How To Choose a Japanese Sharpening Whetstone

i thought it would be appropriate for me to do a kind of an overwatching video discussing my experience with the sharpening wet stones over these last six months and as you guys know those who have followed this series i have spent a lot of time with these stones and i feel like it would not be fair for me to end the sharpening series without kind of a conclusion video and discuss the pros and cons of each stone and hopefully give you guys a a clearer picture of what these stones are capable of for those who have not watched the series this is also a good video for you because then you can kind of kind of read through all of the 60 videos of sharpening knives and kind of get a quick breakdown of what these stones are and these are the stones that most of you guys will be buying for those who are getting into stones for the first time the majority of you will not want to buy a specialty stone from a brand that's not well known or a natural whetstone which is very expensive or can be very expensive and very inconsistent in terms of the results that you will get between stone and stone and so these stones here are mainly stones by well-known manufacturers and they have been they have a good reputation of offering you consistency and you know some sort of uh really a reliable rating of grits that you guys can count on so i'll start on my right and go to my left and this is kind of the order that that the series kind of followed in terms of how far the stones went not a hundred percent close and accurate but it will give you guys kind of a a rough idea of what these stones um are like and how they compare to one to one another so the first stone here on my right is the chapter pro 1000 now this stone here is a it's a very interesting stone now the reason i bought this stone was because in the forums during my initial research this stone the brand came up quite often it probably is one of the more popular stones especially with woodworkers and two things that i would read a lot about is one how dense and hard the stone is it's extremely hard very thin very nice and then how slow it wears down which is actually quite true it is probably one of the slowest if not the slowest wearing stone in the lineup right now now this stone here is rated at 1 000 or 1000 grits and in my experience i think that it's closer to a 700 and maybe an 800 grit stone uh reason being is when i compare to all the other 1000s in the lineup it just didn't have that fine scratch pattern that i was that i was seeing in the other stones and in the cut test it definitely had slightly more rough edges around when i didn't polish the stone on a polished knife on a polishing stone you know most of my tests between these stones were all done with one stone with this you know with one stone against another so i try to be as objective as i can between the comparisons and as fair as i can as well and so this stone here uh really wasn't that it didn't have that one thousand five grit pattern that i was seeing with the other stones in terms of tactile feedback and hand feel this is where the stone really fails in my opinion and feedback it was it was very aggressive right so you can definitely feel that the stone is doing a lot of work on the knife but in terms of tactile hand feel this stone just didn't have that nice sensation of sharpening on it you know that it's very aggressive which is great but it just wasn't pleasurable to sharpen on it was just very hard you definitely feel like the knife was being worked on too much and it just didn't have that you know that traditional japanese whetstone feel to it even though i know that it's a synthetic stone and it was it's not really meant to replicate a japanese traditional stone still there is a part of me that really didn't enjoy the sharpening process on this stone so you know the pro so the really the pros and cons of this stone is it's it's thin it's a splash and go so it is ready to go as soon as you throw water on it it doesn't absorb any water so it's a true splash and go it's very aggressive cutting very fast cutting just a little too aggressive and a little too hard to really have a pleasurable sharpening experience on but this stone you know people do love this stone there is a there is a market for this type of stone and it's just not for me not appropriate for the japanese kitchen knife market this next stone is the arashiyama 1000 this is a splash and go now this stone here is actually a very very good beginner stone okay it's very consistent it's very reliable and the one thing that i will have to say about this stone is it is pretty true to a 1000 grit stone in this lineup i think that the two stones or maybe two or three stones that have the truest 1000 grit rating is the rashiyama and the king 1000. these two stones are probably closest to the 1000 grit rating as any other stone in the lineup but back to this stone here in terms of tactile feedback and hand feel so in terms of feedback it's it's good i would say between let's say a scale of 1 to 10 the feedback on this knight then on this stone is probably between a seven or eight okay so it's good feedback hand feel it takes a little bit of getting used to because it does feel muted but it's also a relatively