Shaptons Pond of Sharpness

Hi there,

Sharpening knives is messy, I use a lot of water and it isn't exactly clean water, not the gritty water that is produced from the process of sharpening. Although the Shapton Pond is  expensive
($300 Cdn) I finally pulled the trigger and ordered it. It has solved my messy water issues, it's an extremely sturdy platform and holds a large volume of water.
The stone holder which in this case is also made by Shapton doesn't move around much at all, sometimes on a coarse stone it will slip a little but that's only if I am pushing hard and in fact, it is good indication (when the stone holder does move that is) that I am using too much pressure and I ease off a little.

The large stone in the picture is the Imanishi 220, I already have the Naniwa 220 and it was interesting comparing the two. After several knives on both there is clear winner. The Naniwa is superior stone in many ways.

The Imanishi has good points, the Burr formation is rapid as it is on the Naniwa and it excels at repairs and bevel resetting but the water management is an issue for me. The stone is like a filter and the water just pours through it almost as fast as you can put it on. It remains on the surface of the Naniwa for quite a bit longer and for that reason is much easier to use.
In fact, I put the Imanishi up for sale, I can't see myself using it. Now if I didn't have the Naniwa I would keep it for sure, it really does the job well.

Speaking of sharpness:


I am frequently surprised by people who give me some knives but hold a few back because in their mind it is sharp enough, or "it is only a year old so this one doesn't need to be sharpened"

I don't think this is a matter of them not wanting to pay to have it sharpened, I think it is a case of folks just not really knowing what a truly sharp knife is like. I can remember when I first started sharpening professionally how startled I was at times by the edges on knives that I had just done on the Edge Pro, then later on I was able to create similar edges by freehand sharpening.

A lot of people, most in fact have never experienced that level of sharpness and I know you all know what I mean. For those of you who sharpen you know that the edge attainable is quite something and while there are many different levels of sharpness, you can get to a level well beyond the factory edge on just one stone.  

For those waiting for some new videos, I have decided to wait until I get an actually video camera which shouldn't be too long. I have been looking around and now that I have done some research I am completely convinced that the video quality will be much improved and that is important to me.

I've seen a lot of sub par videos and it turns me off, despite the quality of the sharpening. I am not saying that the video I made is award winning or anything but I know I can do better.

Please have patience

Peter