ready to buy a set of stones !

[Chris Griggs]

Until you jump up to something really fine like chromium oxide/other honing compound or a sub 1 micron stone like the 13k, its hard to tell much improvement from other stones above the 6k after a palm stropping. The edge off my 6k is improved by my Naniwas Snowwhite 8k and I used to have a sigma 10k and that improved the edge also. However, the improvement is not easy to see in standard sharpness tests. By that I mean you will be able to pare softwood endgrain off the 6k and when you go to an 8 or 10k you'll still be able to do it with about the same ease. However the edge is sharper. You see it in the form of edge longevity and better result on less well behaved woods.

BUT Only when you go to something significantly finer than the 6k do you really notice the improvement. If you go to the 13k you go from cleanly paring softwood and leaving nice bright finish to sliding through endgrain that glows after the cut is made. Honestly unless you are going to go to something really fine like a sig 13 or a shapton 15 or a very fine honing compound I wouldn't bother going with another stone above the 6k. Until you get to something really fine the difference just isn't that significant, and if you know to let the 6k dry to work it finer and then palm strop it pretty much will make it better than or equal to most 8 to 10k stones in terms of how it performs on wood.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Well.. Thank you all so much for the input, and not just sending me to read previous posts.

I just ordered the special set with the 13000 stone and the 1200. I figured I'll be hurting due to all the lusting over it if I don't.

At the risk of asking the obvious, what is palm stropping? and how do you do it safely?

[Chris Griggs]

You just pull (NOT PUSH) the edge across your palm a few times, flipping it back an forth so you hit each side of the blade. Just go slow so you don't inadvertently stab yourself in the palm, DAMHIKT. I'm not exactly sure what it does but it makes the edge seem sharper. My guess is that it removes any remaining burr that wasn't removed. It makes a marked difference coming of off mid grit to medium fine stones (and oil stones) I'm not sure if it will do anything to improve the edge of the 13k though - that edge need no improvement.

[Georg Zudoff]

Hi,

Some words about sandpaper cleaning. I prefer to use 3M Wetordry sandpaper. Despite it is not cheap as Klingspor and other noname brands you can in Ukrainian do-it-yourself shops, 3M will stay longer. I use it for back of blades and for bevel forming too. Of coarse with water. After sanding I rinse sandpaper sheet with water and that's all. No vacuum cleaner, no magnets.