hahahaa... I going to buy some stock in spyderco! I have a feeling their sales are about to double.
The issue of ceramic stones has been covered before,as I mentioned. Much as I like mine,I cannot guarantee everyone will be happy with theirs because of the scrubbing they may take to get them smooth. I'd recommend getting the Ultra Fine because they apparently are ground smooth to start with. Some people are afraid they'll wear out their diamond stone flattening and getting saw cuts out of their white ceramic stones. I didn't seem to ruin my diamond stone,but others may have a different experience. If you do scrub,don't use a lot of force with the diamonds. I did mine beneath a faucet,too.
If you get a white stone with any spot of ceramic "fuzz" on it,that spot will never wear off. You have to get rid of it with a diamond stone. The Ultra Fine costs more,but should be satisfactory out of the box.
I'm going out to the shop and sharpen some kitchen knives now. But,not sharp enough to shave with!! Not necessary.
The 8x3 UF is close (to flat). the only thing I would grind it with is an Atoma, though, because the atoma has the particles affixed to the surface really well and can take a beating.
The UF that I got had just a bit of radial markings on it, something I've never seen before, and it took a lot of sweat to get them off, but the atoma is none the worse for wear despite it being fairly abusive.
I don't like the atomas for honing (because the diamonds are arranged in clumps), but they very durable and great for hard stones.
I just sharpened a bunch of kitchen knives. Only by honing them on a 320 grit diamond disc on my slow speed grinder. Then,I sharpened my 2 pocket knives. I got them razor sharp on my ceramic stones with just a little trouble.
I even took the trouble to scrub off the gray steel from my white stone. How ambitious I was!!
Then,I spent some time searching for a spare compound for a metal lathe which I have,and which some guy on the machinist's forum I moderate needs pretty badly. His cracked in two. I had that happen on a Sharp(a good Asian brand) lathe once. Since you can't get spare parts for the import stuff,it is a serious problem when you need a part like this. I'll have to go PM him the dimensions now. Years ago,before the internet,I had to sell an otherwise good metal lathe for lack of this very part. The gov't has the habit of taking the compound off and tossing it so they can sell off a surplus lathe as incomplete. The "residue" they call it. What a strange term for something like a truck,lathe,etc..
Hey Phillip -- I'm wondering if this the set you got at the Spyderco Store. Looks like a good solution for sharpening those oddball shaped cutters.
image.jpg
Thanks Philip and George, I'll take a closer look too at the Spyderco slips too and would also be interested in knowing if the above is the set in question - it looks from their site like it's quite small (e.g. 1/4in dia )...
Last edited by ian maybury; 08-20-2014 at 6:21 PM.
And the polycrystalline hones just keep getting better the more you use them—the older they get—in my experience, anyway. Your comparisons make plenty of sense to me—rasping, sawing, zipping—yeah, those work. Love the feel of well-broken-in poly stones. Am used to the scratchiness of monocrystallines on gem cutting laps, of course, but for sharpening, only poly will do—only poly will last.
You're right. And monocrystalline wear profiles don't meet expectations for many users. People who've been disappointed with monocrystalline stones have actually become angry when I tell them my positive diamond sharpening experiences using Eze-laps. Of course, even with Eze-laps, when the overly agressive new cutting characteristics settle into a more broken-in scratch pattern, some folks think they're worn out.
And jaspers vary, too. I'll get a denser streak pattern on some varieties than others and exploit those differences, especially on gravers and miniature carving tools where the final strokes remove so little metal as to polish or burnish.Jasper is super fantastic - a poor man's translucent oilstone, but one with sharper particles.
διαίρει καὶ βασίλευε
I like to get mine sharp enough to shave off thin slices of tomato.I'm going out to the shop and sharpen some kitchen knives now. But,not sharp enough to shave with!! Not necessary.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Mine will do that just off the 320 grit wheel. A very fine bit of tooth works well.
Except of coarse that weird guy Winton; he seems to think he needs his Shapton 120. His Duo Sharp Coarse / Extra coarse 220 just doesn't eat the bevels and backs like he would like it to. And we all know how much time he is willing to waste sharpening. It isn't like he is in a big hurry or anything.Diamond will cut as fast as anyone will need
But what does he know he is still using those old water stones. They are SOOOOooooo passé.
Sharpening is Facetating.Good enough is good enoughButBetter is Better.
I have had this in my Amazon queue for a long time watching the price. I don't really need it.polycrystalline
Maybe I should look at a polycrystalline instead.
Is there one in about 120 ?
Sharpening is Facetating.Good enough is good enoughButBetter is Better.
There's one in 150, winton. If it is true to the nature of other eze laps, it will settle in to feeling more like double its grit rating once it's broken in, though.
No . . . Shaptons as in Shaptons OK last week but Shaptons so old fashioned and out of step this week. What happened ? I used to be so hip. I was so hip I had trouble seeing over my pelvis.Those kind of old sharpening stones?
Now . . .
. . . I'm just that old guy at the bus stop with the bell bottoms.
. . . sigh.
Sharpening is Facetating.Good enough is good enoughButBetter is Better.