Nubatama ume 1000 grit review

Posted on February 20, 2012 by admin

Nubatama ume 1000 grit review

Nubatama ume 1000

I don’t know what to say, this was supposed to be an ordinary review, stating the facts and impression of the stone. Fist off it isn’t like any other 1k stone, it feels porous, have a beautiful deep blue color, sounds porous dry, and feels more like a lower grit stone to the touch. My first thought was to compare it to some other very common stones in this grit range, like Sigma ps, Shapton pro, Beston and Chosera. The second thought was to compare it to some cheap clay stones and I realized that the Nubatama would eat them alive so that would not be fair. Third thought was Chosera 1k, but I don’t use it anymore, because I usually go straight to Bester 2000 wish is my everyday midrange stone. Well after the Nubatama 320 retired my Bester 500, maybe I should compare it to Bester 2k instead. I love Bester 2k, I know even before I start that I will still love the Bester in the end, and that there is no way that I will retire it.

Nubatama ume 1000 vs. Bester 2000

Size: Nubatama wins it’s twice the size
Dry out time: Bester 2k wins 3min 10sec and just 2min 26sec for Nubatama
Cutting speed: Nubatama wins it’s not twice as fast, but definitely much faster
Dishing: None of them dish much, but Bester dish slightly less
Finish: Bester 2k wins, it leaves a much clearer finish
Feel: I love the feel of Bester 2k, but with mud build up Nubatama feels super nice just in a different way.

Ok I realize that it isn’t a fair compare, I love the Bester and the grit is too different to even try to compare them. I went and got my old favorite Chosera 1k, to see if that is a better match up.

Nubatama ume 1000 vs Chosera 1000

Size: Nubatama wins it’s twice the size
Dry out time: They are both thirsty stones but the Chosera wins with a tiny 10sec
Cutting speed: Nubatama wins but not with much, my guesstimate is 5%-10% faster
Dishing: Nubatama wins but not with much
Finish: Chosera wins it has a better finish
Feel: They both feel awesome but very different; I had almost forgotten how smooth the Chosera felt so this is more a matter of taste.
Clean up on higher grit: I give it a slight edge to Chosera, but it is not as much as I would have thought.

Would I replace my favorite Bester 2000 with Nubatama ume 1000, no I would not. Would I chose Nubatama ume 1000 over Chosera 1k, yes I would because it is twice the size, dishes less and doesn’t have that green mud that stains everything. But if you really care about finish in this grit range, Chosera might be your choice.

Conclusion:

Nubatama ume 1k isn’t a metal eating beast like Sigma 1k, but it cuts faster than most other 1k stones and it doesn’t dish much and you get a big stone that will last you a while. What is really amazing doing knife sharpening on this stone, is hard to put down in facts. It is a matter of feel, after building up the first mud with another 1k stone, it has the magic, that magic feel and sound that makes you drool, it awakens that warrior sharpening his sword deep inside that have been hidden for a long while. You slow down and close your eyes, and hear and feel every stroke against the stone, and feel how the power almost makes you beam energy, everything else around you disappear and that edge is taken from sharp metal to an edge that will carry a piece of your soul forever.

Do I have to say more, I love the feel of this stone, now I just have to find use for it. I might end up using it as a step up stone after Nubatama ume 320, if it shows that it could save me some time. If someone was just buying a single stone to keep their knives sharp, I would definitely recommend Nubatama ume 1k as their to go stone.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpening, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Nubatama ume #320 vs Bester #500

Posted on February 19, 2012 by admin

Nubatama ume #320 vs Bester #500

I just got 4 Nubatama Ume stones #320, #1k, #4k and #6k, I was a little hesitant to buy them because the only reviews I could find was from the people selling them. Anyway here they are and I will start with the Nubatama Ume #320 and compare it to my favorite coarse stone Bester #500, and if it is up to the task it will replace the bester in my setup. I love the Bester, it cuts fast and give a decent feedback, the downside is that I use a lot of pressure with the coarse stones and it dish fast and it is tough to flatten. I use up 2-3 bester #500 a year, and it dries out way to quick, so for me it’s not problem free. I know I could use DMT’s but I hate the feedback and the scratches they create is hard to get ride of. The list of coarse stones I have tested in this grit range is extended, the one that got closest to Bester was Chosera #400 it did dish but not as much and left a nicer finish, but it doesn’t cut as fast and time is money.

