Let's talk about Waterstones

I'll give a more detailed overview about my Waterstone collection.

[@DutchBushcraftKnives]

Hey mate, My favourite 3 stone set up is the naniwa Chosera 400, 1000 and 3000 and finish with a loaded strop for hair popping results. These might not be big steps but the 400 is aggressive enough to reprofile a knife while being smooth enough to get rid of small rolls and chips. The 1000 is just such a comfortable stone. it still easily takes out the scratches from the 400 stone while leaving a nice silk finish. The 3000 stone is my favourite of them all. This stone is like skating on ice. 3000 grit might be on the bottom of polishing but this stone feels and acts almost like a 5k stone. personally I do love to finish with a shapton ha-no-kuromaku 5k stone for the nice mirror polish it leaves. The naniwa snow white is also a very comfortable stone. Mine is somehow cracked all over the place but that luckily doesn't hurt it's performance. I only use it for kitchen knives though. My VG-10 Deba with a chisel grind took a lovely 12k finish. It's my sharpest knife for sure. I just spend $100,- to get 2 DLT XL strops to the Netherlands. although they are cheap (not to ship + tax lol) I haven't found any better strops. Do you have a favourite strop? I now use a shapton ha-no-kuromaku 120 grit for reprofiling but I've been looking at the Arato-kun #220 as it is a lot thicker. Have you got any experience on that one? I can't even seem to find if it's a hard or soft stone. I need my stones to sharpen some high wear resistant steels so I'm trying to find out. Have you ever tried CBN compound? It should be a little less aggressive than diamond.I want to get some in 0.5 micron. Not for sharpening but for polishing the bevel. Bark river white compound still has a fine scratch pattern. You know I love a good mirror haha. Love these discussion/talking/geekout videos mate. My channel was intended to be like that but things went as they went and now we are what we are haha. Sorry for the long comment. Either way, my GF is getting pissed off right now so I have to go. Keep it up and thanks a lot! ATB, Maarten

[@FearNoSteel]

+Dutch Bushcraft Knives messaged you on your DBK Facebook account. We can talk better there brother

[@aluckybum]

Aw, I wanted to listen in on the answers to these questions....unless you just sent him dick pics...in which case, well played!

[@howardgreen9718]

Sean happy new year I hope you family had a great Christmas. I've been hanging for you to post I look forward to what you have in store for us.

[@FearNoSteel]

Howard green Thanks man, there is a lot to share this year, glad you're on board

[@swiggamortis5521]

Thanks, currently looking into purchasing my first stones.

[@FearNoSteel]

Sintered SiC stones are only for coarse work and are considered synthetic oilstones. If you want polish you want Waterstones

[@rsrrock]

Very helpful my mans.

[@profesorEDC]

Awesome vid man!

[@opticwiddly5263]

Thank you sir late to the party but happy to be helped. 💎🙌❤️🗡️⚔️💈

[@EdgeMasterPro]

I splurged on the naniwa diamond resin stones. Great for super steals. They do load but I think they cut stainless and super steals at a good pace. No idea how long they will last but don’t fish extremely hard wearing.

[@michaelshults7675]

BBB - I need your advice. I like setting my straight razors bevels on a 2k, if it's decently fast and fine enough. I will use a Shapton 500 if I have any major chips or pitting on older razors. I bought a Shapton pro/Kuromaku 2k and I don't like it, because they scratch pretty deep, and by the time I get to my finishing stone those 2k Shapton pro scratches stand out like a sore thumb. The bench mark bevel setter usally for the razor guys is a Nan/pro/1k, and the reason I bought the SP/2k is because on some of the forums they said the SP/2k was about equal to the Nan/pro/1k as far as finish, and of course it was cheaper than the Nan/pro . Anyways I didn't care for it at all. So now I may try the Nan/pro/2k.. Do you have any experience with the Chosera/Nan/2k? If so does it finish finer than the SP/2k? One thing that is holding me back is they are known to crack. I live in a relatively dry climate, here in Tennessee, so I don't know if that's better or worse Anyways have you had any crazing with your Chosera stones, over the last 3-4 years? Some say soak for 5min and others say no soaking, but just spray the stone until I quits drinking. I get mixed results from different users on the Chosera/Nan, some craze and some have never ever had a problem.. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! ---Mike

[@jasonedwardledburynewzeala9897]

What is your naniwa 600? Do you have a link? Looks fantastic. I was thinking of getting chosera 600

[@Wolf_K]

FYI for all: Chosera stones are still Chosera and they’re still made and sold at 25mm thick with the plastic base, they just don’t export them. You can get them by ordering direct from japan. The professional line are export only and not available in Japan. They seem to be the same stone, just thinner with no base.

