Thread: Sigma II 3k&6k, Bester 6k&8k: Do they require soaking?

Hello Gentleman,

I am on the verge of buying a couple of new stones.
There is a requirement for each of these stones that needs to be met. Otherwise I don't want em

Does any of these stones:
Sigma Select II 3000
Sigma Select II 6000

Imanashi Bester 6000
Imanashi Bester 8000

require soaking prior to use? There is little information available on these stones and I absolutely must have spritz 'n go stones.
Anybody uses one of them and knows for sure?

Help would be appreciated

I do believe the sigmas are splash and go with friable grit, so they cut fast but wear quicker than say nortons or naniwas. The besters are splash and go, but have heard they are kinda soft and are prone to getting little bumps of grit popping up, requiring a quick lapping. Check out Chef Knives To Go: Kitchen Knives, Chef Knives, Shun Knives, Global Knives, Wusthof Knives, Henckels Knives. Mark is a great guy, a pro knife honer, and reviews alot of these stones in depth on his site. I have bought every stone I have from him. I would look into the arashiyama 6k instead of the bester, it is splash and go, and a pretty hard stone. Oh and just something I have found with trial and eror. If you find a stone that says produces a nice mud...its splash and go for knives, but for razors you will HAVE to soak it, and it will stay thirsty. I love my suehiro rika 5k I got from mark, but she aint a cheap date in the liquid dept lol!

Well, thank you tiddle!
Indeed, the Kitayama is a stone that has been on my mind for quite some time.
I have tested almost every other stone setup available and currently I am interested in a stone set for my kitchen knives,
as I am very satisfied with my complete Shapton GS setup exclusively for my razors.

Following your advise I opted for a Kitayama 8k as a finisher for my knives. It is yet to arrive.
I also settled for the Sigma Select II 3k and 6k in addition to the Sigma Select II 13k I already own.

The Sigma Select II 3k and 6k I already could test did not require soaking but were spritz 'n go.
Of course you could soak them and maybe benefit from it, for those that can't or don't want to this surely is interesting.

The stones themeselves, I cannot recommend for the use with razors. Of course there will be many to disagree, but I find them too aggressive.
The 3k feels as coarse or even coarser than my Chosera 1k. It simply eats metal away and will leave an edge a little more toothy than I would have liked.
Much toothier edge than my Shapton Pro 2k, and of course GS 3k produces.
The 6k is a lot smoother but finishes on a 3-4k level in comparison to Naniwa SS.

But for kitchen knives these two will perform. The 3k will reset a used edge quickly and the 6k will remove the scratches from the previous stone staggeringly quick.
The edge left will be aggressive and good for cutting. Jumping to the Sigma 13k is no problem at all!
So for kitchen knives, these two will perform fantastic and very quick