Japanese wet stones

Grindstones can be divided into two types, where one group is rotating and the second is non-rotating. Those who can not rotate look like small bricks and is known as the Japanese wet stones. It's the kind of grinding stone that is easiest to start with if you want to sharpen your knives at home.

The wet stone emits small particles and mixed with water they form a slurry. It is the sludge which sharpen your knife and depending on the granularity of the stone the effect can be more or less. In order to sharpen a razor in a good way, you need several different wet stones with different grit (grain size). It's like in the woodwork at school when you had to work with sandpaper of various coarses. Begin with the rough one and finish with a smooth to get as even surface as possible.

Grindstones from 20 up to 10,000 grit

Roughness of grinding stones are termed grit and can range from about 20 up to 10 000. A low number means that the grains are large, and they are used for grinding a burr. You then work upwards in slightly different intervals to refine the edge and make it truly super sharp. One can roughly say that all grindstones up to 700 grit are coarse-grained and that from 3000 or above have fine grains.

With a coarse stone you can grind away notches in the edge and create a new profile for it. When you grind with that kind of stone it takes away quite a lot of the metal. You need to go on polishing it before you can use it for shaving. With a finer stone you can achieve this polishing effect.

To sharpen a knife requires practice. Are you a complete beginner, do not start with your finest knife without practicing on some other tool until you start getting the right feeling and touch.