I started off with the standard double sided oil stone, really f*&king course and f*&king course. Does the job for most, but I quite enjoy doing a few nice kitchen knives as well. So need to go quite a bit finer.
Bought a Lansky, which was all good on smaller straighter knives but on a large kitchen knife or curved hunting they didn't really work that well.
I enjoy the whole process, so went with the Japanese whet stones. Only need two double sided stones, 600/1000 and a finishing maybe 3000/6000. Probably cost ya $200 if that.
For most, 1000 grit will be good enough to finish on. All depends on what you want to spend and how much you enjoy doing it.
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