Naniwa "Super Stone" Extra Fine 500 Grit Japanese Whetstone Sharpening Stone, WITHOUT Stand, 21cmx7cm surface (8.25"x2.75").
If you want a REALLY polished and fine edge (and that certainly does seem to be the trend these days, especially among Japanese knife owners), then the 5000 is a great choice to finish your knife edge. It's also pretty far from the 1000 that many people start with, so this way you can purchase just a 1000 and a 5000 and you'll be pretty much set for most regular knife care.
This extra fine stone is just the ticket for finishing off your edge, or for regular maintenance. This is the smoothest most people will ever need to use, especially for German knives or any knife with standard steel.
I searched for YEARS to find stones like this. Most I found were either poor quality (bad finish, not flat & smooth) or WAY too expensive (come on, it's a sharpening STONE, not precious metal!). These are high-end stones (near the very top of the many lines Naniwa makes), and individually boxed (nice boxes -- they make nice gifts). I also spent a little extra money on these to get them a full 2cm (nearly an inch) thick, since many of the cheaper stones you'll find people importing are just 1cm thick and so can wear down after a few years of use, or worse, can crack more easily since there's just not enough strength in the thin material. The ceramic compounds used to manufacture these is also of very high quality, and so they strike a great balance between ability to cut a nice edge without too much work and still being very long-lasting and strong. These are truly excellent sharpening stones, suitable for any serious hobbyist, pro, chef, wood-worker or outdoorsman. Note the nice large size too -- most other cheaper stones you'll see around shops or mail order in North America are smaller and so are more difficult to work with (and will wear out more quickly), especially with kitchen knives where it's nice to have the extra surface area when sharpening a santoku or chef's knife. Made in Japan.
These stones are made by the Resin Bond method, which yields a higher quality stone than the old baked method used with cheaper stones, and it offers 90% of the performance of the MUCH more expensive and fragile Magnesia method stones. Also, a great benefit of this method is that the stones do NOT require soaking in water prior to use (in fact they should NOT be soaked). A quick spray or splash of water is all that is needed and you're ready to go.
Click here for a multi-lingual brochure (scroll down for English) by Naniwa explaining the use of a Japanese whetstone.
Chef K.C. Ma (a professional chef who has worked in some of the top restaurants in North America) had this to say about the Naniwa, and the 5000 stone in particular:
"This is my favorite polishing stone :) it does amazing things. I think it's great that you carry it, and I think your customers [...] will really appreciate this. As for maximizing the Naniwa Super Stones at 3k+ for final sharpening/polishing, my trick is to soak the stone a bit, it works without soaking, but i think all polishing stones benefit and sharpen better when slightly soaked. I rinse mine wet, and then cover it with wet paper towel until I'm ready. The Super Stone, like natural stones and some other finishing stones has a range, not just a fixed grit. While the abrasive is uniform, its behavior changes. After soaking, I will flatten the surface with a small diamond plate (8k), then i sharpen on the mud from the stone. As I sharpen, the stone dries up a bit, the intuition is to splash more water and rinse off the mud; don't. Keep working the mud until it's almost 'pastey', at this point the stone will take on a property finer than the grit rating given to it. 5k stone easily polishes to 6-7k range, and 10k stone poishes to 12k+ range. Sharpen until it's almost dry, then add just enough water, a splash or 2 to get it moving again. These stones are especially appreciated on katsumi style [damascus] knives. Without using the mud to push its ability, most stones will give you even polish, blurring the 2 different steels. But Naniwa is a very easy stone to use in that regard: its mud is easy to work with, and when used carefully, it creates the most distinctive layer of 2 steels on katsumi [damascus] knives of all synthetic polishing stones and gives my knives the best edge." |
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