[yliu]

I have been panning to get a Japanese water stone for sharpening my knives, Swiss army knives, and multi tools.
 
I have never used a water stone before so I would like your advice of a 1000 and 3000 grit two sided water stone would be enough to make a nice sharp edge.
 
I would like the edge to be as sharp as when I got them new, is that possible with 3000 grit stones? or I need something finer?

 

[Kabat]

I've been making and repairing knives for a couple of years now and I've accumulated a bunch of stones. For most sharpening I tend to use a King brand 1200/8000 combination stone. If I've sharpened the knife recently I'll go straight to the 8000 side, if I feel the edge needs more work I'll get it started on the 1200 then move up to the 8000. You can strop the knife on a leather strip loaded the rouge compound, but I generally don't bother unless I need an absolute razor edge -- 8000 will slide right through any food prep chore with ease. If you're planning to work on knives with really damaged edges you may want to get a coarse stone, I use a DMT diamond stone that's about 500 grit (anything more messed up than that and I use my belt grinder). Diamond stones can be a little annoying to work with but they have the huge advantage of never dishing, which is usually a problem with coarser stones as they tend to be softer.

 

[charvak]

I have the 2 sided Norton waterstones.  I have a 220/1000 and a 4000/8000.  The 220 wears down fast, so I'd suggest getting a whole stone of 220 for grinding down other people's badly damaged knives.  The 1000 side gets the knives sharp and I only use the 4000/8000 for my straight razor.  Sharpening a kitchen knife with 8000 grit seems overkill.

 

[pigmode]

Great responses, but I'll chime in anyway. For most high quality *working* (western) kitchen knives which will for the most part be maintained with a steel, 1000-1200 waterstones are ideal. Japanese polishing stones 6000-8000 grit are more appropriate, but not necessarily exclusively for handforged Japanese kitchen knives and woodworking blades. ymmv

 

[dc-k]

I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker, It's very easy to use (I'm no sharpening expert) and versatile and keeps all my knives in good nick with no major fuss. 

 

[tempest11]

  I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker, It's very easy to use (I'm no sharpening expert) and versatile and keeps all my knives in good nick with no major fuss. 

 
I use one of these too for my knives that have v-grind edges. I just finish them off with a strop after using the sharpmaker and they're sharp enough to pop hairs fairly easily.