[@andrewthompson2536]

Where can you get the specialty clay stones you were talking about?

[@vasilralev3921]

Where I can get the Naniwa bricks you are showing at 2:20 min? I am very interested in owning stones, sharpening and cutting meat. 10x

[@olgadachdecker7754]

Do you think waterstones have any advantages to silicone carbide stones other than the polishing capability? I have a setup of 2 different grit SiC stones and 1 ceramic stone. They cost 25$ combined. I'm able to completely reprofile any knife and bring it to cut free hanging hair after stropping on chromium oxide. I often considered buying some waterstones but can't bring myself to buy a setup that's 6-7x more expensive just for the nice polish.

[@vicv071122]

I love my watersones but honestly I usually use a $2 silicon carbide coarse/fine stone I purchased at a chinese grocery store. Actually I bought 5 of them. One is in my tackle box. One in shop. One in kitchen. Ect. cuts metal fast and gives me a great toothy edge. The japanese water stones I consider a luxury item. Are they necessary? No. are they nice to have? Yes

[@TruckGuyHD92]

Looking for a set that will work for my higher super steels down to swiss army knife. Looking for something simple like splash and go or diamond. Dont need no mirror polish but want edge to last more that a week. I dont want to have to spend a bunch of time sharpening my knives. Own about 20 so worth spend some decent money but dont want to spend fortune. Thinking like a 400/1000 or maybe a 800/1500. I already have strop and some compound. Any suggestions?

[@CC-wolverine]

Have you used the Arkansas stones like soft/hard or black hard stones?

[@georgefrazier8404]

Big Brown Bear, Which 3 stones would you recommend for a 52100 steel? Would the Chosera 400,800 and 3000 be good or are they no good because of the corrosion factor of the 52100 steel? Just became a subscriber to your channel, a lot of good Videos here. Thank You.

[@SuperSteelSteve]

Chosera 400, 800 and 3k are great for ANYTHING lol. 52100 is a fantastic steel to sharpen. King stones will cut it no problem. Its a simple carbon steel so your gonna be able to get it sharp with a brick lol

[@egmluvr]

I’m assuming that white speckled yellow/brown stone is the Latte 400? What is the 1200 white one?

[@GregAspenson]

At 1:45 is that a Naniwa Lobster 600? Do you flatten your stone before every use? (sorry I'm asking 20 questions here). I tried to not flatten and use all areas of the stone but it always dishes somewhere no matter what, if anything I need to flatten the edges as those seem to always need it.

[@FearNoSteel]

Greg Aspenson no, it's part of a line that is not marketed to the west. I flatten stones before and after but it just depends.

[@GregAspenson]

I was looking into the Harbor Freight belt sander as an option. What grit(s) do you use before moving on to your Whetstone's?

[@FearNoSteel]

Greg Aspenson the coarsest possible, it's very easy though to ruin your knife though if you do not have experience

[@user-xf4es7eh9y]

using correct abrasive smaller than the smallest carbides makes the edge less likely to fail. some say for slice cutting courser edges will last a little bit longer, with the caveat that they're worse at initiating the cut aka ush cutting, but higher grit has benefits in corrosion resistance but more critically in toughness. not to mention it's no brain for burr removal and acute apex. Finer grits give a smaller apex and also polish off any burr. after a certain point you're not making any real burr. which is why for me finishing stones are under rated. and I have no issue owning tons of them. based on what finish I want on any given edge.

[@Jellooze]

For a yanagiba (aogami) and a santoku (powder steel) both 60+ HRC, would a 2000 grit, 8000 grit set of stones work for someone that want to start to sharpen his own knives?

[@FearNoSteel]

Leone Yes, it's all technique

[@Jellooze]

Thanks for the answer, if you dont mind, could you explain what you mean with technique?

[@FearNoSteel]

Leone hold a consistent angle, make a burr, remove the burr. it sounds simple but the proper execution takes practice. much more important then any fancy syones

[@Jellooze]

Big thanks, just purchased the stones :D

[@FearNoSteel]

Leone have fun man, remember there is a million ways to sharpen. check out different styles and only use what gives you results in the least amount of time

[@american1911]

Question, where can I buy the Keyoto 400?

[@aluckybum]

Ok, this was helpful. I bought 4 of the DMT diamond stones when they were on sale for $50 if I got 4 of them. While I'm sure I will use them on my first s110v or s90v blades, they are leaving a harder finish on my 20cv benchmade than I want. I'm only using the course and extra fine for the knife and not all 4 stones, I'm pretty sure it would just grind the knife into a pulp. I'm thinking of getting some New Choseras that can cut the super steals if I need to, but leave a cleaner edge on "normal" knives. Is this correct, or am I'm just bad at sharpening and I should be able to get a cleaner edge out of my DMTs? Also, if I do get the choseras, I'm thinking the 1000 grit and 3000 grit. Thoughts?

