So the main issue with double sided whetstones is that as you use any whetstones they “dish”, so if you use both sides it ends up being way harder to keep them flat. The “combo” stones tend to be lower quality in general as well
You’re usually better off getting a normal stone, then sharpening using only one side of it. A decent 1000 grit alone is good for sharpening undamaged kitchen knives. Don’t need a strop or a super high grit stone or anything you can just do stropping passes right on the same stone. But overall it’s not really that serious, people who know what they’re doing can sharpen knives with like a rock from the woods
Do people not just use their 5 axis CNC to plane their double sided whetstones? I mean I get that the whole reason you wouldn’t just machine sharpen the blade with your belt grinder is that it’s a hobby, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend time manually flattening your stones when you have a perfectly good aerospace machine shop.
You need another stone that has gaps slotted into it to slide against the cupped stone. That helps keep things flat. Not perfect but good enough for my knife making hobby.
The thing about the advice you’re giving is that it’s for pretty advanced users. But by the time you’re that advanced, you should probably know all of that stuff, anyways.
At a certain point, you might even get to the point where you feel it’s better to have your knives professionally sharpened rather than doing it yourself.
But when you start out, I think you should buy cheap knives and a cheap knife sharpener. The knives get dull quickly, but it’s super fast to sharpen them, so you don’t have to let them get dull. And you don’t really care if you wear down your knives by sharpening them too much because they’re cheap.
When you need to move on to a better system, you’ll know it.
You really shouldn’t need to sharpen your kitchen knives on a regular basis. If they become dull, using a honing rod to straighten the edge back out is all you need.
I’ve used my cheap victorinox chefs knife almost daily for 8 years and it’s never touched a sharpener, but will still slice through a tomato with no pressure.
It’s really not anything advanced, you can learn whetstone sharpening with like a ten minute youtube video. Might take more research to feel confident getting started if you have lots of trepidation about it
But from there you’ll never want to bother with the time commitment and cost of having your knives professionally sharpened. Just makes no sense when you can simply take out your stone as needed
I would strongly advise against the pull through sharpeners you’re talking about, in all cases. A cheap knife doesn’t actually have any problem retaining a sharp edge. My inexpensive stainless steel chef’s knife that I abuse every day lasts months without issues.
The problem you’re experiencing is that pull through “sharpeners” do not actually sharpen the blade at all. They just create and leave you with a huge burr.
Whetstones also create a burr, but you deburr the blade with stropping passes and reveal the stable geometry you have created underneath. On pull throughs, they’re relying on you not to know any better and to simply try cutting your food with the burr. This works in the extreme short term, because the burr is “sharp” at first…. until literally the first time you use it, when it proceeds to crumble off or roll over onto itself. After which point you can once again “save time” by pulling it through the device again and again
I am concerned that people will read your comment, and end up using dangerous dull knives.
I don’t really want to get into an argument, but most people will put off doing anything even mildly complicated to the point that they never do it. If you never sharpen your knives, then you will end up with dull knives, which is the worst possible outcome.
Pull through sharpeners do actually sharpen the blade. I don’t know where you got your information from. You certainly don’t have to sharpen a knife every time, but even if you did, it would be something quick and simple that anybody could do.
There are also different levels of pull through sharpeners, some that make multiple passes for different types of blade care. But any sharpener, even the most basic pull through, is better than a dull blade.
A person who uses a pull through sharpener will generally know when they need to start looking into more advanced methods. I do not think it is safe to warn beginners off of using the tools that they are most likely to actually use.
Why would it be harder to keep them flat? Regardless of one-sided or two sided, you should be giving your stone a few passes with a flattener before sharpening.
The headache is just if the opposite side is dished, since the stone has to rest on it while you’re working on the active side. If you’re flattening every time anyway then it’s not all that bad. My assumption is that people aren’t haha
So the main issue with double sided whetstones is that as you use any whetstones they “dish”, so if you use both sides it ends up being way harder to keep them flat. The “combo” stones tend to be lower quality in general as well
You’re usually better off getting a normal stone, then sharpening using only one side of it. A decent 1000 grit alone is good for sharpening undamaged kitchen knives. Don’t need a strop or a super high grit stone or anything you can just do stropping passes right on the same stone. But overall it’s not really that serious, people who know what they’re doing can sharpen knives with like a rock from the woods
Do people not just use their 5 axis CNC to plane their double sided whetstones? I mean I get that the whole reason you wouldn’t just machine sharpen the blade with your belt grinder is that it’s a hobby, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend time manually flattening your stones when you have a perfectly good aerospace machine shop.