Nubatama ume 320 and Bester 500 water stones

As you all see the Bester is well used and in it’s prime, so it will be a tough one to beat. The things I will compare first are, cutting speed, dishing, general feel, and the finish they leave. The Nubatama came really flat, I still gave it a fast flattening to get ride of that new stone feel before I started the test.

Drying time compair between Nubatama ume 320 and Bester 500

One thing that bothers me with bester is how fast it dries out, so that was the first thing I tried. The Nubatama is a tiny bit better, 48sec for Nubatama and 34sec for bester, but its almost a 50% improvement that will actually make a little difference.

2 brand new Kiwi knives to use to compare Nubatama ume 320 and Bester 500

To make the cutting speed test fair, I have used 2 brand new cheapo Kiwi knives. I know it’s cheap somewhat soft stainless, but at least it will give me an idea of how fast they cut. I have sharpen Henckels twin cermax rc 66 on Bester, possible but it takes a lot of time, so I know Besters limit. With in time I will test the Nubatama on some really hard steel to, and will give a report how it went. Even if I expected Nubatama to be slower cutting than Bester after reading a few peoples impression of it, and feeling how smooth it was out of the box. Well it wasn’t, it just took 6 strokes to get a good burr with Nubatama and 10 strokes to get a burr on Bester. So Nubatama Ume #320 definitely cut faster and it behaves as expected for a #320 grit stone.

Edge finish difference between Nubatama ume 320 and Bester 500

The Bester isn’t know to leave a nice finish, but Nubatamas finish at least on the burr is even rougher as it should be for a low grit stone. What I think is fascinating though, is that the surface is slightly greyer from the Nubatama that is usually a sign of a finer stone. Time will tell but I definitely think that Bester leaves a better finish.

The difference in dishing between Nubatama ume 320 and Bester 500

Here comes the most positive surprise, Nubatama dishes less not by much, but still less. The picture is taken after 50 strokes on the corner on each stone, and as you see it obvious that Bester dishes a little bit more. So taking in effect that Nubatama is faster cutting and dishes slightly less, it should mean much less stone flattening. Yeah.

As you hear in the video the sound isn’t much different between them, and the feel is somewhat the same. The Nubatama doesn’t have the annoying sticky feel under pressure as the bester have, but definitely feels a little bit rougher. They both have similar amount of feedback feeling, but to be honest I actually think I prefer the feel of the Nubatama. (it might just be that the Nub is the newest one and that I just have an hour on it)

I did a fast test cleaning up the scratches on a higher grit stone, in this case I used a Bester #2000 grit. They both cleaned up equally fast, it makes me think that the finish from the Nubatama just looked rougher and in reality they were pretty much the same.

Flattening: They are both pretty hard stones to flatten, but I think it went slightly faster to flatten the Bester.

Conslusion:
Nubatama pos: Twice the size, Cuts faster, dishes slightly less and doesn’t dry out as quickly as Bester.
Nubatama neg: Leave a slightly rougher finish and a bit harder to flatten.
Bester pos: Leave a slightly better finish, slightly easier to flatten
Bester neg: Cuts slower, dishes more, dries out faster

After using the Nubatama a little bit more, I definitely prefer the feel and performance of it over the Bester and it is the coarse stone I will be using from now on. I will keep the bester though, in case the Nub doesn’t perform well on really hard steel.

Update: After some heavy use the last week, I still love the stone. I have sharpened some hard steel +rc61 knives on it, and the nub dish as much as Bester if not a little more wish was a bit disappointing, but I have realized that it is much easier to flatten than my first impression so it evens out. One other thing it is a rather muddy stone, and it helps the cutting speed a lot, the mud is the grainy sandy kind so it is a bit messy and not the most pleasant one.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpening, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Best knife sharpening in Santa Monica shows how to sharpen a knife

Posted on January 26, 2012 by admin

First you need to make sure that the knives are straight and determine if they have chips or other damages. You also need to check if the edge bevel is correct for the knife, all this need to be corrected before sharpening could begin. Straighten and do all repairs, for repairs I recommend a really coarse DMT plate wish makes it fast and easy, and for rebevelling something in the 500# grit range depending on how hard the steel is.

Before starting the sharpening, prepare the stones and make sure they are flat and have them soak if needed. Find the right bevel angle check my post about “What edge angle to use on different knives” for a general idea what angle to use. For an easy way to find the angle is to measure the height of the blade at the heel, let say that your knife is 2” high at the heel as the knife in the picture bellow.