decent fast cutting stone so so even you know a lot of times when a stone is very fast cutting the feedback is extremely aggressive and very forward and very immediate this stone here is not as immediate as some of the other stones that we're going to talk about but it has very good feedback and just a decent hand feel okay so this is an excellent beginner stone to an intermediate stone for those who are sharpening stainless steel this is fine carbon steel definitely a good stone for that but if you're sharpening a very hard stone i mean a very hard knife anything with a hardwell rating of i mean a rock this rockwell hardness rating of 62 and above this stone will probably not be the right stone for you but anything below a 60 up to a 62 or 61 this stone will be perfectly fine for so any vg10s any vg5s carbon steel carbon white number one white number two blue number one some blue number twos will be good for this stone and it's also a very affordable stone i think the retail price in this stone is 55 or so and you can get it for a little less if you shop around a little bit but overall very good stone very consistent stone and one thing that people have mentioned or have i have a couple of subscribers that have told me that though this is a splash and go it's a stone that you can soak permanently so you can perma-soak this stone but if you do primo soak this stone it needs to stay in water and only be taken out when you're sharpening it so if that's a inconvenient that you are inconvenienced that you are willing to put it with you can possibly try to soak it overnight or just keep it in water permanently i haven't gone that route yet a couple of these stones i have here i have told you can soak them permanently i just don't like the idea of keeping stone in water and then having to keep it in water indefinitely and you know my stones i see myself keeping these stones for 10 plus years so i don't want to keep you know these stones waterlogged for that long the next stone here is the besser 1200 now this guy here if you guys research the forums is a favorite amongst it's almost a unanimous favorite amongst uh japanese knives lovers right now and the reason is it's a very good feeling stone it has excellent feedback a very very good tactile feel and it is relatively fast cutting and it's a nice soaking stone okay so again this stone here is probably the stone that you'll hear most about and it's a stone that you i have kind of a i wouldn't say a love or a hate relationship with it but it's a stone that i have yet to really figure it out okay so this stone i've had soaking for as long as 45 minutes before sharpening and at 45 minutes it just felt like it was and it was just getting the thirst quenched okay so i i thought this stone would can probably use a one hour to an hour and a half soaking before it really gives you that perfect uh or that maximum performance that this stone can give you and that to me is a slight turn off because you know anything over a half an hour of soaking time an inconvenience because i don't have that much time you know so unless you wake up first thing in the morning and you throw this stone in water and you know that you will sharpen in the next hour or two i don't have that kind of time so for me a soaking stone anything beyond half an hour or really beyond 45 minutes is a little too long of a soaking stone however with that aside it is a really nice stone it's uh it's a decent cutting stone people rave about how fine the stone is and how well it cuts and i will say that it is not as fine as you would think i would say definitely this is a 1000 or 1200 grit stone it's not beyond that okay so the grid rating is pretty accurate of of what the stone is which is really good news the wear and the stone it's it's a medium wear stone it's not a very fast wearing stone it's not a slow wearing stone um you know in most of my cuttings and about four or five passes i developed pretty good burr so you know right right in the middle of the pack in terms of how fast this cuts feedback and hand feel so in feedback it is ever slightly ever slightly muted just ever slightly because it is a soaking stone and second soaking stones relative to each flash and go tend to be slightly more muted and feedback you know it you know what the knife is doing which is really really good on the stone you never feel like the stone is too deadened or too stiff or too mushy it's just a very good positive feeling stone and there is no question why so many people love it is because it's really a really good price it's a mid 55 stone it's a good soaking stone and it's very hefty as you can see it's thick stone and overall experience on the stone it gives you a nice scratch pattern it's very consistent and it doesn't dish or gully very quickly so definitely good stone if you were in the market for a new wet stone this stone here i would say it would suffice for a beginner all the way up to you know a medium to intermediate um to advanced intermediate so if you're extremely well-versed in sharpening you may not like the stone you may not love the stone but if you're a beginner all the way up to someone who will sharpen their knives on a weekly basis this is still a very good stone for you this here is the 91 super stone 800 okay so the naniwas