Fujitora Stones and my First Sharpening adventure

Hi all, 

First time poster here but have been soaking up lots of info in the past few weeks. 

Because of this information or in the most part despite of this information i went out yesterday on a hunt for a water stone or water stones within my budget. i ended up coming home with a Fujitora 1000/3000 stone with holder not necessarily because its what i wanted but it was the only water stone i found in the area for under $100 even an individual king stone at one of the shops was $240. 

This search came about because i really wanted new knives and to learn how to sharpen and have had my mind set on some new jap knives and an Edge Pro Chosera kit but alas the budget isn't going to allow for any of that in the near future and my knives are blunt now. 

The knives i have are shown here all stainless, all cheap and all dull.

Im going to try sharpen a few ASAP was wandering if there is a shape here that is going to be easier than the others to try get the feel for sharpening, also am intending on just using the MM trick and maintaining the current edge profile for the moment.

If anyone has used the Fujtora stones what did you think, any tips anything to look out for? 

all the instructions are in japanese so if someone could enlighten me on some basic care instructions like soaking time, clean up of the stone, storage etc.

This is to be my first sharpening attempt so if anyone felt so inclined to give me a few step by steps that would be awesome or some links but while waiting for replies ill be glued to marks videos to get me going.

Looking forward to having a crack, 

chris

So the Forum took 24hrs to clear my post and i couldn't wait to get into it.

Tried Sharpening the 8" chefs with mixed results, the first time was an improvement but i wasn't happy so i sharpened again. 

I'm finding it very difficult to detect the burr or possibly not creating the burr probably gave it 150+ strokes on the 1000 grit stone for result which i wasn't sure was actually a burr. In the end I've ended up with an edge that is what id call passably sharp when slicing but not very good for push cutting still not as sharp as i would like to achieve. 

i sharpened the knife on the left of the picture as well and was quite happy with the result on it again passably sharp on slicing not so much push cutting. 

the stone seems to be quite muddy at 1000 but the 3000 stone produces as little or near enough to no mud is this normal or possibly not a long enough soak (45mins - 1hr) 

and lastly i really need a method to flatten my stones, looked yesterday for dry wall screen as recommended by BDL but could only find this in varying grits and slightly larger pads but still only about 5in squares. when i say it was all i could find it was all there was that mentioned drywall.

Im fairly sure this isn't what needs to be used could someone post a pic or link to a DIY stone flattening setup. 

I'm going to build a flattener using glass as its very cheap to get off cuts around home, my question was it worth a larger sheet and possibly attaching 2 grits one for lapping and one for flattening like a little station? probably over the top for my current stone and knife requirements but after the fun and challenge i had yesterday I'm already thinking about my next stones and kit :)

Luckily my edges were so dull already that i could improve them enough to stay motivated and justify to the GF purchasing a $60 stone to sharpen $20 knives

Cheers, 

Chris

Would love to discuss the knife choices for me BDL I'm a bit of a research-a-holic, i tend to enjoy the discovery of a new hobby more than the hobby itself. A few times over the last weeks my GF has told me to hurry up and go buy the Edge thingamajigi and what ever knife brand i want as long as i stop telling her about all the different facets of a budding knife / sharpening fascination.  

Will get around to filling out the Knife questionnaire later this afternoon in the mean time am going on a search for some glass and dry wall screen. I'm wandering if in my rush to "force" myself into making a choice the other day I've ended up with a sharpening stone not right for my knives and possibly won't be good enough to sharpen future knives but I'm viewing it as a valuable investment because i love free hand sharpening, all i needed to do was try it and I'm not scared of it anymore. 

As a bit of food for thought I'm toying with the idea of sharpening for friends and family and possibly trying to get some cash out of it (i live in a small town so it will all be low key word of mouth stuff) which was my original reason for wanting the EP so i could become good enough sooner. After the edges I've got yesterday and my suspicions confirmed as to the effect of the steel verse the terribleness of my technique I'm just looking forward to finding more knives to practice on. in mind of this id like to build up my gear slowly due to budget but with the mind to be able to do both Jap and Euro knives to a good level but at the moment I'm not really interested in super sharp mirror edges just the grass roots home cook edge with suitable retention.

The benefit of living in a rural town is i have a shed with water and power so the old work bench is soon going to have a sink and some lamps installed to become my sharpening corner  

This will perhaps be a good thread for others on low budget if they can put up with my waffling on as i said i often enjoy the discussion more than the feeling of unwrapping the goodies. i will try keep pics going for anything i set up and anything i do end up going with.

One last thing any guidelines to picking up a cheap knife that can be sharpened on the general market (big w, hardware shops etc) i only need one to practice on and I'm not quite ready to sneak over to the inlaws and grab there globals for a going over.

cheers chris  

Was just browsing the shops didn't make it to the hardware but did see a glass chopping board which got me thinking its only $8 non slip feet already on it, would it be stiff enough to mount the dry wall screen to also what is the preferred method of adhering the dry wall screen any sort of spray on adhesive?

link to chopping board - http://www.target.com/p/Pyrex-Glass-Cutting-Board-12x16/-/A-10291930