave for me.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

First and Foremost, I've never handled your particular King Stone. I have used an 800 and currently use a 1200 for bevel setting.

Both hones are thirsty SOB's! I've let my 1200 soak for an hour and could still mini bubbles coming out. So I asked my good friend Glen (GSSIXGUN) how he stored his bevel setters and he recommended;

1 cap-full of Clorox to 1 gallon of Distilled water and change the water every 6 months. He's been doing this for years. I've been using his system for a year with no problems.

I also store my Norton 4/8 in the same solution.

A couple of notes;

1. I've had the current King 1200 for at least 20 years
2. The cap-full is about a heaping Tablespoon
3. I change the water about every 4 months as I can't seem to remember to put the lid back on so the chlorine evaporates
4. While it takes an hour or more for the King to 'completely' absorb water, it takes Days to Dry Out. So I find it more convenient to just leave he King in the water bath

I do hope this has been of some help.

Why add bleech(clorox) to the water ? And I thought it was bad to store your hones submerged because they would degrade.

Originally Posted by mrsell63

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I too have craze-like marks all over the surface of my Chosera 10. Sort of like dried mud pattern in the desert. However the Chosera 10k yields a quite nice shave for me.

I also had cosmetic checking all over the surface of mine. You could lap it out, but it was a waste of stone to do so. Cho 10K reminds me of an old muscle car with a carb. You can get some very interesting things out of it, but you have to be fiddling with it sometimes to keep it perfect.

Shaptons were also reported to craze, but none of mine ever did.

I no longer have any of them.

Nothing in this world ever seems to stay 100% perfect without attention (oilstones seem to be pretty impervious, but then there's that dropping them thing), some things just need more attention over the long term....like pianos, acoustic guitars and choseras, and some a little less, like trumpets and natural oilstones (even the synthetic oilstones get hard over time and become relatively worthless).

Originally Posted by whoever

Why add bleech(clorox) to the water ? And I thought it was bad to store your hones submerged because they would degrade.

Ok, Here's partially what I'd written'

First and Foremost, I've never handled your particular King Stone. I have used an 800 and currently use a 1200 for bevel setting.

Both hones are thirsty SOB's! I've let my 1200 soak for an hour and could still mini bubbles coming out.

So I asked my good friend Glen (GSSIXGUN) how he stored his bevel setters and he recommended;

1 cap-full of Clorox to 1 gallon of Distilled water and change the water every 6 months. He's been doing this for years. I've been using his system for a year with no problems.

I asked Glen 'Who's Counsel I Always Trust', about the continuous soaking as I too had 'heard' that the soaking would destroy a synthetic hone.

Glen assured me that it would do no harm to my hones and that he'd been doing it for years.
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To try to answer your questions:

The bleach/chlorine kills bacteria that will cause the water to get 'slimy'.
The Distilled water doesn't have minerals in it to react to the bleach or with the hones.

Glen's recommendation Works and Works Very Well.

One/just one/of the reasons that I always listen to Glen's counsel is that he does tests and from those tests come the results.

So when he speaks on a subject he is talking about something that he knows about.

My dad's been dead for 17 years and one of his favorite sayings was;

"Don't ask just anybody, Ask someone who knows something"

I hope this has been of some help.

Enjoy the ride; It's a long strange trip but well worth the journey

My king is a thirsty SOB too. It is clay and it also takes days to dry completely and then it is surprisingly light.

Originally Posted by Steel

My king is a thirsty SOB too. It is clay and it also takes days to dry completely and then it is surprisingly light.

I have a 2" king. It drinks for about 15minutes before small bubbles, and is frustrating to set a bevel on It took some time to set a bevel even with x's.