I’m looking for a better knife sharpener for my hard steel chef knife. I think whetstones are the way to go, but most of the sets I see are 4 double sided stones. Do I need that many stones?
Is there a totally different type of sharpener that you have had success with?
Edit: I should add that I like my knife very sharp, and I have a few tiny chips in the cutting edge from a cheap drag-through sharpener.
I have a 1000 and a 4000 in fine water stones.
I have a decent strop. I have a decent steel.
Once the edge is on it, this is all I need.
Note, I also have some very coarse stones and some finer grits as well. I use them to either change the edge in a knife entirely, or you know? Get crazy sharp sometimes with a polished fine edge. Getting crazy sharp never lasts in the kitchen for long though. I’m talking my crazy, everyone thinks my knives are normally razors anyway and I rarely go higher than 4000 grit.
It sounds like you have had success in buying the different grits separately rather than a stack of stones.
Ya. Water stones, imo, demand quality.
However, you can get a hunting knife razor sharp using that crappy little grey stone that came with it, and some spit.
Waaay nicer using quality though.