are a very interesting brand because as a brand they tend to really underrate their stones okay and especially in the super stone lineup the choceras are maybe 10 to maybe percent 20 higher than the actual grit rating but the super stones we're looking at 30 40 or sometimes even like a couple hundred percent higher and here's why i say that this here is the 800 grit stone as we have said however it gives you the scratch pattern or the polishing effect of a 3000 grit stone okay so which is really unheard of for an 800 grit stone and the reason i can say 3000 is because this stone here gives you a almost exact same look physically as the chocera 3000 polishing stone okay so i know that's kind of hard to understand but you just have to take my word for it or you see some of the videos which um i will try to link up to this video and you will see the finished quality quality of this stone of the 800 super stone versus the 3000 chosera and you will see that their scratch pattern is very similar it's very close to mirror polish not quite mirror polished yet definitely more than a kasumi finish so more than that hazel foggy finish that you guys may love but below a mirror polish finish okay so very interesting stone in terms of tactile feedback and hand feel this stone feels incredible it is one of the smoothest stones you will ever use across any brand or any grit stone for an 800 stone this thing is extremely extremely smooth i thought that the cerex 1000 was the smoothest 1000 grit stone but when i use the super stone hands down this stone is smoother than the 1000 by far okay but by smoother than the crx1000 by far not um well yeah it's smoother than any 1000 grit by far feedback it's very very good this stone gives you instant feedback but the hand feel is because it's so smooth you have to take a lot of concentration to really know what the knife is doing because you can very easily feel that you're just polishing the stone and you can just let the knife run on the stone forever and nothing's ever happening because it's so quiet and it's so smooth you have to take a little bit more concentration and a little more effort to feel for the feel for the bur and listen to the stone if you can hear it so the one drawback for the stone even though it is extremely smooth it's so quiet that sometimes you forget that you're on a sharpening stone other than that it's a slightly slower cutting stone it is probably the slowest cutting stone here in the sub 1000 category okay so um this actually of all this of all the stones that we're looking at the seven stones here this is the slowest one slowest cutting stone and but other than that it's still a really good cutting stone now keep in mind that even though it's a very slow cutting stone i blend my knives across a brick 20 to 25 strokes per session so your knife will probably not be as dull as when i start my sharpening process on these stones so this stone here typically developed a burr in around six passes i think in regular use four passes will give you a decent burr and definitely a working burr for this stone so keep in mind even though it is a slower cutting stone and this test is probably not going to be that bad compared to your everyday stones that you guys may have now so overall very luxurious feeling stone very smooth very quiet just slightly slow cutting and ever so slightly too much of a polishing stone more than a sharpening stone okay so this here is the king 1000 deluxe now i have the kds model here which is the 1000 grit and 6000 grit but you can easily get the 1000 grit deluxe which is a little thicker it's a little bigger and for about 30 35 or so this here is a 65 stone and very good because you get a polishing stone and a sharpening stone but we're only going to talk about talk about the sharpening stone right now so this stone here is a stone that does everything well okay it's it's been the stone that set the standard in terms of sharpening stones for many many years now and really up until the last three to four years this was the stone to go to and for the most part today it still is that stone that all the manufacturers will compare their 1000 grit rating to if you read a lot of marketing uh information of wet stones you will see that they'll say you know faster cutting than the king or smoother than a king or better wear than the king stone and so this stone has really done a great job with staying on the market and it's the reason why i think it's so popular is two main reasons is one the grit rating is extremely consistent it is very much a 1000 grit stone the formula has never changed they have changed the hardness of this stone a few times to really make it kind of relevant to today's uh you know fancy or steel knives but the formula is very very consistent very reliable and the second thing that this stone offers so well is the feedback in the hand feel it's such a pleasure to sharpen on it is very snappy though some people will complain that this is a slighter wear a slower cutting stone or a slightly faster wearing stone in my practice i find that it's right in the middle of the pack i develop a burr between four and five passes most of the time and is this very consistent it has a really amazing light snappy feel to it which is really interesting for a 1000 