[@FearNoSteel]

Ill do a video soon

[@tayloralbrecht8362]

Where do you get that magnetic stop?

[@FearNoSteel]

portlandknifehouse

[@jacobcolwell3450]

I'm thinking about buying three water stones, do you think 400,800, 3000 is a good combination

[@FearNoSteel]

yes sir

[@jacobcolwell3450]

Big Brown Bear I cut meat for a living I'm a butcher, and I cut a lot of cardboard boxes, will those stone leave the edge with bite? I've only ever used diamonds so idk what to expect

[@FearNoSteel]

no, more polish even at 400 grit. More push cuts, more precision, less wear on your knives.

[@FearNoSteel]

just buy one for now, just get the 400

[@dimmacommunication]

1:42 how is that naniwa 600 called ? it's huge damn

[@tinman1955]

Ever use natural stones? I'm no expert but for finishing stones I get better results with Arkansas stones than with synthetics.

[@FearNoSteel]

Nah, they don't cut very well, they seem like they just burnish rather then abrade. They lack the horsepower I need for high performance steels and Heat treats.

[@rahager2u]

talk people who have children, what is the best stones

[@TheDuckofDoom.]

I've always felt it strange that (on high W and V carbide steels) people go for diamond at the coarse end then switch to AlOx for the fine finish. When coarse AlOx or SC in the right binder will hog out any steel at any hardness for basic bevel shape, but it is at the fine end where you need to cut the carbides. (mostly for the audience, BBB likely knows the following) AlOx and SC are somewhat harder than most carbides, it's mainly W and V that will be trouble. from hardest to softest [if memory serves] SC, VC, AlOx, WC. Yes strictly speaking AlOx is harder than WC but only by a hair, not enough to be practically useful, SC is harder than all but again just barely above VC and still a bit slow on WC due to the fracturing nature of SC. Now all carbides are harder than tempered martensite [quenched steel matrix], so if you don't have access to fancy bonded diamond/cbn (a series of diamond /cbn loaded strops may be adequate in some cases) then consider buying high carbide steels without V and W. Iron carbides are collectivly labeled cementite, one of the softer carbides but makes up for it in shear quantity.(and still much harder than martensite) chromium carbide is fairly hard, though chromium is associated with loss of toughness it also brings corrosion resistance when not bound as carbide.

[@TheDuckofDoom.]

Update my carbide hardness rank was remembered wrong, that SC VC AlOx WC rank actually applies to Fe-Mo-W and Cr-V complex carbides not straight VC and WC. Straight VC is harder than SC and Straight WC equal to SC all three are harder than AlOx.

[@user-xf4es7eh9y]

@@TheDuckofDoom. some will use the alumina stones on vanadium steels to get a so called "carbide rich edge" but you need correct technique or else you're likely to crack and damage carbides imo. i think this is what forum bros calls "carbide tear out" maybe. also yes for sure if you cut with an abrasive that finer than the finest carbides in the steel, this makes the edge less likely to chip. its mostly just that an abrasive course than the carbides makes it more likely to chip rather than finer abrasives having some magic. it's not. it's just lack of downside for that.

[@dimmacommunication]

3:50 what are those stones tho?

[@garyselhorst9989]

hey Big Brown, your videos are great, i do knife sharpening and knife making just for fun, that's how i found you in the first place, anyway, i want to ask you a serious question, "" i know for sure that you used to be on KZbin as the same person with the same videos, but you used the name ""Big Brown Guy"" i saw it many times until it changed about somewhere between August and November (2017) do you know about this ?? i am not trying to bother you in any way, i am serious, and i have some evidence, which is other You Tube knife people with channels, talking about you and your videos, and all of them call you correctly ""BIG BROWN GUY"" none of them call you "Big Brown Bear" i want to ask you politely if you have anything to say about this or if you think it is true?? Did you change your KZbin name? And you didn't have the cartoon bear on your channel until recently, When you did a video about using just one sharpening stone only, another KZbin channel named Jef Jewell did a response video based on your question of using just one stone, and in the video he calls you Big Brown Guy" also if you search KZbin for "Big Brown Guy" your results show up first ahead of anything else. i have heard you call and introduce yourself on many of your videos as "Big Brown Guy" If you just changed your name, then i'm mistaken, if you didn't change your KZbin name, then this is a alternate reality world event, because i know without question that you used to call yourself "Big Brown Guy" i am just curious about this because i know what i saw a few months ago, for sure. goodnight...

[@latro_8078]

gary selhorst he changed the name. saw it in the comments for a video where he split a huge log with an axe.