Here are some review of stones I use for my work. This is the point of view of a stone polisher on mostly San mai knives. Those stones will be used for grinding, thinning, shaping your wife bevels on your knives
i found this video randomly. this is by far the best video or any review I have ever seen on such topics anywhere. by far. and I'm just more than halfway through the video. as you stated, which is not a thing i've found everyone even understands, is the fact that diamond as an abrasive is not conducive to contrasting finishes like you'd want on a traditional Japanese style knife between the layers of core and cladding.
the pink stone is pink alumina. naniwa has 2 different version of their 220 grit stone, one is pink alumina, just like this, and the other is green silicon carbide. I really like the shapton pro 120, which is very hard white alumina. hard and course. can glaze or load but once you get used to using it it can do a lot. the 220 and 320 from the shapton pro line are splash and go silicon carbide stones which I really like, but of course you have to understand their nuances. I would like to try the glass 220, but I don't have it. The chosera 400 is such a great base stone. nice and hard and slow wearing unlike the 800 or 1k for instance which are very friable. the one downside the 400 chosera is it doesn't do contrasting finishes but that's fine. the 800 and 1k are excellent for this. I always prefered Suehiro stones for contrasting finish anyhow. I will shut up now because I can go on about all the stones for days. I would say maybe you want to try... sigma select, 240 or 1k. they are quite course. friable. fast cutting. silicon carbide stones. The norton 220 waterstone, or the cystolon oil stone. Or you could try 3M diamond films, which are incredible. I use the 120 and 220 alot which cut just as well as another coated abrasive like diamond plate but the surface finish they leave is higher quality than even the best bonded stones. They do break in quickly like all coated abrasives but they will last a very long time if used correctly. I also tried ordering resin bonded diamond stones from China for very little money. They are actually excellent. The 1k is more like a 400, a very fast cutting 400. the 3k is actually basically a 3k and the 12k is actually more like a 4k or 5k at best. I don't consider it a finishing stone because it can still generate small burrs if you try. All of them are excellent, hard, slow wearing, fast cutting, and cost very low. to go totally off topic other interesting stones I really like are the king neo 800 grit, which is a green silicon carbide stone that is incredible and costs very little. it's basically SNG as a chosera, cuts any steel very quickly, leaves a great edge, great finish, does contrast, wears very slowly. it's very similar in feel to a chosera stone but cuts better .
hey, Thanks for the advises. I tried sigma select 240, very similar to Debado but would not say it is precise enough for my work. Did not try norton 220, nor shapton pro 120. 3M Diamond film could be an idea I could try. And King neo 800 seems interesting but not easily available in France.
Sorry I did not talk about it but I tried them of course. The 400 is a great stone but just not coarse enough for shaping work. A 200 grit is a must to my point of view
I think you should choose or whetstone : Imanishi 200 then Naniwa 400 ; Or replace imanishi by Venev 80+150 or 100+240, then Naniwa 400. Or go NSK stones. Of course you can mix but different brand won't have the same progression. Debado are good stones but difficult to advise them finally... What will you get, hard, soft, you don't know
Honestly not an easy question. I really like venev stones, but with the way looks like they are less and less available. And they are very hard stones so not the fastest. Fastest stone without pressure will be nsk stones
