Originally Posted by
Andrew Pitonyak
Carefully consider why you need each stone. Maybe you do not need all of the stones when you begin. Are you starting with sharp blades?
I started with sandpaper on a flat plate (such as glass). Eventually, sandpaper gets expensive, but so are plates. I use a hollow grind, so I spend much more time on finer grits than with lower grits. I cannot comment on what you need if you use a flat bevel and do a full grind each time. Since you are talking about micro-bevels, perhaps you do need the coarser stones, but you could also do that with sand paper; or use sand paper for the higher grits.
Can you use a strop rather than the 16K stone? I like my 16K stone, just so we are clear, but, you might be able to make a strop for less than the 16K stone.
In the long run, the stones will cost you less money I think, but, if you want to try it out to see if it matters, you might find that for much of what you do, a 6K followed by a strop will work just fine.
Saying that, I have 2K, 4K, 5K, 6K, 8K, 16K, a bunch of diamond stones, Arkansas Stones, etc. I just gave away a 500 and a 1K since I pretty much never used them. They were fancy stones that worked well, I just don't like soaking my stones before I use them, which is why I use the Shapton stones. Spray and go! But that is what I like to do, no comment on what you will like and what will work for you.
My local woodcraft has a sharpening area setup where you can try some of their diamonds and sharpen something to try it out. Or they did last I checked, no idea if it is still there, but, nice to be able to give it a go to see what you think.