Best low grit stone I own.
This will be a review for all three stones. First and foremost, it was a painless transaction with The Cook’s Edge. The whetstones were very well packed and arrived well within the estimated arrival date. There was even a note from Adam saying to enjoy the stones and to reach out if I have any questions. Very nice touch sir! Service was great! Deal with confidence. Now for the items… So I recently purchased the 200, 1k and 4k Suehiro Debado MDs. I really wanted to give this some time before submitting a review but I think I’ve seen enough. All performed exceptionally well individually and as a set. The 200 grit is fast but good enough to leave a surprisingly usable toothy edge for fatty meats. I got this with the intention to be my thinning stone but my knives aren’t quite there yet. Not recommended to be part of regular sharpening as it’s just too aggressive. And it’s harder than a 320 Cerax that it will replace. That thing just dishes too easily. This made easy work of the chipped edge on a Shibata Kotetsu gyuto (R2, 62HRC) that my mom used to cut semi-frozen meat. Ouch. God bless you mom (I still love you). The chips were removed and a new bevel set quickly. The 1000 grit is the highlight of this set. Fantastic stone! Cut’s fast and feels fantastic. Feels similar to my 1000 Cerax (that it will replace). It dishes slower than the cerax. I like the feel AND sound better than my Naniwa Pro 800 or 1000. But this is subjective of course. The edge it produced felt a little more refined than 1000 grit, just a little bit. Huge plus that it’s a light-colored stone so you see your progress in sharpening. You probably don’t need to go higher than this on German/Western steel. The 4000 grit takes the edge produced by the 1000 and refines it to another level. Use less pressure, let the stone do the work and that edge will sing. Again, tactile and audible feedback is fantastic. I just finished sharpening a Takamura R2 gyuto on this and it passed the hair on back of the head test that Takamura-san likes to use. This is where you take the knife (edge facing the floor) to the hairs on the back of your head and just LIGHTLY, huge emphasis on lightly, try to run it down your head, with the grain growth, as oblique/tangent to the hair as possible and see if it catches the hairs. You want to use a feather light touch for this and the point is not to catch multiple hairs but just a few. The scalp’s got lots of nerves and is quite sensitive. Realistically, you only need to catch one hair to feel it. If the knife catches/bites, that gives you a good idea of the bite remaining on the edge and how it will perform on smooth-skinned food items like a tomato. The edge produced passed with flying colors. I feel it’s finer than 4k too… it may even be a 5k edge. I can see this replacing my 3k Naniwa Pro (that produces a 4k edge). Also want to add that I deburred on plain leather after this stone. Now, for some other details. These stones are big. If you’ve got a lot of 10+ inch knives, you will appreciate the working area you have. For 8 inch knives and below, while nice to have, the extra width was not really needed (you may want to consider the LD series). All these stones have been stated as having a length of 225 mm. Mine do not! The 1k is 225 mm, the 4k is 227.5 and the 200 is 229.5. If you have that popular spring loaded stone holder (I forget the brand), these stones will NOT fit. The 1k can… barely… but the springs are practically coil-bound. The 200 and 4k will definitely not fit. These fit fine on the Suehiro stone holder/tray that Cook’s Edge carries though. But that aside, they do come with a rubber base so should be ready to use out of the box. As they get thinner with flattening, you can use a piece of 1x4 cut to 9 inches in length to get knuckle clearance back. This progression works great as set! Please don’t mix brands unless you know the actual grit rating of the stones you’re using. But without a doubt, the star of this line is the 1000 stone. I think the 1k+4k combo of this line is better than the highly regarded 800+3k Naniwa Pro combo. Get the 1k stone first, 4k next and 200 if you have a specific use for it (again it’s very aggressive, not for regular sharpening).
