Thread: Should a razor hone be dedicated to just honing razors?

Disclaimer: I have no experience at all with honing so this question may be ridiculous.

I picked up a Norton 4k/8k so I could practice honing on a spare razor. I thought it might also be useful for touching up the kitchen knives, but wondered if maybe the heavier, courser metal on a kitchen knife might adversely affect the surface for honing razors. Is it best to have dedicated stones for honing razors, or does it not matter?

Thanks

--Steve

Depends on the state of your kitchen knives. A 4/8k finish on a kitchen knives is a very high polish, for day to day use finishing on a 1k would be more than sufficient for most working chefs.
If you was to get your kitchen knives to a degree that you could possibly shave with them I would ensure to lap your Norton before a straight razor touched it as the possibility to gouge your hone would be much higher.

+1 on what Mark said regarding a 4/8k being a high finish for kitchen cutlery. I use a 325 diamond plate to lap my hones, and to sharpen kitchen knives. I would say lapping is a necessity for honing razors. Certainly a hone will wear faster if knives or tools are sharpened on it. I reserve my waterstones for razors only, but some others probably multi use theirs.

I think that your budget on these items might play a roll,,, I am lucky enough to have hones that only touch razors & ones that only service knives.

As all have stated, polishing kitchen cutlery to 4/8k really is just not necessary and I would be worried about nicking a costly finishing stone. Also, I think cutting food items works better with a slight " tooth " on the blade, ie, not highly polished.
I do take good care of my knives and I do hone them on the 1k and sometimes just a slight finish on 1500 wet/dry sandpaper. Works really well and lasts a long time if you use your steel on your knives each time you use them.

We used to finish on a hard Arky. Then for vegetable knives we ran one lap on about 600grit soft Arky. That was in a Country Club kitchen. We did the same in the Butcher shop for all boning slicing knives. Shaving arm hair was required for all knives. Prime rib knives would be no extra tooth after the hard Arky.
YMMV
~Richard
PS Very hard German Steels were in constant use for setting the edge while working. Honing was maybe once a 50 hour work week; if necessary.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Sounds like the 4k/8k is overkill for a paring knife and in my inexperienced hands might degrade the stone - bad risk/reward ratio. Time to tuck my Norton safely away and read up more on the honing process.

--Steve

I agree with all above. But when hand honing a Japanese chef knife I use a hard synthetic 1k for bevel setting and finish on my old blue Belgium hone. It's about 5-6k.

This is a very good setup for me and my customers :-)

I have only onde knife usually honed above standards, my hunter's pal. It is used for dealing with larger carcasses at work (I'm a zoologist), and I have a special marked face of my Arkansas just for this.

Originally Posted by Kristian

I agree with all above. But when hand honing a Japanese chef knife I use a hard synthetic 1k for bevel setting and finish on my old blue Belgium hone. It's about 5-6k.

This is a very good setup for me and my customers :-)

Carbon, stainless blades or both?