Sharpening stones are important to creating the sharp edge of your chef’s knife. Suppose you are new to this topic, then here are some essentials to look and understand it clearly.
- Oil stones – It is one kind of stone that is regularly found in back shed or in hardware store. They generally tend to be coarse sharpening stone though in some countries finer grades of the oilstones are accessible.
- Diamond stones or diamond plates – The diamond sharpening stones have become quite popular due to their capability of cutting fast. We generally tend not to suggest diamond sharpening stones or plates because there can be huge damage done quickly. Diamonds are very sharp and leave very deep scratches in its blade that have to get polished very aggressively. The diamond stones are used with and without lubricant.
- Natural stones – The natural stones were used once in abundance in Europe and Japan. They are the earliest type of the sharpening stones; sadly most of these mines are now closed in Japan. Sharpening on the good quality of natural stone is the real joy, there is ethereal satisfaction when using ancient to create a sharp edge on your modern knife. The natural stones have a random grit size, which gives the long-lasting edge. Generally, random grits make different sizes of the micro-serration in your blade, which wears down at a different rate, thus, longer edge retention. No matter whether it is true or not we like natural stone, particularly for the sharpening tradition Japanese knives.
- Ceramic sharpening stones – The ceramic sharpening stones actually were early replacement for the natural stones. Unluckily, there are vast differences in quality of the ceramic stones so you need to be careful. Some are very soft and dish out quickly and some are very hard they generally tend to glaze in a hurry. The ceramic stones require the good soaking for over 10 and more minutes and saturate pores of this stone before use.
- Synthetic sharpening stones – We have seen that synthetic water stones are actually becoming very popular. The synthetic sharpening stones generally are made from white fused grit that gets suspended in resin. And some synthetics need the brief soaking of water before use whereas others only need splash of water and are very good to go. Also, there are various stones in the category that depends on whether you want the soft or firm feel.
Make Sure You Use Right tools
There is the vast difference in quality of the sharpening stones in the market. Only because he sharpening stone gets stamped with a name of the famous brand it does not mean it can live up to your knives quality.
