>>1971869I almost forgot about Virtuovice, thanks for the reminder.
>>1975380This is solid, but is likely overkill for a lot of people. I make and sharpen kitchen knives, and the latest iteration of my routine is:
1. Set initial bevel with cheap 600 diamond (starting from literally no edge, but very thin so not much material to remove)
2. 1k stone
3. 6k stone
4. Veg tan leather strop charged with 14k diamond paste, remove any residue with microfiber cloth
I splurged on a Cerax water stones but before that I used a King 1k/6k and I had no issues with it.
This is likely overkill for a lot of people, and I do this when starting with absolutely no edge. If you already have a decent edge then the goal is maintenance, not re-establishing edge geometry every time you sharpen. My advice is to start by getting a king 1k/6k combo stone, 1k is fine for *light* sharpening, and 6k is more than a fine working finish. King's 6k is very hard and smooth and leaves a glossy polish, so it could even be used like a strop. An actual strop is a good idea because you can use it frequently to prevent needing to go back to the stones quite so often, and your knife will always be in good shape *if* you use it well and *if* your edge isn't damaged (chipped or rolled). Anything less than 1k or so I consider repair that's only necessary if you need to remove material to get out a chip or fix an edge that's been otherwise abused or neglected.
-get a king 1k/6k, learn to use it, then evaluate what else you need, if anything.
