Are You Too High? 1000 VS 8000 GRIT COMPARISON 

Hi Gage, great video. Stay on track - I am looking forward to see the steel type test! Thank you very much!

The idea for the upcoming videos you talked about is great! Looking forward to watch those.

Another great video. Thank you Gage and Jake. I foresee a lot of carrot soup in the future. This comparison was very helpful and I look forward to the next steel type testing.

Usually I am not. When I start putting buns between patties though, definitely too high.

Great video! I'm a big fan of high grit stones. I even go up to 16K on Shapton glass. The knives are surgical devices sharp :) Putting a micro bevel affords longer edge retention. During the week, I use the 16k as a strop to rejuvenate the edge.

Very enjoyable video. What 1000 and 8000 grit stones did you use? Looking forward to your test series, that should be very helpful, but would also love a video on getting the best results on a 1000 grit. The more I sharpen, the more I appreciate hand pressure as the key issue for edge quality, especially a light touch when finishing up on a stone before progressing to a higher grit or stropping.

Great video, I confess that I do like to go very high on the grits but my go-to stone for a quick fix is the Shapton glass 2k. The Kitayama 8k and Naniwa SS10k make a crazy edge, I think the retention issue is that such a fine apex is more susceptible to lose that super sharp feeling fairly quickly but still remains extremely sharp, it is all relative.

Great video. I use an 8000 grit stone to hone my carbon steel knives in between sharpening. I'm looking forward to the steel test video.

I find the 'bite' of a 1K stone very pleasant for most uses. Especially with softer, western stainless steel, going higher is not very useful. On the other hand, a Naniwa 3K feels very sweet. This is my go to stone for higher end knives.

You wield the knife so artfully, Gage!

Good video... I'm trying to sharpen specific knives for specific jobs .. boning knife I'll keep around 1 to 2k (or any knife that will see a lot of use with fatty proteins I find higher grit finishes seem to get jammed up with fat too quickly and suffer a drop in performance rather quickly) With veg... well anything higher...in the 4 to 6k seems to be what I prefer... there's something about those grits that just seem to work the best for me...the thrill of almost falling through a vegetable never gets old... And then there's the 2 to 4k...the workhorse range .. almost able to do it all.. But ultimately, for me, working in a restaurant... what's most important is the durability of an edge... making three atom thick tomato slices is fun and all ...but if it won't get me through a shift...then I'm gonna have to pass on it How much does the finishing grit matter...I don't know...I'm sure it plays a part...but heat treatment, steel type, profile, cutting board material and knife handling all play their part... So all that to say...it really depends on your personal preferences...but as Gage mentioned... until you can get consistently repeatable results from a 1k...no matter how fine or expensive that stone is it ain't gonna make you a better sharpener...

Yo let's go! Killer thumbnail! Hope it takes off.

I would love to see a video about coarse stones. Between 220 and 400 grit. I use Tojiro combination stone 1000/3000 on a daily basis, I also have Cerax 1000 and Rika 5000. I'm curious how the knife works when is sharpened on one side on stone 1000 and on the other, for example, 6000 +

Can you do a cut demo comp? Lots of love keep up the good work😂

On your sharpness test, do 3 or 5 cuts on the tool then take the average. I have a hunch that that the cut strength will measure differently each time you cut.

Can you do a video explaining half step stones like 1500 vs 1000 or 220 vs 320. What their differences are and why they exist.

What about ”shibata-style” when other side of edge is sharpen like 1k grit and other higher grit stone?

I finish a lot of lower quality knives at like 1k and strop=done. If the steel can handle it though I do enjoy like a 4-6k edge 🤷‍♂️ Really depends a lot on the knife and its use. Also have to keep in mind that the edge you get with a 1k on a hard Japanese knife will be more refined and less toothy than the same stone on softer knife

I just like the looks of a polished edge. You don't have to though. A fine ceramic will put a wonderful polish at a distance. I usually run 250 600 800 polish strop or even less depending on if it's reprofiling or just touch up. The real key is holding your angle. Nothing matters more than using an angle hold system.

