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BTW, I've also been experimenting with mounting DMT Diasharp 6" diamond stones on EdgePro stone blanks. My initial results have been very encouraging. I completely rebevelled a couple of profoundly dull 10" German chef's knives with my DMT Xtra-Coarse & Coarse stones, and each took only 2 or 3 minutes!
Thanks for the link turkey. The Razor Edge System looks like a nice guide. I bet it does work good. But I'd still have the expense of the waterstones that I want to go with.
I've never sharpened knives before but have been considering giving it a try, and the Razor Edge system seems pretty affordable. Would you recommend this Razor Edge kit for sharpening kitchen knives, e.g., santokus and chef's knives?
The Razor Edge system is pretty good, but not as versatile as the Edge Pro. You're basically stuck with the angles that you have guide for which is limiting. Personally I think
waterstones are superior for the higher end of sharpening but obviously people have achieved good results with lots of different types of abrasives. Nothing that I know of, save powered equipment (eg belt grinder, Tormek), cuts as fast as a synthetic waterstone. Even the coarses diamond plates can't touch them. The price to be paid is a need to flatten- a waterstone will dish faster than a typical oil stone. The speed combined with the wide range of grits (from 70 grit on the low end to 30,000 on the high end) makes synthetic waterstones hard to beat.
No need for waterstones. The hones that Razor Edge sells will do a better job.I find the Razor Edge coarse stones are pretty hard to beat. You use that to bring up the burr, then switch to a very fine stone to polish the edge.You'd be surprised how easy it is to get a good edge once you know the secret. You really don't need fancy equipment to do it either.I might choose Japanese waterstones for sharpening Japanese woodworking tools. I don't think I'd use them for anything else though.
However, I do want to bring the edge, on my new Gyuto, to a higher polished edge and I'd like to do so in incremental steps to take full advantage of the higher stones. I'm not going to move from a 1500 to an 8,000. Excess? Yes. Too much money? Yes. Like I said, I wouldn't argue with you that a person can't achieve a more than adequate edge going freehand (with good technique) and a couple of low cost stones. But, like I said, the new kitchen knife I just bought was a bit "excess". It's crafted using high carbon steel from a fifth generation Japanese knife maker.
Nuts. You can move the guide on the blade to give varied angles. Besides that, the angle is not terribly important for a knife (pocket, hunting, kitchen, etc.) other than you want a low angle when using the coarse stone and a higher angle when using the fine stone.
If you really need to remove a lot of material, go with powered equipment. However, unless you're using your knives to pry open shipping crates or something, you don't need to remove that much stock when sharpening.As for the wide range of grits, that's absolutely meaningless. You need a very coarse stone and a very fine stone. All the stuff in the middle will just waste your time (and money).