Quote Originally Posted by David Weaver View Post
You're ahead of me if you're already intentionally playing with the polish from a lower grit stone - by years! I haven't done it in earnest until i started with razors and realized that I had exactly zero stones that were suitable to finish a razor when they were freshly scuffed.

... buying a set of stones ... I like all of them, but I see them all as sort of the same thing. They make a great set of stones to use, any one of them, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy any one of them.

But for the people who would hesitate to buy any of them ... skill can replace wallet thickness and provide results that are just as good ...And the more I learn to use them all, the less different they all seem.
Okay, ahead of you--but only in age! Wow, the knowledge and wisdom you've accumulated in such a short time! My hat's off to you. You, sir, are one of the best informed people in the room. Of course, Stu and Joel (and many others, too) deserve those accolades.

I owe such experimentation suggestions to Orlando (OBG). He's quite knowledgeable, seriously so, in these matters. We joke around about our fanatical pursuit of the unobtainable sharp edge: there might need to be a 13 step program for blade sharpeners--both for the blade backs and bevels :-). He clued me in to steel nuances that reacted to one stone binder better or worse (think, slower or faster sharpening) as well as to the world of stone responsiveness. For instance, I prefer hard stones to a point; but, if a stone can't produce slurry beyond mere swarf, that stone loses appeal for usage. Once I learned what polishing "FELT" like, it's hard not to want to polish. IMO, polishing = burnishing the final edge, and I can do that nearly well on a Chosera 1k, and definitely on a Chosera 3k and a Gesshin 4k. The Sigma 6k absolutely polishes--but it's not primarily a polishing stone. Like the Choseras, the Sigma power 6000 is a cutter. Keep adding water to soften the swarf and this stone will just keep making an edge sharper, and mirror edge polished, too. But what's lacking in the Sigma 6k is that FEEL. Orlando tells me that the Sigma 8k is the fantastic "feel" stone for polishing. He and another friend, Eric, describe the Sigma power 8k as nearly doubling the polish factor beyond the 6k. Wow! That sounds great. I've just got to get with Stu and make an order (awaiting a reply currently). Now, beyond the 6k I can tell the cut quality coming off the 13,000 is much better than off the 6000 but the blade looks the same, just brighter.

So, to sum up--polishing matters, sometimes. For me, this is the domain of planing end-grain. To achieve that level of sharpness for normal planing is okay--but, honestly, overboard. So our finer grit stones allow us to attack difficult grain, endgrain, and finishes for smoothing so that no sanding is required. Now that I've invested in better and higher grit stones, my use of sand paper for flat work has gone way down. Sharper blades really do make a difference; and to use David's analogy--sharpness without resistance is the shaving feel sought for!

Back to our search, now, for more stones and yet further esoteric sharpening nuances