Alternatives to the Tormek SJ Stone

[Luis_J]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't think you would need the Japanese stone.  Just regular Tormek compound is 1-3 micron and gives a very nice polished edge.  I've switched to doing all my sharpening with belts now, but I have a Tormek and the Tormek compound did a fine job.

That said, I hope this gives your question a bump because there are many folks here who know more about and have far more experience with compounds than I do.  Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

You being a Chef, I'm curious why you prefer polished edges over toothy edges.  I'm no chef, but in my limited kitchen experience a toothy edge seems to perform better as it does not start to ride on the surface of things like tomatoes as quickly  as a polished edge does.

Grepper... Thank you very much for the warm welcome, and believe me, your response is on point. I'm going to start with the tormek just like it comes out of the box and once I've experienced it, I may or may not try to get finer results with different compounds, but for now I'll focus my effort on the machine use, the sharpening angle calculator software, the vernier and I'll work hard on understanding the principles of fine sharpening . I've spent a few hours reading this forum and it's way more advanced than I thought, but I'm enjoying it big time.

And about the toothy vs polished edges let me tell you that as a chef, I've discovered by experience that a polished edge lasts longer than a toothy one and you learn to enjoy the sensations of it. On the other side, a toothy edge gives you a lot of feedback, I think that it has a lot to do with personal preferences, a fellow cook in my kitchen doesn't like the edge on my knives at all and he sharpens in a very low quality-cheap stone that must be 300-400 grit and he says that my knives feel "slippery".
 
A few weeks ago, I had to do some prep work with a new forchner/victorinox chef knife and it felt nice too, the grity feeling of it while cutting veggies was nice, but as a personal preference, I enjoy more the clean and smooth feeling of an 8000 stone on the edge of my knives. 

I primarily use Japanese knives (Konosuke HD 24 Cm -A.K.A. a "lasser" -very very thin blade, HRC:61 that slices like a Star Wars light saber thru storm trooper flesh, a Masamoto HC 21 Cm HRC: 61-62 that handles very nice but is very very reactive and patina prone, and a Gesshin ginga 27 Cm. Stainless also HRC:61 wich is my absolute battle horse) all of them can take a great edge but I  have gone only as far as taking them to the 8000 grit stone and then to the leather strop with the dreaded green compound that looks like a piece of hand soap, I use that instead of an steel or a ceramic rod, and maybe once a week I "retouch" the edges on the 8000 stone.

I've read in other sites that when you go beyond 10,000 grit on kitchen knives, the cutting sensation is odd and that the knife doesn't feel very good, but I want to give it a try to understand how much of a polished edge is practical for cooking purposes.

On cooking standards, my knives feel very sharp, and that is the most important thing on a day to day basis, but  I really want to have a better understanding on the subject and to improve on the craft, I also want to be able to measure in a more objective way than just saying "My knifes are very sharp and polished to a 8000 grit and are sharpened 15 dps" I want to be able to really measure it. 
I know that as soon as I start using a sharp BESS and a microscope, I'll find a ton of flaws in my technique. Let's see how it goes, next Monday I'll order the Tormek, a cheap microscope, the 300mm vernier and the adventure will begin   , I'll keep you all posted.

Again, thanks for the welcome Grepper!