Sharpening / Thinning edges

Japanese water stones with a coarse grit (approx. 100 to 400) are perfectly suitable for sharpening knives that are extremely dull. The coarse grit  helps you to get the knives back to their correct shape (V-shape). However, we do recommend that you use a finer stone to polish it afterwards as this produces a thicker structure and therefore better cutting performance for a much longer period of time. Coarse grits are also ideal for thinning new blades making them meet with less resistance when cutting.

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Retaining sharpness / Fine sharpening

Finer Japanese water stones (grain 600 to 1,000) are ideal for retaining the sharpness of your knives and for providing a finer finish to edges that have first been sharpened with a coarser grit water stone. The sharpness achieved is more than satisfactory for many users and is often better than new knives straight from the factory and also much better and more durable than the sharpness attained from simple pull-through sharpening machines.

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Polishing

Extremely fine grit water stones (grain 3,000 to 10,000) are perfect for polishing knives. These stones produce a razor-sharp edge and what's more, they retain their sharpness for a longer period of time. We recommend that you first sharpen your knives using a coarser grit stone (see Retaining sharpness) since the finer grit stone removes very little material.

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Links
Detailed manual on "Sharpening with a Japanese Water Stone" (PDF)
Film: "Sharpening with a Japanese Water Stone"
film: "Testing Sharpness Using a Tomato"

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