Questions About Whetstone

A whetstone and a sharpener differ in what they can do. A whetstone can do all the work needed to sharpen a knife, while a sharpener is a tool for sharpening the cutting edge only. A sharpener is effective when the blade needs to be sharpened temporarily, but the original sharpening process of "reducing thickness, shaping and sharpening the blade to maintain good sharpness for a long time" is difficult to achieve without a whetstone. It is best to recognize that the two are used for different purposes.

It depends on the purpose. Is your purpose for using a knife "to cut food" or "to make food taste good"? If the latter, then daily sharpening is ideal. This is because if the sharpness of a freshly sharpened knife with a perfect score of 100 is what makes food tasty, the tastiness of the food will decrease as the sharpness of the knife decreases with use. If you accept this as a good thing and just sharpen the knife for the time being, then the frequency of sharpening will inevitably decrease.

It is a combination of the steel material of the blade being sharpened and the abrasive grit of the grinding wheel.

You can sharpen knives on the mud without rinsing them, or you can sharpen them while rinsing them with water. The former allows you to sharpen knives faster because you can use the sharpened grit, while the latter allows you to sharpen knives more precisely. For example, if you want to sharpen knives quickly, you can sharpen them with mud without rinsing with water, and if you want to sharpen them precisely, you can sharpen them while rinsing with water.

First, you should learn to sharpen with a force that does not tire you after an hour of continuous sharpening. Sharpening force depends not only on the strength of the person doing the sharpening, but also on the grit size and hardness of the stone. This does not mean that you can sharpen a stone by holding it down.

There is a whetstone for correcting the surface of the whetstone, called a "surface correction whetstone. Use it every time to ensure that the whetstone remains flat.

Even if the whetstone develops cracks, it can still be used by firmly resurfacing and flattening it. However, as the whetstone becomes thinner, the possibility of cracking from the cracks due to sharpening pressure increases, so consider replacing the whetstone when the cracks become larger.

If there is no slippage at the beginning of the sharpening and it starts to slide smoothly in the middle, it is considered clogged. If clogging occurs, it is possible to restore the surface to its original condition by properly resharpening the surface. On the other hand, if the knife feels slippery right from the start, it is possible that the whetstone is not the right one, but some people say that stainless steel knives are difficult to sharpen because they are slippery to begin with.
In this case, it is easier to sharpen knives by using the sludge left over from sharpening without rinsing.

It can be used without soaking, but it is always better to soak it before use. When using diamond abrasives, it is not necessary to soak them in water.

Let's take a slightly longer-term view. The level of sharpening is improved when both "knowledge" and "skill" are present. On the other hand, even if you can sharpen knives very well, if you do not have the knowledge to back it up, you will not have the ability to respond to slight changes in the knives, whetstones, or environment. The point is, both are important. To combine this knowledge and skill, it is effective to read a book that provides sharpening knowledge, sharpen a knife, and then read the book again after a while. Theories that were not clear to me when I first read them often become clear to me as I gain experience. On the other hand, the book may also confirm that your own sharpening was correct.