Are You Using the Right Grit? Ultimate Sharpening Stone Guide

Are You Using the Right Grit to Sharpen Your Knife? Ultimate Whetstone Guide

Which whetstone grit is the best for sharpening your kitchen knives? Naoto is Knifewear's head sharpener, and he's here to guide you through the world of sharpening stones. He'll walk you through every single sharpening stone grit explained in detail, and recommend the best sharpening setup for you to have at home.

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0:00 Introduction
1:05 Sharpening Grits Explained
3:09 Sharpening Stone Brands
4:58 Coarse Grit Stones
7:39 Medium Grit Stones
10:31 Fine Grit Stones
13:48 Super Fine Stones
17:11 Naoto's Ultimate Stone Setup
18:40 Closing Thoughts

[Raikiri-dono]

Thank for this video. There isn't many videos about grit stone. This was very useful.

[mfreeman]

Nice overview—you get through a lot of stones in 20 minutes. Of course there's also stropping, other types of stones, lots of other aspects but these are the stones most folks will use to sharpen most knives. Bravo. Honestly you folks are doing video as well as anyone out there—lots of good information with an upbeat mood, good technical skills, and not too much fooling around and attempts to do schtick. I do it for money and I know how hard it is.

[AlfonseGambino]

I love you my brother. Well done. I'm a master knife sharpener, after 2 long years of practice. If any of you are looking for a good intro on sharpening tools, this is it right here. And don't forget. If you are new at sharpening, use some old knives till you perfect your angle. And never let anyone sharpen your knives with an electric wheel polisher, it takes off a ton of steel. Use the stones and take your time. It's actually has a calming effect for me. I love taking a dull knife and turning it into a hair splicing razor blaze. I actually use a Kai Shun pearing knife to shave. 😂 I haven't bought razors in years.

[davesmith]

So right about the rabbit hole ... and the practical functionality of kitchen knives! After two years of exploring, I can get almost any knife to below 100 BESS, but the problem is that the edge is then so delicate I am afraid to use it for ordinary kitchen work. I recently put about a dozen tiny chips in an HRC 63 knife. By contrast, an HRC 56 I used to slice beef off a t-bone didn't show any chips at all. (USB microscope, 200X.) I thought I had been careful with the HRC 63 knife, but now, heck ... I'm not sure what to do with it except slice onions and potatoes. And the softer steel is much easier to resharpen (a butcher's steel will do it).

[jeroen]

Can you also do an explainer about the difference between grit annotations, like JIS and FEPA?

[DouglasK]

Greatly appreciated. I may have to find a class one of these days to improve my minimal skills. Many thanks as this helps even with "cheap and cheerful" stones.

[scottpratico]

Good overview. Helps me understand the applications of specific stones

[ratiounkn]

Great break down. I just started learning to sharpen and I have couple spyderco stones, a shapton 8k grit, but not the glass, and a couple ultrasharp diamond stones. I want to get more whetstones now. Thanks for all he info. Subbed right away.

[WormyLeWorm]

Love the chosera 400. I also use it to finish most softer knives, pocket knives, and especially for peoples knives I know are going to see abuse. It works so quickly and leaves such a nice balanced finish that I wouldn't complain about using a chosera 400 edge myself. It handles most of my medium work and I like jumping from it straight to a fine stone. It feels great to use, too.

What do you think of it for light thinning as you go, say every few sharpenings?

On a side note, there are some steels I use that can technically hold higher grit finishes, but I don't like how soon they seem to lose bite. Ironically, they take such a well-refined edge and sharpen so quickly, that it ends up making a feeling I don't prefer in kitchen knives and find can be troublesome for most tasks. My Yoshikane SKD, for example, I can finish to most any grit, but because of the grain structure and carbides I would assume, it always has an amazing balance of refinement and toothiness that just never goes away. Whereas something like my Ashi in white #2, spending a little too long at anything 3k or higher is easy to do, and while it makes very clean cuts and is technically sharp for a long time, it just doesn't keep as much bite. I find that even when doing things like cutting a stack of carrots for julienne, even then bite is important to not cause things to slide around from having to use more force. It can making touching up between sharpenings a little more complicated or make finishing a task you have to more mindfully balance, depending on steel. My favorite steels are like the SKD at this point.

[Garymayo]

Save yourself the trouble of mix and matching this and that, and just get the complete set of Shapton Glass. Starts at 120 up to 30, 000. This is 12 stones that all fit nicely in two Shapton glass stone field holders. Each holds 6 sitting vertical on their sides. This field holder is your sharpening base to securely hold stones while sharpening.

[Zeus-lyod]

Thank you very much for sharing all your professional experiences. To me, the Naniwa pro 400 and 600 grid work better on the dull edges than the Shapton Glass 320 and 500. And yes I tried to finish my Sakai Takayuki Aogami 2 mono steel all the way up to a 20000 Suehiro gokumyo. They felt terrible when cutting meat. They were ok when cutting fish fillets but they got dull very fast. Also sharing my experience here. The knife The Imanishi Amakusa Red and White are absolutely deal breakers for German stainless steel knives. They can create nice toothy edges so the knives are greater for cutting beef subprimal into steaks and portions. They work well on my F.Dick, Victorinox Fibrox, and Tojiro Color's work knives. However, they could be challenged on the harder steels. I had tried them on my Takayuki Aogami 2 and Misono Carbon mono-steel knives and they cut very slowly.

[BljD]

Can I ask your opinion of Naniwa super stone S2, 220 grit. I have understood the superstones are popular at higher grits but is also good ar lower grits?

[SchollZee]

Hey Naoto! I already have a Chosera 800 and Chosera 3000 and they take care of most of my needs. Is there a Shapton that I should look at adding either on the top or bottom end of my current range?

[Gurvtz]

Great video, but it was so long ago, need updated version!

[Cid_]

Can you make a sharpening video on the Naniwa Hibiki stones? I see a lot of sites recommend the Hibiki #3000 stone (for that grit), but I can't find a single video on the Hibiki stones being used on Youtube. Would be nice to see someone use them and talk a little about them. Thanks for all the awesome videos.

[TheGuidedSharpeningGuide]

Ive got a collection of Arkansas and Japanese natural stones I use on my straight razors, and ive got resin bonded diamond and cbn stones I use on a guided sharpening system when I sharpen my pocket knives. Im wanting to get into freehand sharpening my kitchen knives whats the highest hrc you can sharpen on these stones your talking about? My 2 main kitchen knives are custom made of magnacut steel and they are hardened to 64-65hrc will these stones sharpen knives with that high of hrc? Thanks

[GrantHendrick]

Thank you Naoto for a very helpful video. I would love to see your thoughts on following up with stropping. In other videos you mentioned your bride does not like you using your jeans 🤪

What about cork for debuting ? Leather for stropping?

[georgeyoung]

Its definitelly endless pit from witch there is no cure😂 Its expansive but its spiritual meditation at its best and it is worth every cent🙏 You have pretty much what i use (Choseras/Pro, Glass, Kuromaku, Rika/Ouka/Junpaku)

[adrianmilanesi]

Hi great video, I have just purchased a Chinese brand Hezhen knife I want to keep it sharp what grit double sided wetstone should i use? Thanks

[WaschyNumber]

Are glass stones similar to Dimond stones ? 🤔
And what size number of grit would be good from New profiling to mirror edge sharpening? 🤔