I have a small whetstone that I like, and I wish to get another of the same ilk. I like them small – I like to hold the whetstone in my hand and move it against a stationary knife instead of moving a knife against a large motionless whetstone. But that does mean they wear down more quickly (since there’s less of them to begin with).
I live on Long Island. Where might I find a store with competent personnel who can match the general abrasiveness and coarseness etc of an existing whetstone? Is that something I should assume any store that sells knives and sharpening stones would do, or do I need to seek out some kind of specialist store (or a professional knife grinder or whatever)?
This is exactly what I don’t know. I want to bring it in to someone and have them say “Aah, yes, this is an 800-coarseness whetstone, and I can show you the ones we have that have approximately that abrasiveness”.
I think the knife grinder idea is probably a good one. Anyone who’s been doing this professionally for a while can probably identify the coarseness by sight.