Arkansas or Ceramic Advantages Advice?

W

Walker

Joined
Feb 28, 1999
Messages
139
I've been using a Norton combination (coarse and India) 12" bench stone for 30 years and it's been okay for the edges I needed. I also have a Sharpmaker. I've just decided I want a better edge for my more flexible knives and so have decided to buy something additional and would like some advice.

Right now I don't want to go with a new direction, like a waterstone, but do want a more polished edge. (I don't like to sharpen flexible blades on the Shaprmaker.) When I started sharpening knives, the black Arkansas was the thing, but a quick review here of recent posts leads me to think that some folks think they're a little slow.

So, what direction should I go to upgrade my edges one level from the India I use now?

Thanks?
Walker
 
I would try Spyderco's medium, fine, and ultrafine benchstones. The medium and fine are the same ceramic that came with your sharpmaker and will easily put a nice polished edge on a knife. You can pick the medium and fine up for around $30 and the ultrafine for around $50. When using these it woul help to have another stone a bit lower in grit than the medium (which is about 800) to set the bevel. The medium is a polishing stone and it takes a very long time to reprofile an edge with it. If you want fast metal removal than the D8XX from DMT is the ticket. It's around 120 grit and it removes metal faster than just about anything. I also have a DMT coarse and medium which I use before switching to the Spyderco ceramics. Youll find that your coarse stones are much more important than your finer finishing stones because if an edge is not properly formed at lower grits, it can be almost impossible to get a sharp edge with finer grits.
 
Thanks, Unc. If I had to get just one of them to supplement the stones I now have, which would you suggest?

Walker
 
Walker,

I think a translucent arkansas (a good one from Norton or the like) cuts pretty darn fast. What I mean is, considering it's a polishing stone, and considering you will already have a serviceable edge coming off the fine India, it will do the job just fine and leave a bunch of swarf to prove it is actually removing metal.

That said, between the fine and ultrafine Spyderco benchstones (which I also have and like), it really depends on what you want to cut. Both are great, but the fine will leave a bit more aggressive edge for slicing, while the EF will be a bit more polished, hence better for pushing and the like.

John
 
Walker said:
Thanks, Unc. If I had to get just one of them to supplement the stones I now have, which would you suggest?

Walker
Click to expand...

I would say I use the medium the most because it is a polishing stone but still coarse enough for burr removal. It works great for touching up an edge to bring it back to full sharpness as well. When one of my knives loses that scary sharp extremely "grabby" edge, I'll make about 20 passes on the medium at the same angle I originally finished the knife at. This will normally bring the edge back 100%, assuming you don't let it get too dull.
 
I have a washita pocet stone i use for field touchups on my carbon blades, it leaves an excellent working edge, with enough bite to get the job done, and enough polish to hold the edge...
 
Like you, I use an india and I also have the spyderco medium stone also. The spyderco stone sees a lot of use touchups, etc. If you don't wash it regularly, it might as well be a fine. It works ok. I would really rather have the fine because I mainly use it for a finishing stone.

Really I'd like to have one fine sharpmaker rod - I like a long narrow stone to finish with.
 
You can re-read John Frankl's response and skip mine. He probably said it better.

I also have a norton combo stone, coarse and India, that I've had for some 30 years. I finish on a hard white Arkansas. That's usually good enough for a good sharp working edge. If I want to go finer to get a push-cutting edge, I then use a Black Arkansas stone after the white.
 
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