Measuring knife blade height at heel

In this case you could just divide the height of the blade, to get an estimate height that you need to hold the spine above the stone. Bellow I have a large heavy duty knife of bad quality so I decided to give it an dull edge angle of 30°. I divided the height of my blade with 2 and that tells me that I have to hold the spine one inch above the stone, see picture bellow.

Measuring knife spine distance from stone

Here is a table of rough estimate of values to divide the blade height with for different angles.

For 30° divide by 2

For 24° divide by 2.5

For 20° divide by 3

For 15° divide by 4

For 12° divide by 5

When you have fixed everything you need and the angle is right you could start sharpening. I usually start with a coarse stone 700# grit till I get a smoth straight edge with a burr, and continue with a medium stone in the 1000# – 2000# grit range making sure that I keep it tight and have a light burr. I usually holding the knife diagonal over the stone to avoid wobbling, see picture bellow.

best knife sharpening in Los Angeles Hand sharpening knife diagonally to avoid wobbling

Santa Monica hand sharpening knife diagonally to avoid wobbling

After this I deburr with some light edge trailing strokes on both sides, and a few strokes on a cork or a piece of wood, before moving on to the finishing stones. See pictures bellow.

Edge tailing strokes on fine sharpening stone to deburr

Deburring knife edge on cork

I usually start the finishing work with a fine stone in the 4000# – 6000# grit range and using lighter and lighter pressure, this stage it’s a lot about feel and sound and if the ground work is done on coarser stones 10-20 strokes per side should be enough. This should be enough for most ordinary kitchen knives, just deburr on a cork. At this stage you should be able to shave with the knife with a little bit of pressure.

If you want you could continue with super fine stones all up to the 30k# grit, but I most often only use a 8k# and 12k# stone to get that shiny finish. Of course you could continue even more, with lapping films and strops with different dressings until you get that dark deep mirror finish. On my own knives I usually do it in this order, depending of what knife it is.

Fast sharpening: 2000#, 6000# and leather strop with blue magic. For a more over excessive way: 320# DMT, 500# Bester, 1000# Sigma, 2000# Bester great feel, 2000# more like a 4000# Unknown brand, 6000# Nubatama, 8000# Kitayama, 12k# Shapton, Balsa with polishing cream, Leather strop with Autosol or Mothers and finally horse butt leather strop without dressing.

Things to remember

Make sure stones are flat and clean.
Don’t use to much pressure, let the stones do the work.
Avoid doing it to fast, so you don’t wobble.
try your best to keep the angle, after a while it will come naturally.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Knife repair, giving new life to a broken knife

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Santa Monica Knife Sharpening

Unsharp broken knife before regrinding

This knife was given to me by a good friend, at first look it doesn’t look to bad except for the big chip right there the heel starts. After a closer look I realized that the primary bevel was concave and parts of the edge was folded over, I also realized that the secondary bevel was way wider in the back and at the tip. Look at that tip I could have folded it by hand, it was thin as aluminum foil. At the moment I just saw two different ways to fix it, one was to leave the primary bevel concave and try to give it a new edge on the side of a sharpening stone, or regrind a new flat primary bevel and give some sort of compound edge. I decide to give it a new primary bevel to get rid of all edge damages and big scratches on shinogi.

Illustration of edge before and after regrinding

Above is a little illustration what it look like before and after, and what I would like to achieve. First I went to work with a large blacksmith file, because of the amount of material that I needed to take off, just to realized that it didn’t give me much precision, tried a bunch of different coarse stones, the one that eventually seams to do the best job was Beston #500. With this stone I worked until I got an even flat primary bevel all the way to the edge, I also used it to set the secondary bevel. After that I changed to King #1000 to smooth both bevels out and did some initial sharpening. After that just a fast brush with Bester #2000, before starting with my favorite stone it’s a man made blue Aoto rated to #2000 but feels much finer. This blue Aoto gives that perfect mist to the soft steel on the primary bevel, its super soft and have great feedback; the only thing is that if you don’t want your hand to look dirty for days after, use glows. For final sharpening and finishing on the secondary bevel I use Kitayama #8000 also a great stone, after this just some light stropping, before setting the micro bevel with Shun #6000 wish gives a nice bite to the edge.

I also did some clean up and light polishing just to make it easier to clean, I’m using it daily now, and its one of my favorite knives. I realized that I’m not good at always cleaning and drying the knife after use, so it started to get some stains/rust on the pretty mist on the primary bevel, so I gave it a light polish with #2000 sandpaper and all is good now. Yes of course its sharp, not hair popping sharp, but sharp enough to shave with or to slice cigarette paper into small strips. Pictures of the knife after regrinding below.

