mepsharpening

The Gesshin 2000 grit water stone is the most used stone our line up. For a lot of German steel this is the final stone we use. The softer steel used in these knives doesn’t see as much of a benefit from sharpening on higher grit stones, but this is still an incredible edge. The stone leaves an almost misted edge in appearance with a lot of grab that makes dealing with tomatoes a pleasure. For harder steels and Japanese knives this stone is our transition stone from setting bevels on the 400 grit to putting a polished edge on with the 5000 grit, 8000 grit, or 15000 grit.

This stone is also a soaker like the 400 grit and is used so often I never take it out of my water bath except when it is in use. Of the Gesshin series of stones, the 2000 grit cuts the slowest. But being the slowest cutting Gesshin stone is like being the slowest sprinter at the Olympics, it’s still fast. The feedback is really nice on this one, it lets you know when you’ve got the angle too high but I never have issues with gouging or catching. Like the rest of the Gesshin series the 2000 is slow to dish as well which means less time flattening, more time sharpening. As always, thanks to Jon and Sara of Japanese Knife Imports for continuing to provide the best products and best service of anyone out there.

Hunter sharpening his Nenox Gyoto on the Gesshin 2000 grit water stone.

Nenox Gyuto with a 2000 grit edge.

And a close up so you can see what a 2000 grit edge looks like.

Stones, much like knives, can be sort of a personal choice. There are distinct characteristics, though I admit I can’t always detect them myself, I’m learning. In my years of sharpening I’ve spent a lot of time and resources researching and uses a variety of stones all in an effort to find ones that I’m happy with. I’ve found them.

The Gesshin stones are exclusive to Japanese Knife Imports. The owner, Jon, is working with a stone maker in Japan to get custom created stones designed specifically for kitchen knives. The results speak for themselves. I can’t thank Jon and his wife, Sara, enough for all the work they’ve put in to bringing some of the best products available to market here in the US. In addition to what I think are the best stones for the money available, they also have an incredible line up of Japanese knives direct from the makers in Japan, we’ll talk more about those in a later post.

Now that the intro is out of the way, let’s get down to the stones themselves, starting with this post about the Gesshin 400 grit water stone. This is the lowest grit stone that we use, it’s where we start most of our sharpening and edge repair. For serious edge work and tip restoration we will usually start on a belt sander before moving up to our stones.

I’m going to get a bit technical in case there are any sharpeners reading this. This stone is a soaker, I leave mine in water so that it’s ready whenever I need it. As far as a low grit stone goes, this is the slowest dishing stone I’ve used so far in this range. It cuts quickly though. It doesn’t offer much in the way of feedback, but that tends to be a characteristic of low grit stones. By itself it leaves a very aggressive working edge and has become my go to stone for my personal pocket knives. This stone surprised me the most in how well it works in a progression. Despite being a 400 grit stone, the edge it leaves transitions really well going straight into medium grit stones in the 2000 grit range.

Nenox Gyuto on the Gesshin 400 grit water stone.

Nenox Gyuto with a 400 grit edge.

Here’s a close up so you can see the scratch pattern the 400 leaves.

Keep checking in over the next few days as we discuss the 2000, 5000, and 15000 grit stones.

We’ve got some good stuff in the pipe line. We’ll be putting up reviews and info on the stones we’ve been using lately for those interested in that sort of thing and for those who would just like to know a little more about what we do. The first of which will be up later this evening.

We are no longer doing order pick ups and drop offs at Steak Mart on Rosewood. There just wasn’t much interest in the service and it was a lot of extra travel on us to keep things up. We still recommend going by there to visit Robbie and picking up some of the best beef in Columbia. We will continue to be at the All Local Farmer’s Market every Saturday.

Well we survived the holiday season. There was much happiness, much merriment, and best of all, much eating! We hope the new year is treating you well. We’re back on our normal schedule with Steak Mart and will be returning to the market this Saturday the 8th! We can’t wait to see you all there.

We’ve got some exciting things planned for 2011. Soon to come will be videos breaking down our sharpening process as well as some knife skill videos. We might even go video crazy and some some cooking videos as well. Let us know if there is something specific you’d like to see.