OH MY FUCKING GOD HERE
STONE USE YOUR IMAGINATION PRETEND ITS A WHETSTONE
OMG it’s the 1-grit of legend
That’s a rock, not a stone. Plus it isn’t even wet.
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON
MERIDIA’S BEACON FROM ELDER SCROLLS AHHHHHHHH
You need another stone that has gaps slotted into it to slide against the cupped stone. That helps keep things flat. Not perfect but good enough for my knife making hobby.
The thing about the advice you’re giving is that it’s for pretty advanced users. But by the time you’re that advanced, you should probably know all of that stuff, anyways.
At a certain point, you might even get to the point where you feel it’s better to have your knives professionally sharpened rather than doing it yourself.
But when you start out, I think you should buy cheap knives and a cheap knife sharpener. The knives get dull quickly, but it’s super fast to sharpen them, so you don’t have to let them get dull. And you don’t really care if you wear down your knives by sharpening them too much because they’re cheap.
When you need to move on to a better system, you’ll know it.
You really shouldn’t need to sharpen your kitchen knives on a regular basis. If they become dull, using a honing rod to straighten the edge back out is all you need.
I’ve used my cheap victorinox chefs knife almost daily for 8 years and it’s never touched a sharpener, but will still slice through a tomato with no pressure.
It’s really not anything advanced, you can learn whetstone sharpening with like a ten minute youtube video. Might take more research to feel confident getting started if you have lots of trepidation about it
But from there you’ll never want to bother with the time commitment and cost of having your knives professionally sharpened. Just makes no sense when you can simply take out your stone as needed
I would strongly advise against the pull through sharpeners you’re talking about, in all cases. A cheap knife doesn’t actually have any problem retaining a sharp edge. My inexpensive stainless steel chef’s knife that I abuse every day lasts months without issues.
The problem you’re experiencing is that pull through “sharpeners” do not actually sharpen the blade at all. They just create and leave you with a huge burr.
Whetstones also create a burr, but you deburr the blade with stropping passes and reveal the stable geometry you have created underneath. On pull throughs, they’re relying on you not to know any better and to simply try cutting your food with the burr. This works in the extreme short term, because the burr is “sharp” at first…. until literally the first time you use it, when it proceeds to crumble off or roll over onto itself. After which point you can once again “save time” by pulling it through the device again and again
I am concerned that people will read your comment, and end up using dangerous dull knives.
I don’t really want to get into an argument, but most people will put off doing anything even mildly complicated to the point that they never do it. If you never sharpen your knives, then you will end up with dull knives, which is the worst possible outcome.
Pull through sharpeners do actually sharpen the blade. I don’t know where you got your information from. You certainly don’t have to sharpen a knife every time, but even if you did, it would be something quick and simple that anybody could do.
There are also different levels of pull through sharpeners, some that make multiple passes for different types of blade care. But any sharpener, even the most basic pull through, is better than a dull blade.
A person who uses a pull through sharpener will generally know when they need to start looking into more advanced methods. I do not think it is safe to warn beginners off of using the tools that they are most likely to actually use.
Most people are in fact not infants who can’t understand any “mildly complicated” concepts, nor is that audience reading this exchange
Is that confidence based off of your gut feelings? Because my statement was based off of similar research done by behavioral economists.
Why would it be harder to keep them flat? Regardless of one-sided or two sided, you should be giving your stone a few passes with a flattener before sharpening.
Next you’ll tell me I need a straightener for the flattener.
It’s stones all the way down!
Well if you’re serious about knife sharpening you could pick up a stone planer for the flattener.
https://stoneequipmentwarehouse.com/categories/4736-limestone-planers
The headache is just if the opposite side is dished, since the stone has to rest on it while you’re working on the active side. If you’re flattening every time anyway then it’s not all that bad. My assumption is that people aren’t haha