grit stone uh you know it's uh well it's you know let's say you compare it to the best of 1200 or the arashiyama 1000. these stones feel they feel good but they don't they don't have a nice snap to it okay this stone has a really nice snap to each stroke that makes it very fun to sharpen on very pleasurable and it just gives you that feedback that i really enjoy in a sharpening stone and it gives you a slight slurry which is it's not a heavy slurry if you see some of the sharpening videos of people shopping on the king often times you'll see this really thick muddy slurry that is developed after really just 30 or 40 seconds of running your knife on this stone that is because they're using a different grade stone there is a home version or economy version king 1000 and a commercial professional king 1000 and the kds is in a professional grade so it will not wear down as fast as the home use economic economy 1000 grit stone so just keep in mind that when you're seeing that on youtube that people are developing these really thick muddy slurs it's probably on the cheaper 1000 grade stone other than that it's a soaking stone it takes about a half an hour to really get a good soak after 15 minutes you can probably sharpen your knife that will it'll feel pretty good but i find that after half an hour it's a very very good feeling stone i wouldn't go beyond that because then you risk damaging your stone and having the resin actually break down too far overall overall this is a really good stone possibly definitely one of my favorites in terms of the stones here one that i will keep for a long time and also it's one of them it's in this lineup at least it's the most affordable 1000 grit or combination stone this is the crx1000 now the crx is a very very interesting tone and you know i find that this stone here is interesting to describe because it is a very fast cutting stone aside from the trocera actually the trocera and the cerex are the two fastest cutting stones in this lineup here but what makes this stone very special is even though it's very aggressive cutting and very fast cutting it doesn't feel too hard and it has excellent feedback and excellent tactile feel unlike the shotgun pro which is a very fast cutting stone the feedback wasn't quite there it was too aggressive feeling and it just didn't let your hand know exactly what the stone is doing to the knife this guy here it's hard very hard but not too hard and it's a soaking stone okay after a half an hour i find that it's a very good cutting stone after a half an hour 15 minutes could probably you'll get away with 15 minutes it's not as porous as the k1000 so the k1000 will absorb water much faster than the cerex will but in terms of uh you know hand feel it is just extremely pleasurable and smooth to sharpen on this is the second smoothest stone in the lineup aside from the nunawa superstone 800. it felt velvety smooth when i first used it and it had always to me been an extremely smooth feeling stone i thought it was the smoothest 1000 grit stone until i picked up the naniwa 800 okay so this is in terms of smoothness this is second place only to the 91. so again this is the stone that can do everything well i did not find a single thing to critique or to criticize it about the only thing that i did not like about this stone and it only happened once when i was sharpening it against the chosera i felt that this was slightly muted and that was the first time it's ever happened okay other than that when i went to the stone the next day and sharpened it against the king it felt awesome it was back to the my you know being one of my favorite stones of the series so only i only found that it was lacking in feedback or in that mute it has a slightly muted sensation once going against the choseera but in terms of price it's a mid 50 it's a mid 50 55 stone um retail price i think maybe as high as 60 in some places but uh it you cannot find anything wrong with this stone if you're looking for a stone that can do everything well that can sharpen quickly that can give you excellent feedback tactile feel and slow wearing and also soaking there is not a better stone than the crx1000 okay so the last stone in the series that i reviewed was the chocera 800 now this stone has really become a stone that has changed my opinion of splash and goes as you guys know before this uh before i reviewed this stone and throughout the first half of the series i've always kind of mentioned my bias towards soaking stones and or against splash and goes but this stone has really changed all that it is extremely fast cutting it is uh the tactile feedback is excellent it's so excellent and very instant very smooth feeling stone and the hand feel is you yeah though this is a very aggressive cutting stone very fast you never feel that it's too aggressive you never feel like you're out of control in the sharpening process and it has become essentially my favorite stone if money were not an issue if you just take if you just say all right what is the stone that you want to keep and regardless of price this is that stone okay it is that good other than that i really have no bad things to say about it it doesn't load up you can see that it's extremely clean it's been sharpened by this point maybe seven or eight