Hi,

I appreciate there are many knife afficianado's here, and many who strive to obtain the cleanest mirror edge on there knives. The results of Kangaroo strops and the smoothness of the edge is truly awesome. No wonder the strops are sold out.

What I would like to ask though, is what type of progression would be best for plain old kitchen knives. I've seen some of the knife manufacturers advise to go to 3000 grit stones. I know that's way lower than many of you will use, but I'm also led to believe that on a kitchen knife, you need a degree of abrasion to the edge to perform proper cutting of say meat or veg.

What is the general consensus on what would be a good progression. Say the 400/600 to get going followed by the 800/1000 all diamond. Then perhaps the micro fine ceramics.

Do you think that sounds like it would be enough to fulfill the criteria of having an ultimately sharp kitchen knife for general use. Followed by regular 800/100, micro fine ceramic honing when required.

Reason I ask is I know Clay mentioned when going through the Kangaroo strop and micro fine pastes, that although he had achieved the ultimate in scratchless edge, and what he mentioned as having taken his product to it's absolute limit, he would not use a progression like that with the knife he used when out hunting elk. The one he used for that would be more abrasive.

I'm sure there will be many of you who have a good idea of what I should be doing to get to my goal

Respect to the forum. The knowledge is incredible. From soon to be knife nut. No doubt I'll end up the purist like the rest of you

Yeah man, your definitely on to something for sure! What you will find is that each personhas a sslightly different preference on this... My all around working edge is finished on the 1k diamonds right now... I absolutely love this edge for both hair popping but TONS of bite. I think mark posted a post a little while back discussing the best edge for tomatoes. The general consensus was more toothy than mirror finished (if I recall). However, the definition of "toothy" is pretty relative!

To answer your other question: the jump from the 1k diamonds to the micro fine ceramics is too large if you're wanting to erase all the previous scratches you will need a "go between". A cheap way to do this is with wet/dry automotive sandpaper by 3M...You can take this uptthrough 2500 grit and the go to strops if you are wanting a mirror edge. More expensive way would be to get a custom chosera set of say 800/2000 grit or something. Hope this helps!

RazorEdge

In reference to your current working edge. Will you stop at the 1k diamond or do you do stropping after the 1k? If you strop what is your progression? My WES will arrive next week and my kitchen knives first up to be sharpened.

razoredgeknives wrote:

No, I don't strop normally when finishing on the 1k...it leaves a very aggressive, toothy edg . If youstrop it you will loose some of the bite (at least in my experience). I do as Cliff Stamp and others recommend - remove the burr with the last stone used - not the strop .

+1

I stop at 1000 for kitchen knives. In my house they get used and abused, and I like the toothier aspect.

I have to say that "stopping at 1000" is a position I've evolved to, because at 1000 grit the edges are sharper than any hand sharpened edge I've had for the last 30 years... So it's not exactly settling for less to stop at 1000 grit!

Rgds,

Thanks for the updates...

My WE is will arrive next week. I'm looking forward to redefining my idea of a sharp knife and I am sure the members here will help.

I can also give some good feedback on the 1000 grit edge, I favor the same for my carry knives and the like. Like I said in my other topic, the wear in on the stones really starts to improve the finish in only a couple weeks' worth of sharpening use. I use the strops a lot, certainly, but mostly for experimenting with polish and to see what's possible. The ol' 1000 grit edge is quite the workhorse though!

Many thanks for your replies. That certainly helps.

Looks like the general consensus is 1000 Grit stones for kitchen knives.