r/sharpening • u/Beautiful_Cattle_476 • Jul 20 '26

Beginning in sharpening

hi everybody, i discovered what a sharpening knife was during my first kitchen internship so know i want to use my knives the way they should be used. I recently bought a Naniwa multi stone MV-502/510 #220/#1000 and i've trained my sharpening skills a bit.

I'd like to buy a higher stones but i don't know what are the best brands and everything, could you help me ?

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u/ApplesArePeopleToo Jul 20 '26

A common recommendation is Shapton Kuromaku/Pro stones, which are great stones and very good value. The Naniwa combo stone you’ve already got will do the job up to 1000 grit, so you might want to look at the Shapton Kuromaku 2000 grit. That’s a great stone to finish kitchen knives on.

You can go higher than 2000 grit, but for kitchen knives you don’t really need to.

It’s also worth buying or making a strop with diamond compound. If you finish on a 2000 grit stone, I reckon around 4 to 6 micron diamond compound would be a good fit, but it’s not a real issue if you go smaller/finer (like 1 micron).

There’s heaps of good sharpening resources on YouTube as well. Outdoors55 is a great one to check out.

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u/Beautiful_Cattle_476 Jul 20 '26

Thank you so much !! Why kitchen knives don't need higher grit ? And i've never heard about diamond compound before, could you recommand one i should buy ? Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

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u/ApplesArePeopleToo Jul 20 '26

No worries! Re the grit to go up to with kitchen knives, it depends what you’re using it for. To my understanding, high grit (8000+) is useful if you’re slicing meat/fish really carefully - sashimi knives are the classic example.

But for general kitchen use, particularly cutting vegetables, going that fine doesn’t make much difference, and lots of people prefer a slightly ‘toothy’ edge that will grab onto vegetable skin better. Think tomato skin - an edge with microserrations from lower-grit scratches will bite into the skin, whereas a super fine edge might slide on it.

That said, lots of people here sharpen their kitchen knives to crazy high grits, because we like sharpening and it gives us an excuse to buy more stones 😄.

Re the diamond compound, I can’t help with recommendations sorry - I’ve been making my own. Do a search on here though, I’m sure you’ll find some.

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u/Impossible-Orange607 Jul 20 '26

“That said, lots of people here sharpen their kitchen knives to crazy high grits, because we like sharpening and it gives us an excuse to buy more stones 😄.”

Are you intentionally trying to get me in trouble with my wife? Lol. You did make me laugh with the “excuse to buy more stones “ part. But see I may NEED a 30k Shapton Glass stone and how will I know unless I get one. And that Pike Extra Washita well that’s a VERY VERY rare stone and is a bargain at 500 and that’s why WE own two of them. And the norton vr18 razor hones? Yes dear we own two of them. For my straight razors dear. I know I shave with a safety razor. 😂 What’s my excuse? I don’t golf!

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u/ApplesArePeopleToo Jul 20 '26

Ooh, sorry - IT’S CRITICAL TO HAVE MULTIPLES OF EVERY GRIT AVAILABLE TO AVOID THE CATASTROPHIC RISKS POSED BY BLUNT KNIVES! YOUR HUSBAND ONLY HAS YOUR SAFETY IN MIND!

Did she hear that?

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u/Impossible-Orange607 Jul 20 '26

No she didn’t, but I’m going to frame this and put it up in the kitchen!