What are your go-to sharpening stones?

[Mike Holbrook]

I have/had a couple old Shapton Pros, bought 30 years ago. I had two a 2000 and 8000. One of my dogs knocked the 8000 off the counter, in the plastic container, and it broke. I would have bought a 1000 Shapton but at that time they were not available. Then I bought a set of Sigma Power Select II stones (3000, 6000, 10,000) from Stu, filling in around the remaining Shapton. I was never happy with the coarse stone in terms of speed. At Stu's suggestion I finally bought a big Sigma Power, 3F Carbon 700. Still not happy on the fast end I bought a Sigma Power 120. I never was happy when I needed to remove larger amounts of steel to repair a bevel/edge...My latest investment has been CBN wheels, which I love. Now I can grind away some steel.

I got interested in working green wood, which requires the use of some harder to sharpen curved blades. I was also planing to take several classes and wanted reliable portable sharpening that did not require water. I bought a couple Eze Lap diamond plates 2x6", double sided 400/1200 and a 600. I had been using Spyderco medium & fine stones for 35 or so years in my kitchen and liked them. George made his post about using Spyderco medium & UF stones about then. My big Sigma stones are too big & heavy & fragile to fit into my moving sharpening system so I bought the two very hard, smaller Spydercos 2x8", Medium & UF. Now my Diamond plates and Spydercos fit into my Festool Sortainer on a Festool Sys-Roll which can hold just about anything I need to travel and work. I also put a 2x6" piece of MDF & diamond paste in the Sortainer, just in case I need something super sharp. Now I have a mobile station I can move between the two buildings I work at, home & work, on 12 acres. If I want to go to a class I have most of what I need ready to go. The Sys-Roll can move around my shop and basement as needed too. I bought two round EZ-Lap rods coated in diamonds for sharpening the curved blades. I have a medium and UF ceramic rod too. These can go in a Systainer if I travel along with my rasps, chisels... that I have in roll up nylon holders.

I found in my first big green wood class that it is hard to work with dull green tools, especially with as much wood as gets worked to make a chair. I did not want to rely on the instructors good graces to keep my tools sharp. Instructors in those classes are very busy. Now that I have a mobile sharpening system that can handle practically any tool, except for grinding, I do not typically use water stones. It is just faster to use my mobile/dry sharpening system. The small EZ-Lap plates are very reasonable on Amazon as are the Spydercos. After 35 years using Spyderco stones I doubt I will ever have to replace a Spyderco stone, they just about can't be worn out. I doubt I will even need to flatten the Spydercos. If I have to flatten a Spyderco I have the diamond plates, which I suspect are the only thing that will cut them. There is a very long post discussing Spyderco stones that our own George started which covers just about any & everything about these stones and how they work well with a diamond plate system.

[john zulu]

John,

I often see 1k as the coarse stone. What made you choose 2k?

I bought it as I have a King 800 waterstone. After using 2k I would say that it is good enough for sharpening a dull knife with a slight burr. But with ding the blade using 1k as it would be faster. Looking back go for the 1k stone as you will not go wrong with it. The 5k or 8k is good enough for me.