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Sharpening stones & sets
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The grit size
220-400 / The first step of sharpening: shaping, removing chips and nicks, changing geometry of the blade.
1000 / Normal sharpening (to smooth a rough edge into a medium edge)
2000 / Ideal grit size for anyone who sharpens their knives regularly but prefers to own only one whetstone.
3000-6000 / To smooth a medium edge into a sharp edge. Sharpening smooths the edge nicely, yet still leaves a lot of bite for cutting vegetables.
8000 / This grit size leaves the edge very sharp and smooth, thus the blade does not damage the cells of food and is very suitable for cutting raw fish (sashimi) and meat. It is also ideal for sharpening fine edges of razors.
10,000-12,000 / To polish an edge to a mirror-smooth finish. These fine grit sizes should be used by experienced sharpeners who strive for perfection.
The ideal solution for home use is the combination of stones with grit sizes 1000 and 3000. These two can be complemented with one, coarse-grit stone, such as 220, to remove chips and repair broken tips, and one stone with fine grit size of 6000-8000. Your home sharpening set would also not be complete without a leather strop for the final smoothing and removing the burr.