Sharpening Stone Advice

Hey guys,

I've got a Shun chef knife that is starting to go a bit blunt, and was wondering if anyone has any advice on a good sharpening stone?
King of knives can do a sharpen for $18 but figured there was probably a more OzBargain way to go about it, plus I could then sharpen the other knives in the house.
Shun have got their whetblock 1000/6000 block but it's about $100 almost, so I didn't know if there was a cheaper substitute that would do the same job?

Any advice would be helpful, thanks in advance.

Comments

  • A sharpening steel will realign the edge and is far less likely to cause the issues a atone will.

    • Issues such as what exactly? I've never done this before

      • +1

        Knives don't need to be resharpened every time, chefs only get it done every now and again, using a steel often keeps them sharp and is easy to do and is less onerous, i.e a 30 sec job

        Using stones can destroy the edge, it's not a super easy skill to get right.

        Stones are great, but just start with a steel.

        • Any recommendations on a steel? Get what you pay for or all the same?

        • @timthetoolman: do NOT use a honing steel on these VG10 knives, they will cause chips in your blade and they do not sharpen, the only "hone" (realign the blade). Steels also tend to leave scuffs in your blade making less clean cuts.

  • I have this:

    http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=151563765880&al…

    I think the 1000 great, 6000 pretty much a waste of time - but that's probably due to my skills (which are learn from a couple of YouTube vids). If I bought again, I'd look for 1000 plus something less than 6000 combination.

    • How has it gone so far? Gets them back to new would you say?

      • Used it for years. Gets my global knives very sharp. But if I try and use the 6000 they usually come out worse than the 1000 only!

        • Interesting, in the video I've watched the guy says don't even bother using it unless you're trying for sashimi or something.

  • sold out

  • i use a stone with 1000/3000

    the 1000 to sharpen and 3000 to polish.

    It takes a bit of practise to get it right. Shun knives are not hard to sharpen and they hold their edge rather well.

    There are various videos on youtude to show you how to sharpen a knife with a wet sharpening stone. One thing to note. stones need to be flat. After using a stone for a while. (LONG while) it will no longer be flat. Soooooo….you need to get another stone to make the stone flat.

    I got a smaller 300 (rougher) stone. I used a pencil to draw lines on the 1000/3000 stone and I rub the 300 on the surface of the 1000/3000 till all the lines are gone, meaning the stone is flat.

    • Very clever! Also very tedious. Thanks for the advice

      • I learnt it all from youtube. Its not just good for cat videos.

        And also you need to soak the stone for a couple of hours before using it.

  • My brother got me one of these https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/245999 about 6 years ago, and i haven't needed to resort to anything else yet, (i no longer use a steel) works great on our scanpan and global knives.

    • I have the kit and it is excellent for Japanese style knives which have a different angled edge than European styled knives. I used it on a general knife (no idea what it's called or supposed to be for), but it has a thicker blade and edge than my suntoku knife and so doesn't sharpen as well using the Furi device.

  • I bought an Aspekt and never look back. It is cheap and work as it should. Review here

  • With Shun/Tojiro/Kasumi/Miyabi/ pretty much any of these higher end japanese knives, i would only use a sharpening stone. King stones are the most common and cheaper of the japanese whetstones, and are pretty reasonable in price. I would use a combination 1000/3000 grit sharpening stone.

    Do NOT use a sharpening steel on VG10 knives, youll make chips in your blade. VG10 has an extremely hard edge which is great and sharp, but chips easily.

    This is not bad to get you started, although this stone might be small. I went for a large stone (much easier to sharpen), but also have one of these compact one. This even comes with a nagura stone you can use to flatten the stone and remove the steel residue.

    http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Japanese-SUEHIRO-SKG-38-whetstone…

  • personally i would use a 1000/6000 or 400, 8000 stones.
    i would go with shapton or king kds, or if shun 1000/6000 is on sale, i would go for that.

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