Lost in the stones - japanese stones

[paul cottingham]

Just curious, I finish on LV's 8000 King stone (I know, I know.) Will the Sigma 13000 improve my edge significantly? Can anyone recommend a stone to finish on other than those? I grind and hone blades with trizact belts on a 42" belt grinder, and am looking for a good finishing stone. I get good edges now, but we can always improve, right?
Sorry for the hijack.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I have a full set of DMT diamond stones from course to extra fine and everything between, and a DMT flattening stone. I use diamonds mainly for setting bevels and flattening backs, but always finish with waterstones. I started with Nortons, then moved to Shapton glass 1000, 4000, 8000, 16000. I have a Chosera 400 coming from Japan and plan to gradually move to the Choseras in similar to what I have in the Shaptons. The Shaptons are great, but I like the slurry you get with Chosera.

I also have have a Tormek with standard and waterstone wheels. I love it, but am too busy to start grinding all my blades to hollow grind. I do love the few that are. I mainly use the Tormek for knives and planer blades right now. Too fussy to set up for hand plane blades.

wait- what was the question? Ahh yes-

I think you are on the right track with Chosera.

[Jonathan Martell]

What's a good brand for waterstones, and a reasonable price?

[Matthew N. Masail]

Gentlemen,

Just wanted to say thanks for the help on this, the snow white is fantastic. I did not know what I was missing, but the results are fantastic. I have reground an polished blades as I'm going to give this stone a fresh start on my blades, the results have been fantastic.

I could use my jointer as a finish plane, even with a thick cut the results are super smooth cuts.

Glad to hear Brian! the cho 3k makes a good edge so I imagin a 8k snow white (which is pretty much a 8k chosera) makes a great one.

[Brian Holcombe]

Spent a few hours last night grinding fresh edges on my chisels then working them over with the 8k....whoa,

[Fidel Fernandez]

I agree with this nice stone.

I bought it because this thread. There is only one thing that I don't like and it is that I knew about this too late and I had spent money in other stones.

I use it also for my wife knives. She used to compliment the edge after I sharpen the knives. Now she is afraid, the edge is super sharp. She says, "not too sharp, please!".

It is a great stone.

[Brian Holcombe]

Cool! She will get used to it. My wife took some breaking in on razor sharp kitchen knives and now I believe she prefers it. I draw the knife through meat/food rather than chop and I've taught her to do the same.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

The most dangerous knife is a dull one.

[Steve Voigt]

The most dangerous wife is a dull one.

There, I fixed that typo for you.