Quote Originally Posted by AxelH View Post
You're right on there.

If the OP can't find a low-grit Naniwa SS that is without the base (double-sided) to use one side for cutlery than he shouldn't use the Naniwa for cutlery and should get a different stone.

Cutlery is crude by comparison. The fun is in the sharpening, but the edge's quality and smoothness is no where near what is required for a shaving edge. I successfully use a three dollar india stone (aluminum oxide) 8x2 to sharpen most of my cutlery. I've used the flat side of the Norton silicon carbide flattener (it's not flat, argh) and my DMT8C (which is what I now use to lap my stones) to rip off a lot of steel for repairing an edge or rebevelling. After that it's on to the india stone, from there maybe my DMT1200 or another stone that is my favorite finisher. Trust me, when you realize how easy it is to hone a kitchen knife to a level of smoothness that makes it difficult to cut into the skin of nightshade fruits (chiles, tomatos) then you realize all those fancy higher-end hones don't have much practical use for most kitchen cutlery.

I took a culinary student's inherited cutlery kit (brother was apparently involved in butchery) and layed into it with ferocity. Big 'ole scimitar, a VG-10 Deba, all sorts of blades. Man, it was a blast. Almost the opposite of open razor honing. Two very different kinds of sharpening. All I needed was a few stones, and after the major metal removal the brunt of the work was a cheap india stone. Lapping the aluminum oxide was done carefully with a diamond encrusted tower-grater type cheap sharpener (neither of the DMTs). All in all about six sharpeners including the lappers, but really only 3-4 would be needed for the chore.

Using naniwa SSs for cutlery is a definite no-go, says I. And yes, I've used cutlery on Norton's 4k (mine is cursed so used it for major edge reshaping/repair) so I know what I'm talking about. Use the right tool for the task.
Excellent, thanks for that. Ideally I wouldn't want to have to get so many hones just for the knives, I'll take a look later on to see what are my options.