Flat sharing, one small sink, no space to store a soaking tub, and about 60 to spend on my first proper setup. Everything I have is soft-ish stainless, five knives, sharpened maybe once a month. Diamond plate seems like less faff but people say the feedback is horrible for learning. What would you buy at that budget with nowhere to soak anything?
Whatever you buy, leave 15 of the 60 for a flattening solution and a strop. A dished stone will teach you bad habits faster than any stone choice, and an unflattened cheap stone is worse than a flat cheap stone. A concrete paving slab and a bit of wet-dry sandpaper on glass both work if you don't want to spend on a plate.
Counterpoint, I learned on a cheap diamond plate and it was fine. Feedback is worse, sure, but it never dishes, it never needs soaking, it lives in a drawer, and it cuts soft stainless quickly enough that you're not standing at the sink for an hour losing your angle. For someone in a flat share I'd genuinely consider it.
Fair, and the no-dishing point is real. I'd still push a beginner toward feel, but I've seen more people quit because their stone was a hassle than because it was a plate.
Once a month on five soft stainless knives means you barely need anything above 1000-3000. Save the money you'd spend chasing a 6000 finish, it'll be gone off that steel within a week anyway.
@whetstone_wu · 10mo ago · 3 replies
At 60 with no storage I'd buy one splash-and-go combination stone around 1000/3000 rather than a diamond plate. Splash-and-go needs a 30 second spritz, not a soak, so the sink constraint disappears. Diamond plates are brilliant for flattening and for very hard steels, but on soft stainless they load up and the feedback really is dead, which matters a lot when you're learning to feel a burr.
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@burr_hunter · 10mo ago
It does, though be aware they still like a light spritz every minute or two while you work. Keep a spray bottle next to the stone.
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@listening_lane · 10mo ago
Didn't realise splash-and-go was a category rather than a technique. That solves my actual problem.
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