Did you use strop after 1000

Great Video, as always! I have the feeling that my more polished edges are loosing the sharpness quicker. At least at tomatoes. After a few tomatoes the have problems cutting them. After not polishing the edge, stoping sharpening after fine DMT diamond and leather, it holds it much longer. But both are cutting very well after loosing that tomato edge. Tomatoes are divas, aren't they 😂

Thanks for sharing. I actually prefer the 320 grit diamond plate edges. These edges are toothy, but that seems to make them perform with slicing motions. I also have tried the high grit edges, just not impressed, especially when testing on high density vegetables. I find sweet potatoes better than carrots for testing blade geometry & edge performance. A carrot is hard but brittle & too small to put up significant resistance, where a sweet potato is big, hard & tough. Your idea of testing after some real world use is cuts through the hype & nonsense in my opinion. Analyzing the cutting edge stability with a microscope will provide way more insight into long term cutting edge performance. The string test will yield confusing results as the cutting edge will not break down evenly. Looking forward to your testing videos.

Humans have lateral stroke input, that's just the reality. How do you determine appropriate apex diameter for lateral stability ?

I find sometimes less is more, but more can also be less. Find particular grit will cut better on different materials.

Dont admire your brand new yoshikane when you're too high

We're can I get my Japanese chefs knife I'm afraid that I will get ripped off

Have you done the test that you mentioned at the end of the video? Far more important than a test of five different grit finishes would be a test of five different edge angles. Chopping carrots will demonstrate how quickly a very sharp blade loses performance because of all the bashing into the board.

I liked the high grit polished off with ceramic buuuut.... Then I realized it doesn't have good bite so I think 400 to 600 is best . Anybody else agree or disagree. I'm not sure if this is certain yet so asking for opinions. For bowie and pocket knives

Yea 1000 grit will cut (serrate) through thick skin vegetable like a tomato well, but 8000 grit is superior on all my blades, stronger for longer and more corrosion resistant

If anyone is interested to read a ton of good information about edges and sharpening, visit the science of sharp blog too

I don't really see a reason to go all the way to 8,000 all the time. In fact if I'm sharpening knives for someone that I don't think knows how to take care of them I only go to 1,000. And if I think a person has some moderate skill I usually go to 3,000.

1000 is good enough for kitchen knife. But for a woodworking plane blade, at least 8000 or it can not get the best finishing on wood.

I use 140# to repair large chips, tips, reset a bevel, and for my Yo-Gyuto (which cuts through things you don't want to use a "topical" Japanese knife for." That lower grit works better, with that toothy edge and holds that end for over a month easily. It's 1000# & 6000# for my weekly sharpening on my (Santoku, Gyuto, Kiritsuke, Sujihiki), with daily honing/sharpening on a leather strop with #6000 Diamond compound- I work in a professional kitchen (non-Japanese), using both SBK's & DBK's...I find anything "higher" looses the edge retention too quickly and the strop doesn't regain the "like off the stone feel," no matter the steel typeI have (S1, S2, AS, B2, SG2/R2), when I go above 6000#. I push-pull/pull-push cut mostly. EDIT: Don't forget to put a micro-bevel (1-2mm higher than the cutting edge), on those SBK's (especially if you use a beta-togi approach as I do).

1000 grit finish is not shaving anything I don't believe that at all, unless you have super thin weak hair

A lot of these comments you're making lead me to believe you really don't have much of an understanding of what you're actually talking about. Lotta mythology in place of the empirical. IMHO knife shops in general and especially the type that sell Japanese kitchen knives in North America are some of the worst of the worst purveyors of myth, hype and misinformation when it comes to these sorts of topics in general. Most of them are not very honest people nor well informed. It's not high grits that are actually the issue. It's user error. Plain and simple. Most people struggle to properly sharpen a knife even with the help of a guided system. Freehand sharpening knives on whetstones takes fine motor skills and muscle memory to execute properly and it's both subjectively and objectively more difficult to do on higher grits as there is more and more room for error. If you don't have immaculate technique it's very easy to end up making the knife duller when attempting to refine the edge up to a high grit polish. Again, the actual issue isn't the fine grit but rather the user error. The apex of a razor needs to be 100 nano-meters, that's a tenth of a micron to comfortably shave facial hair. Using scanning electron microscopes it's been observed that the keenest it's physically possible to get an apex for all intents and purposes is about 50 nm. I could leave a much longer comment but I'm already too long and I don't know where to begin or end as this is such a big topic.