Show me your sharpening setup

Hi all.

I like to watch pictures of others knives, stones etc so I though that we can share some pictures.

My sharpening kit.

From top left to right:
DMT X-Coarse
Atoma 140
JNS 300
Beston 500
JNS 800
JNS 1000
JNS 6000
Shapton Pro 8000

From bottom left:

White binsui
Red Aoto
Oohira Tomae lvl 4
Mysterious stone
Small ebisu
Small Hakka
Asano tenju nagura
Asano botan nagura
Big uchimogori stone
Finger stones

 

Very nice!!

My sharpening kit is anemic in comparison lol...and consists of a full set of DMT plates (XXC to XXF), a King 1000, and a King 6000. From there I have a home made set of balsa strops loaded with 6, 3, 1, and .5 micron diamond sprays. After that it's clean hard felt.

Polishing for me is a different process...and almost entirely performed with Rhynowet abrasive paper. My last pass is finger applied with a nugui paste I made from 30 micron red iron oxide, and home made choji oil.

 

Some pictures of my setup.


Home made kitchen sink bridge for 1$. Gets the job done.


My storage solution. The size of container is smaller then stone size on purpose, to keep airflow from all sides, so that I could safely store wet stones right after using them. So far works good.


Left column: JNS synthetic Red Aoto, JCK 6k, Takashima Awasedo.
On the right: Chosera 1k, Gesshin 2k, JNS 300, Atoma 140 and small hakka which I bough only to qualify for free JNS shipping

If I were to start from scratch, I wouldn't buy Takashima (because I don't need that refined edges on my knives), would replace Naniwa 1k with King 800 and probably wouldn't buy Red Aoto. All the stones works well, but I'd like to keep things minimal and right now there's a significant overlap.

 

Chosera 400, 1,000, 5,000.... leather strop (with a little "Flitz" worked into it)..... felt. Usually at a 70/30 right hand biased.

 

Nice rigs!

 

Here's mine:



This is a new one for me and I've really been liking it. I've always sharpened standing up, but since I'm on my feet all day, I figured I'd save my legs & feet what I can. And keep the kitchen cleaner... The seat is adjustable so I can get some nice height just as if I was standing. And it might be blasphemy for some, but I also like being able to put on a TV show or whatnot if I'm doing a lot of thinning.

Gesshin 400, JNS 800, Rika 5k in the bucket

Chosera 400 in the stone holder

JNS 300, Shapton GS 1k, Shapton Pro 2k, and JNS 6k down below.

 

I am cheap so far but really want to expand into a jnat setup. I currently have a jki 400 a jck 1000/4000 and a jck 6000 along with a jki diamond flattening plate and stone holder ....and jki bridge.

Maxims site confuses the heck out of me so I have no idea where to start my jnat journey.

 

My latest toy. Oohira Range Suita:

 

that stone is awesome.

 

J-nats

Synthetics About a dozen more stones at work.

 

That's a serious amount of stones!

 

That's a hell of a collection, Chuck! I don't want to take this thread off topic but what are your favorites so far?

 

I really like all the gesshins, shapton pro mid ranges, my rika 5k, beston 500, kitayama, naniwa super 10,000 and bester 1,200. Although it all depends on the knife. As for J-nats you can't go wrong with anything from JNS. Maxim will steer you in the right direction if your not sure whats right for you. I'm also a big fan of the chosera's but I don't like how they do better with a 15-20 min soak. I'd rather either keep them in water or have a straight up splash and go. Oh and the king 800 works great for contrast on kasumi knives but not so well as an actual sharpener.

 

I have enjoyed seeing all these great stones. However, most of my sharpening is done the lazy way... with the KMG. Using the VFD, I can run the belt extremely slowly. If the blade is in rough shape, I use a 220 grit J-weight belt to restore the bevel. Then I go to a 16x Norax. I finish on a strop charged with green chrome buffing compound. The belt puts a slightly convex edge which stands up pretty well in my kitchen.



I have a guide clamped near the top wheel. Using an angle gauge, I can quite precisely set the desired angle for the bevel.



I have a drawer full of stones, but they don't get much usage these days.

Maybe if I build a nice sink bridge. -Doug

 

The backyard setup
All are from JNS except the white Fujitora 8000 and the 2 x homemade stropping blocks.


Keep the stones in the dish rack so they can air/dry better. I have the sink bridge on the container cause I like the extra height, I'm over 6'1 and rather stand when sharpening.
If I'm at the kitchen sink I find it to low and kills the back.

 

Big Bertha sharpens knives & pencils too!

 

Dan, that is a monster To keep with the old style of the forge, I am hoping somewhere on the end of that is a large farm animal of some kind powering the thing via a complex system of wooden gears and pulleys!

 

Warren, I've got two terriers in a treadmill. I keep them hopped up on Haribo and flashing images of squirrels, cats and spiders (they really hate spiders!).

 

mmmm Hariboump
Terriers can be bonkers(in a good way!) without any help! That wheel must go like the clappers with the Haribo fueled terriers powering it

 

Dan is that a 4' wheel? Pretty sweet!