A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing Sharpening Grits

[@senthemink]

I can see myself changing this up down the line, but for most knives I'll use a dmt magnaguide system with the extra course, coarse, and fine sides before moving onto shapton korumaku 1000, 2000, and 5000, and deburring on the shapton glass 6000 before stropping. Some knives don't work with the magnaguide, so for those I use the atoma 140 diamond plate, and then dmt extra course, course, and fine diamond plates and continue as normal from there.

[@einundsiebenziger5488]

400, 1000, 3000 are exactly the grits I use to get a knife from really dull to razor sharp (starting at 220 on knives with a damaged edge). That's perfectly sufficient for any kind of kitchen work. I take a 6000 stone for a meat slicer used for cutting super fine slices of high-quality proteins. Any finer grit I call "cocaine stones" because they don't get your knife any sharper, but just make the edge a little shinier and satisfy those who are addicted to sharpening and enjoy it more than using their knives for actual cutting.

[@veetour]

Thanks. Very helpful video.

[@SharpeningSupplies]

You're welcome! Glad you found it useful.

[@craig1825]

At what point would you decide to thin your blade back?. If you sharpen at 15 degrees what angle would you use to thin the blade? Thank you

[@SharpeningSupplies]

When to thin is very subjective. Some folks will thin a new knife, others will never thin a knife. If you're sharpening your knife and getting a good edge, but you feel that the actual in-use cutting performance isn't as good as you'd like, it might be time to thin. As I said, this is a more "advanced" sharpening technique, due to how subjective it is. As to the angle, you've got two main options. The first is to thin the entire knife. Just lay it flat on the stone and go to work. The other option would be to get everything set up for your usual 15-degree sharpening and then back off a little so the edge isn't touching the stone and you're just grinding the shoulder of the bevel.

[@craig1825]

Thank you

[@ahmedejaz1125]

I would say when the bevel gets about 2mm wide then kitchen knives should be thinned, for pocket knives it depends on the use case

[@einundsiebenziger5488]

@@SharpeningSupplies ... too* thin is subjective

[@EtEn247]

Should I always start at a coarse stone like 320 even if my knife is still fairly sharp?

[@SharpeningSupplies]

No, with experience you can begin to judge what a good starting grit for the condition of your edges is. For most beginners, their knives are going to be pretty blunt, so 220 is where we recommend they begin.

[@einundsiebenziger5488]

320 is too coarse for a "fairly sharp" knife, 1000 grit would be better. 320 is good to start for a really dull knife.

[@davidselby3909]

Hi, I am a butcher what angle do you recommend for a boneing knife because I am having trouble sharpening my knife.

[@SharpeningSupplies]

Around 15 degrees per side is a good place to start for a boning knife. If it's getting damaged during use, you can raise that angle to 20 degrees per side. If 15 degrees holds up during use, you could try going lower.

[@einundsiebenziger5488]

... boning* knife

[@barashkaz]

Here's a possibly hot take: I use my 16k stone as a strop first .. and if my edge isn't perfect from that, has kinks, or leaves streaks on a leather strop, then I take it down to 2k. I haven't touched a lower grit since changing angles. Then 2k > 6k > 16k > leather strop. Honestly can skip 16k but where's the fun in that, though a strop is a must.

[@Montekos86]

What u mean changing angles? And which 16k stone you use?

[@barashkaz]

@@Montekos86 I use shapton glass 16k, but I got it on sale. "since changing angle" poor wording on my part .. when I need to change edge angle from 20 to 15 degrees, I would use 500 grit or so, or when putting new edge on knife, otherwise I rarely even touch 2k.