[Closed] Knife sharpening, whetstones, etc for dummies

Cheap whetstone like this , Sharpie to colour the edge in so you know where you're removing material and YouTube.

When the stone needs dressing / flattening use sanding mesh on a granite tile sample

I've recently given up on gadgets and learned to use stones. I would use something coarser than the one linked above, and accept that its going to take a bit of time first few goes. Youtube is a good source of technique right enough.

My tuppence worth 🙂

Axminster do a package by the company Ice Bear
https://www.axminster.co.uk/ice-bear-waterstone-sharpening-kit-810204

You can get other grits in between 800 and 6000, and above too, 10/15/20,000 grit. 6000 gives you a mirror finish.

The diamond ones are good and well priced these days, but they all have an issue with rust, which lifts the diamond surface and they recommend strongly to dry it really really well. Not a prob if you do. I use paper towel then leave it on top of the radiator. Thats what I do and I've a couple of diamond stones still cut really well after 20 years.
The Japanese set above will wear out many times over so it might be best to go diamond, and look after it religiously.

I avoid those pull through sharpeners like the plague, they remove far too much metal, especially if you have expensive knives.

Japanese water stones from Axminster or knives and tools. Followed by a strop - some leather glued to a flat piece of wood, or an old belt pulled taught.

Plenty you tube videos showing you how. It's a fairly easily acquired skill with a little patience and is very satisfying.

I spent a therapeutic few hours in the garage yesterday sharpening a load of long neglected kitchen knives. They are all now literally shaving sharp.

Informative AND entertaining (I watched it but still bought the wusthof sharpening device instead)

I think what i learnt from sharpening from a whetstone is that there is 'good enough' rather than getting loads of whetstones of different grades and spending ages getting each knife perfect...im not some sushi pro so a nice clean cut through raw meat & softening tomatoes for example will do.

Now awaits flaming for not getting his knives to cut at a cellular level

I use the one Murray linked works very well a course one is only necessary if you’ve completed lost the edge of the knife.

Japanese whetstone (mines got two different grits on it - maybe that's the norm?) and watching a couple of YouTube videos for me. Found it easier than I thought to learn to sharpen my knives that way.

Waterstones are the mess making spawn if the devil.

I have a diamond and ceramic one.

And a strop and a steel in the kitchen for touchups.

Eh, waterstones don't make a mess? Sure I prefer to use one in a sink bridge but even using one on a damp towel on a table doesn't create mess - a bit of slurry that you just rinse off occasionally.

As for YouTube tutorials - there's loads out there and most teach a similar technique but my favourite so far is:

it's hella long though and Murray can be a bit marmite but he knows his stuff.

As for what to buy, the route I went was:

A cheap 400/1000 & 2000/6000 grit stone from Amazon (practised mostly on the 1000 grit, rarely use the 2000/6000 one tbh)

Bought a cheap leather strop paddle from Amazon

Then bought a cheap sink bridge (bit more convenient to use I find)

After a couple of weeks of practice I was sucked in by reddit \sharpening and \chefsknives and went down the rabbit hole of spendy stones and bought a set of Naniwa Pros (600/2000/5000, I wanted the 400/1000/4000 set but wasn't in stock), also bought a Shapton glass 1000 and Naniwa lapping stone.

Using mostly the  Shapton 1000 at the moment (still practising) but needed to thin/correct damage on some practice knives and the Naniwa 600 or cheap 400 was taking too long so also now ordered a Shapton glass 120.

You don't need expensive stones though - it's 99% technique. That said it feels much nicer to use the Shapton 1000 over the cheap 1000 I have, hard to describe why though (feels smoother and more consistent plus works faster).

Bought a cheap whetstone to try out on Ebay a few weeks ago as I was fed up of pull-through's etc. not working. <£10 delivered.

Works very well after a bit of practice and patience but took quite a while as most of the knives I sharpened were very blunt. I got a 1000/6000 but should have gone for something like a 600/2000.

Lansky diamond system with the bench clamp.

1000 grit is all you really need to get a western kitchen knife extremely sharp. Use below 1000 if it's really blunt or damaged as otherwise 1000 grit will take hours to take enough metal off to sort that out. Going above 1000 grit is mostly just about refining the edge for the sake of a hobby rather than it being needed for a working knife.

Japanese knives with super-hard steels are a bit more worth going above 1000 grit as the edge will still hold well,  even then I'd say anything beyond 4000 is more going back into hobby territory trying to get a mirror edge finish.

I see you are interested in sharpening as sharpening but also plenty seem interested in for general house use but expensive Japanese and diamond stones might sound a bit expensive to keep their kitchen knives sharp and safe.

In all honesty if it is just for kitchen knives then a pull through will do just as well and be sharp for just about everything you're likely to do in a home kitchen.
A sharpening stone can be used occasionally to take an accumulated shoulder off, but little work should be needed and although i recommended ice bear, thats good if you want to sharpen other things like chisels, plane blades, scissors.. or anything else you can find that looks like it could benefit from an edge.
Just around the kitchen a pull through is more than adequate, though I'd recommend owning a fine steel as well.

Blowing my own trumpet - Retired Butcher 16 years before changing jobs.
I've worked in shops and wholesale and all except the last shop i was in used an oil stone and steel. The last shop,and my all time favourite shop) used exclusively pull through sharpeners. I've used a number of different industrial sharpeners.
Quite a surprise as its way off normal in any shop, but the owner is an ex RAF pilot with his own extremely well researched way of doing things. Everything cut in the French not the Scottish style, again really unusual, but work that way and you see the genius of it.
Anyway, we used in that setting the chantry sharpener and had about 4 about the shop screwed down and a commercial electric pull through sharpener, Those cost £4-500, though in my time there I never used it on my own knives, the manual one and a steel was good enough.
So shouldn't cost you hundreds or be a tricky skill to master, the pull through is good enough for me to be able to completely dismember a 300+lb side of beef using a basic victorinox nylon handled boning knife that retails for about a tenner, Im doing multiple sides in a day. and is used in every butchers shop in the country.

OP,I have the Lansky diamond sharpener set for sale.It is foolproof compared to stones although there is a small learning curve.Well used but the stones are perfectly flat and i have upgraded it so it works better than in stock form.Let me know if your interested.Ta.