Need your recommendation for a couple "water" stones

[Richard Verwoest]

What about the Ohishi stones carried by LN? Any thoughts or comments?

[Derek Cohen]

So it sounds like the recommendations so far are:
Sigma II
Imanishi
Shapton
Spyderco

Price wise - they all look about the same....

I am really curious about the reputation of the Sigma II as a really fast cutting stone... Does it really cut a lot faster than the others listed? Is there a good reason I should look at one of the others over that other than dishing faster?

John, I have sets of the Sigma, Shapton and Spyderco stones. The Sigma and Shapton are similar in hardness, while the Sigma are better/faster at cutting steels such as M2 and PM-V11. Spyderco cut these steels as well, but not as fast. However they are the hardest stones of all and will take pressure from a narrow blade without leaving any grooves. The others will gouge.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Patrick Chase]

I am really curious about the reputation of the Sigma II as a really fast cutting stone... Does it really cut a lot faster than the others listed? Is there a good reason I should look at one of the others over that other than dishing faster?

To be clear I would recommend Sigma Power rather than Select II based on what you've said so far. The Select IIs are softer than any of the other stones you list. Whether that makes them faster depends on the steel, and specifically whether it dulls the abrasive particles of harder/slower stones. For HSS or Stainless the Select IIs are much faster than than any other waterstone I've used. On HCS/W1/O1, the difference is much smaller as the abrasive remains sharp for a long time, and doesn't need to be released. In cases like that you'd just be flushing perfectly good abrasive down the sink with the Select II.

One other option is to choose a harder stone, but use a Nagura or diamond plate to frequently remove dull abrasive when working difficult steel. I sometimes do that with my Shaptons and my Sigma Power 1000 Hard (a very hard stone). From an economic perspective that's arguably the best of all worlds, as it's fast on difficult steel but doesn't needlessly shed abrasive with easier steels.

John, I have sets of the Sigma, Shapton and Spyderco stones. The Sigma and Shapton are similar in hardness, while the Sigma are better/faster at cutting steels such as M2 and PM-V11. Spyderco cut these steels as well, but not as fast. However they are the hardest stones of all and will take pressure from a narrow blade without leaving any grooves. The others will gouge.

This is an accurate description of the Sigma Power stones IMO. The Select IIs are a different and much softer beast.

[bridger berdel]

Nobody has recommended a $300 stone in this thread. The highest I've seen from anybody is about $100.

You missed the /s