Which steels can King waterstones sharpen?

[snafuspyramid]

I bought a bunch of King waterstones off Stu a little while back (although they haven't arrived yet).

Although there are newer and better stones, I like the feel of these stones, I've used them before, and they're quite forgiving for my newbie idiocy.

I am looking at getting a bunch of Narex chisels while Lee Valley's offer lasts.

I know that King waterstones can't be used to sharpen newer steels, i.e. cryo and HSS steels.

Will they be alright with the Rc59 chrome-manganese steel (whatever that is) used in the Narex chisels?

[NZStu]

I use them to sharpen VG10 and G3 Japanese kitchen knives, with HRC in the 60-61 range. So yes, they will be fine for Narex chisels.

[Stringy]

I have 1 LN blade and 2 cryo (academy) blades in planes that I sharpen regularly on king water stones. No one told me that they wouldn't sharpen them, so if I keep this quiet they may not know either!!!!!!!

[stuffy]

Hi Eddie,

I sharpened one of my new Narex chisels last night. I was keen to see how flat they are.

I used 800 and 1200 king stones followed by polishing stones of unknown type or grit size, and they worked fine.

The back needed a bit of work but nothing major, and it took a very sharp edge.

I'll post more when I've experimented with them some more.

Best wishes

Steve

[RayG]

Hi Eddie,

I think Steve has already answered your question about the Narex chisels, but if you want a more detailed summary Schtoo did a comparison of stones and a variety of steels in his blog a little while back.

Part1 starts here...
Waterstone testing, the results. Part I. « Tools from Japan blog.

It's a multi-part article, and goes into some detail.

Regards
Ray

[Schtoo]

They'll be fine.

The problem is asking King stones to do heavy work with a lot of tough metal on the stone, then they're found wanting BUT with patience and keeping the 'metal on stone' equation small, as in not much steel on stone, and you'll get there.

The folks at Tsunesaburo tell me they can sharpen their Powder Metal HSS blades with King or natural stones, and I don't doubt that at all since they're better sharpeners than most of us will ever be.

But when I sharpened one of their blades with a Sigma Select II with absolute impunity and disregard for technique, all I got was a wry smile and shake of the head. Profanities might have been uttered, but there's few of them in Japanese and I refuse to learn what they are.

I can coax the performance out of King stones, honestly. But I don't expect that everyone can do that nor do I expect that anyone should need to do it unless they're forced to or there's some other reason why they can't use something more appropriate.

But for what you have planned, no special technique is required so have at it and enjoy the stones. They're still nice to use and that's half the battle in itself.

Stu.