the KME sharpening system -- stones

The basic kit is 140, 300, 600, 1500 and is really all you need.

If you want to reprofile knives, you should get the 50 and 100.

The single most important thing is to get the whole edge to the apex all the way along with your coarsest stone. Until you have good success sharpening with the 4 stones in the basic kit, there is no point in additional stones.

Arkansas Stones

• Dan's whetstone -- Arkansas stone grades 101

They are natural stones, and as such you can expect variability. Consistency depends on your supplier. I found this online:

I work for an Arkansas stone mining company. It’s all about particle density. There are lots of tutorials out there about how to “weigh” your stones. Even the same mine can produce different densities of the same stone. Different mines can also produce different colors and variations of the exact same density. Weighing your stones is just a good way to know where you’re at. Dunston “hard” black is less dense and much different than colored “translucent”.

Think of it like a stone road where all pebbles are the same size. The tighter the stones are packed together, the smoother the road feels.

Lapping is really important. A raw translucent freshly cut leaves deep scratches. After being lapped with 400 grit SiC it’s completely different. I have my porcelain translucent lapped to 3000 grit -- it makes a big difference.

And most importantly, what steel you’re using it on. Stronger carbide steels are too wear resistant for Arkansas stones. Carbon steels respond the best.