times on the stone and it is very very clean it uh very hard very hard stone it doesn't wear very quickly it has just a very nice tactile feel it has a really nice audible pitch to it it doesn't feel that your knife is grinding too hard the bird that develops is very even not too aggressive i found that the burr on a stone let's say the shotgun pro is very hard very aggressive and is just not evenly uh even throughout your blade and so this stone really gives you that control of your knife that i really enjoy and you know so that's really this uh again i have nothing bad to say about this stone the only negative thing i have to say is it is very expensive choceras in general run 30 40 50 higher than the equivalent rated stone on another brand um as our map as a matter of fact i think the triceras can sometimes run twice the price of the equivalent grit and another brand that's the only negative thing about about this stone now there's also a new line of stone called the professional made by naniwa and it is essentially the trocera without the base so if you guys never like the base on these stones you can buy it without the base the stones are also even thinner than the troceras and they cost more money so naniwa is charging you more money for less stone and no base way to go but they've become such a powerhouse of a brand that people will buy their stones and they are very good stones and there's nothing like i said there's nothing bad i can say about them other than the price but um you know hopefully that gives you guys a pretty good view or understanding of these stones um again i've spent about six months sharpening on them almost every day i have i've had a lot of time to reflect on these thoughts and to kind of go back and forth i i constantly go back and forth between stones it's just so that i can really come to a good conclusion or really have a good sense of what i'm saying all these stones have their purpose there is a person for every stone here or there's a stone for every person these are strictly my opinions uh you know these words that i'm giving you guys they are very subjective you know even though i am trying to be objective in some sense it's always going to be based on how i feel the stone feels or you know what my preferences in terms of feedback and tactile feel is so just take my words with a grain of salt there are a lot of people on blogs and on youtube that will say one thing and that only their words matter or that everyone else is wrong i don't want to be that guy that tells you you should only buy one stone or she only only want to buy one brand hopefully you guys got a good sense of what these stones are capable of if there are any questions that you guys have that i haven't addressed in this video send me an email send me a message you can also go to my page my my channel and just type in the name of the stone that you guys are interested in it and within this lineup you guys will see uh all my videos are are arranged by name so if you guys had questions on the rashiyama just step into rashiyama and four or five videos that only have the rashiyama or compared you know to another stone will pop up which chose it's very easy i hopefully laid my channel out as logical as possible but um thank you guys for being with me through the series it has been a lot of fun and i can really i really want to tell you guys thank you for those who have given me given me suggestions and as you guys can see a lot of the content that i provide on this channel is heavily heavily user based or user requested and that's because i either even though this research is for myself i want to make it entertaining and fun for you guys to watch so if you guys didn't like the content that you just saw you guys know where the thumbs down button is but if you did enjoy what i've just told you and you have enjoyed my videos in the past please give it a thumbs up and please hit the subscribe button it really just would motivate me to continue making more videos like this i also have a polishing series that you guys have probably been watching in between this and the last few episodes and i have a lot of things that i'm doing in between my knives my whetstones my running gear my cycling gear so bear with me as you guys are waiting for new contacts to come out i'm doing my best and i'm also a full-time dad which takes up a lot of my time and so a lot of these videos are shot at night or only on saturday mornings uh it's kind of difficult for me to do um all these videos at this you know throughout the week so i do my best to get content out as quickly as i can and as clear and as fun for you guys to watch as possible so again thank you for all those people who have subscribed so far thank you for your comments and for your encouragement it's been really good to hear from many of you guys and if you guys have any questions please feel free to drop me a line i answer every one of my emails or comments and i delete all the nasty ones there's been a few so not many but again enjoy your day and i will see you in the next video

Channel: Burrfection

Views: 192,697

Keywords: best japanese sharpening whetstone, what is best sharpening whetstone

Id: 89LqAL_gMyk

Length: 30min 49sec (1849 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2017