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what grit for honing pocket knives, kitchenware?

Hi,

I am planning on getting the 4k/8k norton and 12k chinese grits for my straight razor. My question is, can I use these stones to hone my pocket knife and my kitchen knife as well? I plan to only use the 4K for those guys.

Thanks,
Eitan
 
Keep in mind if you use the 4k side for knives, you will need to lap it very regularly to make sure is stays flat enough for good razor honing, with all of that running curved blades across it.

And I think you really need something much courser. Sharpening a dull kitchen or pocket knife on a 4k stone will take hours.

-Mo
 
It also depends on the quality of your kitchen knives. Poorer quality knives won't hold such a fine edge. I would get a coarser stone for knives for two reasons - it is quicker to sharpen on a 1k and it is better if you are using razors on the same stone to avoid having to flatten every time you hone.
 
There was a comprehensive thread on sharpening kitchen knives six months or so ago. I think Ouch started it. If you search, you might find it. If I recall, you want something like 800-1000 grit for moderate metal removal and then something finer 2000-4000(?) to finish. Check that thread - it has all the answers.

Jordan
 
For kitchen knives I prefer to use one of these kits like the lansky System. Its makes things much easier. I have the diamond kit. They use a different system with mesh and I don't know the equivilent between mest and grit but 1200 mesh is a final polish and 800 and 600 mesh are more sharpening grades.
 
Especially for the first sharpening, where you'll be putting your own bevel on the blade, you want something that will take off the metal fast. I think you really want a different setup from what you'll use to sharpen your razors, but you can spend much less money on this. I'd get a Lansky system, or similar.
 

ouch

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You can use all three of those stones to finish your knives, but as Moses said you'll want to make sure they're flat before you return a razor to them.

At the very least, you'll need a medium stone, ~1K grit, to prepare the edge.
 
Eitan,

I was chastized for this on the earlier kitchen knife sharpening thread; nevertheless, I will reiterate my observations here: for most kitchen knives for most of us average folks a Norton India Combination hone will work just fine. I have no idea what the grit numbers are. Norton calls it fine and coarse. The 8" x 2", with the coarse a dark brown and the fine an orangish tan aluminum oxide, will last you a lifetime and it is relatively inexpensive so the amortization would make a banker blanch. It's an oilstone which has none of the Lansky-like holders to maintain a bevel. You will have to learn to do that yourself.

I have an India Giant Combination which I have used for over 30 years to sharpen my chisels and plane irons and with those chisels can gain in a set of door hinges quickly and accurately. And when I sharpen my kitchen knives, can easily slice a tomato with knives just off the hone. On fishing trips, my uncles and cousins would hand me their fillet knives to sharpen - on the old India Combination. It's not a glamorous hone, but one that I've found to be very functional when you need a basic, functional edge on a basic knife.

By no means is it a razor hone, but it do do a mean kitchen knife edge.

Good luck, good sharpening
 
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