Knife after repair, regrinding and polishing

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Fixing reverse bow edge and sharpening a Global knife

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Reverse bow edge

As you see in the image of the knife, the edge just make contact at heal and tip, with a big gap between the surface and the edge in the middle. This is a common damage for knives that has been sharpened on small electrical counter machines. The easiest way to fix this is to grind the edge down till it makes contact all the way on the side of a coarse sharpening stone.

The bow edge is know fixed and in contact with the whole edge

This is after the edge grinding, as you see the edge makes contact with the surface all the way. Time to start to recreate the bevel, for this I used a coarse DTM (steel plate with diamond particles embedded. After that I started the sharpening on Beston #500 until I got a good burr, to follow up with a no name #1000 stone, #2000 Bester, #5000 Naniwa and finally Kitayama #8000 stone.

The edge is straight, shiny and sharp on the Global knife

The Global knife once again has its edge straight, sharp and smooth

The edge is straight, smooth and shiny, and you could see that it make contact all the way after the sharpening job.

The edge in x15 magnification after the sharpening job

Well the edge doesn’t look to shiny magnified x15 in real life it looks mirror polished.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Shaving cheap with straight razor

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

Old dirty and rusty Worcester straight razor

Rusty and pitted tip of a Worcester straight razor

This is an old Worcester Razor that I bought for $5, as you see it has been seeing better days. It’s dirty pitted, with some heavy dark rust spots to the front, but it is of good quality and will make a good shaver. The goal is to just getting it cleaned up a little, and in shaving shape fast and easy.

Sanding of Worcester Straight razor with 400 grit sandpaper

First a I got rid of the heavy rust with #220 and #400 grit sandpaper, after that I continued with #800, #1000, #1500 and #2000 just to make it a little smoother and easier to keep clean.

Worcester straight razor with a light clean up

This is what it looks like after the light sanding job, time to start sharpening.
I started to carefully set a new bevel with Beston #500, I don’t think this step would have been necessary if I hadn’t got to that edge with the sanding paper. After that I did the primary sharpening alternating between Bester #2000, and a Shun #6000 stone as in the table below, with lighter and lighter touch for each step.

Step Stone Laps
1 #2000 20
2 #6000 20
3 #2000 12
4 #6000 20
5 #2000 6
6 #6000 16
7 #2000 2
8 #6000 10

I know it doesn’t seams logical to alternate, but until I started to do it like this learning to sharpen razors, I didn’t consistently get them hair popping sharp. I’m sure there are theories why it works, but I haven’t researched it. After this I start to finish the edge with Kitayama #8000, I used to use Naniwa super stones #12000 for this, but realized that Kitayama actually were doing a better job. After this step I usually finish up with 3M lapping film on granite, with edge trailing motion and some stropping with Blue magic polishing cream on leather and on a straight horse butt strop without any dressing.

Worcester straight razor passing the hanging hair sharpening test

Sharpness number 5, its popping hanging hair without problem.

The Worcester razor's edge magnified after sharpening and stropping

This is what the edge look like magnified, pretty good for something that might be a 100 years old. It is a good shaver, not the smoothest ever but better than acceptable. I have no idea about how good it will hold an edge, because I have just used it once, but I have a feeling it will hold up for a few shaves with just stropping. If it’s cared for, I’m sure it might give 50 more years of shaving. I think a cheap straight razor like this is a great choice for someone just starting out using straights. You would never again have to go out and pay an arm and a leg for Gillette fusion, and you would be good to the environment recycling a piece of history not to mention how manly it makes you feel using a straight razor. I’m Swedish, so my preferences when it comes to vintage straight razors, is Swedish straight razors, and I try to pick up cheap ones as soon as I have an opportunity.

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

For free pickup and delivery on the Westside, call/txt 310-486-6068 or email.

Magnus Pettersson Hand Knife Sharpening

Hand Sharpening in Santa Monica, CA

Tag Archives: beston #500

Nubatama ume 1000 grit review

Nubatama ume #320 vs Bester #500

Best knife sharpening in Santa Monica shows how to sharpen a knife

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

Knife repair, giving new life to a broken knife

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

Fixing reverse bow edge and sharpening a Global knife

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.

Shaving cheap with straight razor

Magnus Pettersson hand sharpener, now serving the whole Westside with free pickup and delivery: Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Culver City and West LA.