Lie Nielsen new waterstones

[David Weaver]

No, I'd call O1 alloyed steel. Same with A2 and chrome manganese and chrome vanadiums that are in modern tools. That pretty much covers modern offerings. LV's powder steel feels similar to A2 and sharpens similar to it.

Carbon steel would be stuff like W1 (water hardening, etc) or old tools labeled "cast steel". Water hardening and vintage stuff labeled "cast steel" has little in it intentionally that is beyond carbon and iron. It works easily on any stone and when it's really hard, I don't necessarily like the feel of it on diamonds. There's no great reason not to use diamonds with it, though. A good cheap solution would be an ezelap 600 and a gray market shapton cream (like something from toolsfromjapan or whatever where you can get the benefit of the excellent exchange rate now). The ezelap could be used both to hone and to lap the surface of the shapton. That'd be about $110 or something.

[Chris Griggs]

A good cheap solution would be an ezelap 600 and a gray market shapton cream (like something from toolsfromjapan or whatever where you can get the benefit of the excellent exchange rate now). The ezelap could be used both to hone and to lap the surface of the shapton. That'd be about $110 or something.

Worth noting... for those who might want the Sigma 13k instead of the cream the current exchange rate is making options abundant. If you're in the states ordering from Stu the 13k is presently only like $12-$15 more than the gray market cream. IIRC it used to be more like $30-$40 more than the best prices I'd see on the 12k creams.

[Mark Roderick]

Very interesting. For years I have been using a white Norton followed by a yellow Norton followed by a piece of plywood with green rouge. Maybe your way is better/faster/cleaner. You certainly know more about it. I love my yellow Norton, just the silky feel of the metal on the stone.

[David Weaver]

Nothing wrong with the nortons.

[Chris Griggs]

The yellow 8k norton is a nice stone. The best of the Nortons IMO. Not as fine as some of the fancier finishers, but yields a good edge in its own right and is quite nice to use. Plus it is easily followed by any honing compound or micro abrasive when needed.

The only Norton I flat out don't like is the 220, and for anyone mainly relying on the 1k and 8k, who wants to upgrade I would recommend upgrading the 1k to something different before the 8k. Not that one needs to upgrade from the 1k. Its a perfectly decent stone too.

[Mark Roderick]

I have the Norton 1,000 but rarely use it.

Would you suggest the Shapton 15,000 over the green rouge? I do try to hone a few times before re-sharpening, so if the Shapton would help it would be worth it to me.

[David Weaver]

I can't see a great difference between the two. The green stuff that LV sells is pretty fast because it's got a bunch of aluminum oxide in it, and the shapton is certainly no finer in its overall effect.

Maybe revisit the issue when you run out of rouge if you like to bump your edge up from the norton a little bit, otherwise you're spending $100 on something different but not necessarily better.

You can use the shapton 15k like you describe (return to it fairly often to work an edge), but you can also already do that with wood and compound.