Coarse Stones - The Pressure is on

Hi,

As I continue to sharpen 10 hours a day which is about 40 knives or so I again come to realize just how important the coarse water stone is.

Naniwa Chosera 400

Now the Chosera 400 here is definitely my favourite stone in the coarse range and one of my all time favourites.

With this one stone and with a variance in pressure I ( and you) can change a knife from being dull, very very dull to extremely sharp, just this one stone. The key to a successful edge and I mean an edge that will startle you is the coarse stone.

Here is what I do:

If sharpening pressure is measure on a scale from 1 to 5 with 5 being the most pressure, I use this measurement constantly. If the knife is exceptionally dull, as most are....let me clarify this.

In my opinion if a knife is not extremely sharp it is dull, there are just a lot of different levels of dullness and many of those levels represent knives that are still fully acceptable to use. For example, a new knife, Out of the Box Dull, let's face it some are just not that sharp when new but it can still be used of course. Then there are the knives that are so dull a child could play with it.

So if I am starting a knife that is really dull I will use level 5 pressure on the coarse stone. The stone and me are working together, I am not letting the stone do all the work, not until the burr is formed.
So max pressure to get that burr formed on both sides. After that, and still on the 400, I reduce the pressure until eventually I am at level 1 pressure (weight of the blade only).

If I am spending 15 minutes on a knife, 10 of that is on this stone. I make the knife as sharp as possible and my last strokes are stropping/trailing strokes with absolutely no pressure.  THINK of this stone as three stones in one. The first one at max pressure does all the heavy lifting with your help and it is using all of that 400 coarse goodness. The next stage, after burr formation is with level 3 or 2 pressure only and it is a refinement and burr removal stage, it is getting that edge sharper and sharper and finally the last stage is just a stropping motion with zero pressure..


I absolutely love the stone and it critical to my sharpening regime.

Again the key is patience and variances in pressure on the stone, don't move to another one until that knife has a terrific edge, in fact, it's and edge you would be happy to use in the kitchen, we just want to polish it a little bit more.


I often jump to the 2k Naniwa Atoshi from this stone, the results are always awesome.


Here are some pictures of recent work.

Spyderco Delica in VG 10

Not sure of the brand but amazing knife.

Before and After tip . I ruined his screwdrivers.