A basic stone doesn't cost hundreds of dollars. There's a king 1000 on Amazon that costs £19.31 delivered. Then strop on a leather belt (something a large majority of men own already). How is that wasting hundreds of dollars?
Just started sharpening, but the King Home stone K-45 for $11 on Amazon or a bit more on eBay/ MTC kitchen was a pleasure to use (previously screwed up knives with cheap natural stones). If you’re getting carbon clad, it’s worth it IMO. Got my German steel knife a lot sharper in less than 15 minutes as a newbie.
Western style knife or western style handle? JP chef knives are less tall than western chef knifes. Enough for finger clearance but might not be what you’re looking for.
VG10 is stainless, I think, or stain résistant. Are you looking for carbon or stainless?
Tojiro has a Carbon line that uses shirogami #2 (AKA white steel #2), kanetsune uses takefu shiro #2 (a slightly lower spec version of shirogami #2). Both have versions which are clad with stainless.
Both brands are around $30-50. There are better ones, I’m sure, but that was the price range I was looking at for myself. Lemme know if you want the model numbers, I’ve got them in my browser history somewhere.
I just have a lowly $15 1000 grit stone that works well for my crappy Chicago Cutlery (I know, terrible brand) knives that I immediately wash and dry and put into a knife holder. Even before I sharpened the knives I always kept them in a holder and 3-5 minutes on a 1000 grit is enough to get them to cutting tomatoes like butter. I'm not really interested in knives as a hobby, I just want the cheapest good thing that works. But I'll definitely upgrade to something in the $30 tier just because I know my full bolster knives aren't going to last forever.
yeah its actually pretty fun to do yourself. Also, a lot of knife sharpening services require a minimum number to sharpen, so you'd have to have 5 done at the same time at $1+ an inch. I started with this one and it works well. http://www.amazon.com/King-1000-Grit-Whetstone-Plastic/dp/B000OT1ZOC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1441729494&sr=8-7&keywords=whetstone
I am happy with this stone.. It is big enough...about 7 1/2" to easily sharpen a kitchen chef knife.
I am not a fanatic. There is nothing better than 3 stones and a strop. But, I get a very good working edge in a couple of minutes with just this one synthetic stone. I have the Lansky system and ceramic sticks, but in my opinion they are fiddly and slow.
This one medium grit stone is simple, cheap, easy and fast.
https://www.knifeplanet.net/knife-sharpening-school-online-course/
This is a pretty good primer about the technique and stuff. I just got a 1000 grit stone from amazon and tried it with a bunch of different cheap knives I had laying around. It's all technique and learning to feel the burr on the edge.
This is the stone I used too - https://www.amazon.com/King-1000-Grit-Whetstone-Plastic/dp/B000OT1ZOC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1523892968&sr=8-2&keywords=king+1000+grit
Hm.. seems like the shipping puts a damper on it. It's around $40, and at that point, it may be worth it to upgrade to a better one.
try
Amazon, $16, depends on shipping price. https://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Deluxe-K-45-K45-Whetstone/dp/B000OT1ZOC/
or eBay, $30 including shipping: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Whetstone-Waterstone-Arrotino-KING-K-45-1000-Toishi-Temperino-Giappone/274428512767
king 1k is $13 on amazon https://www.amazon.com/King-1000-Grit-Whetstone-Plastic/dp/B000OT1ZOC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1515990665&sr=8-3&keywords=king+waterstone Thats less than half the price of a shapton
looking to buy a budget medium grit stone, as a start for me. A couple I saw reccomended looking through old posts where the king 1000 though it is not the deluxe, so maybe that changed the reccomendation, and this suehiro stone. Are either of these good bets? What one would you suggest, if not these, do you have a different suggestion? thanks
if you're willing to put in the time, a reasonable King stone, a cheap flattening stone, a strop, and compound for the strop, you'll get a good as an edge as any sharpening system.
Here's my suggestions
king 1000 or king 1000/6000 (takes a bit less motor finesse for a hair popping edge)
if you need any further help with anything sharpening related definitely ask away!
Victorinox makes booth a grooved and smooth hone. A grooved hone won't be any different than yours and a smooth hone just realigns a deformed edge. Here's Alton Brown explaining it, but he's not entirely correct because the steel he is using is also removing a small amount of material.
If I'm correct and the problem is that your current hone has removed some material in the wrong places, you should be able to fix it with the same hone just by consistently holding the right angle which should be 14˚ for a Wusthof. Remember, that's the edge angle and not the included angle. This will probably take a while though 30 seconds on a cheap whetstone would accomplish the same task.
Even proper honing on a smooth steel eventually requires sharpening. Honing where the steel is just realigning eventually develops fatigue in the metal which then needs to be removed.