Barmaley's Aggregated Questions Thread

K kreisler yes that's the product. If you can get it, and you only use it for stones, it lasts a good while because you don't need to use much an dyou don't need to do it all that often.

I don't know about the pure stuff. I mean I'm sure it would work but I don't know anything about the handling, reactions, etc. at that concentration.
 
Rich S said:
On my Smith's ceramic stones I use a drop or two of Dawn dish washing liquid. Then rub it in all over the stone with my finger and then still rubbing, I slowly rinse stone with warm water. Takes about 95+% of the grime out/off the stone. Works very well.

Rich
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That's basically my post-sharpening cleanup for all my stones and is the majority of the maintenance I do. I give them some extra oil and quick wipe before the sink but that's it. The BKF scrub is mostly an every now and then thing.
 
I was thinking about acid since I ruined my Smith's Arkansas medium stone which I used only ones. By ignorance I thought that using oil is a bad idea, I thought that dry cutting should work faster so I was trying to sharpen a very soft steel junk knife and the stone became completely clogged. I can see metal sticking to the surface of the stone. I do not to ruin it more so I thought about safest for the stone technique to restore it. Washing with hand soap did not do any good.
 
Barmaley said:
I was thinking about acid since I ruined my Smith's Arkansas medium stone which I used only ones. By ignorance I thought that using oil is a bad idea, I thought that dry cutting should work faster so I was trying to sharpen a very soft steel junk knife and the stone became completely clogged. I can see metal sticking to the surface of the stone. I do not to ruin it more so I thought about safest for the stone technique to restore it. Washing with hand soap did not do any good.
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It's not ruined. Try the BKF and a good scrub.

If it still won't cut well, come back and ask about reconditioning it. David Martin David Martin and others can help you out.
 
Yes, my ceramic was tough and hard to level and I used diamond stones, coarse then fine. You must watch it close as it will glaze.
I have several coarse stones because it the 'work horse' of sharpening. My x coarse diamond I'm not impressed with as it sheds plenty of grit
with only moderate pressure & works slow. My JUM-3 at 120 grit SiC really works and I can lean on it. My Ace Hardware stone in coarse/ fine SiC is the fastest cutting stone I've used at 90 grit. The finer side is a medium 180 grit. I'm so glad to have this stone in my rotation as it works fast at rebeveling. Good luck, DM
 
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That ^ will work. I have used Comet & a stiff bristle brush and H2o w/ success. Hand cleaner will work if you have some. DM
 
bgentry said:
The medium worked pretty well for me, but has smoothed over. I think I used it incorrectly by not using oil and allowing it to break off new abrasive. I'm told I should condition it with loose silicon carbide.
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Yes, you should. :cool:
 
Barmaley said:
I was thinking about acid since I ruined my Smith's Arkansas medium stone which I used only ones. By ignorance I thought that using oil is a bad idea, I thought that dry cutting should work faster so I was trying to sharpen a very soft steel junk knife and the stone became completely clogged. I can see metal sticking to the surface of the stone. I do not to ruin it more so I thought about safest for the stone technique to restore it. Washing with hand soap did not do any good.
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This is actually the scenario best-suited to the use of BKF. An oil stone used dry will clog very fast. I used a SiC oil stone dry for some time, and also tried it just with water. But, even the water by itself didn't prevent the swarf from settling into the stone and clogging it. My usual cleaning method, of scrubbing with dish detergent and water, didn't work so well. I could still see the clogged pores in the stone after it dried. So, I used BKF as I mentioned before, letting it sit as a paste with water on the stone for a few minutes, then scrubbed it down with an old toothbrush. Got the swarf cleaned up and the stone was back to good-as-new.
 
BKF has been one of those products that has proven itself useful in many arenas, in the years I've been using it. Often outshining products touted for specific uses.

As David and others have said, it works a treat on sharpening stones of various kinds.
 
SubMicron said:
Your cell phone can take your loupe to the next level.

I just put my phone camera on the highest resolution settings and put the phone camera over the loupe. With some monkeying around, and getting the lighting right, you'll be able to get the phone camera to focus on the edge through the loupe.

From there, zoom in on the picture and take a screen shot of what you see.

Here's an example with a hair laying over the edge:

View attachment 1327389
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You got an awesome picture. After reading reviews on the web I crushed my old CD-ROM and used its lens with my cellphone. I got great magnification but lousy picture because of lighting issue: the phone has to be too close to the knife so I don't have enough space for LED light. May I ask you: what loupe did you use and what source of light in order to get such good picture?
 
Barmaley said:
You got an awesome picture. After reading reviews on the web I crushed my old CD-ROM and used its lens with my cellphone. I got great magnification but lousy picture because of lighting issue: the phone has to be too close to the knife so I don't have enough space for LED light. May I ask you: what loupe did you use and what source of light in order to get such good picture?
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I just have a lower end 30X loupe with a LED. It's nothing special and not expensive.

To get a good picture, its really a balancing act to get the right distance with the loupe and phone to get the camera to focus. It's a bit of a pain and I took multiple photos in order to get one good one.

I've fiddled around with flashlights and lamps as a light source. What matters most is the angle. You need the scratch pattern on the bevel to reflect light up into the camera.

In cases where my eye cant see a scratch pattern due to a high mirror, the Loupe + phone also usually will not show it.

I think a simple USB microscope would be significantly better
 
I use BKF on ceramic. I used simple green on a sharpton glass 6000 grit stone and it destroyed it. Now just use the glass surface for Emery paper. Very expensive Sharpton for this use.
 
Thank you SubMicron for detailed writing!!! What grit of sandpaper did you use? I looked up that "JUM-3 at 120 grit" which David likes is also made of Silicone Carbide. Can I use it instead of sandpaper? I am trying to follow David's advice to focus on low grid stones.
 
Thank you SubMicron for detailed writing!!! What grit of sandpaper did you use? I looked up that "JUM-3 at 120 grit" which David likes is also made of Silicone Carbide. Can I use it instead of sandpaper? I am trying to follow David's advice to focus on low grid stones.
 
Despite Sillicon Carbide being able to cut a Spyderco Ultrafine, the physical grain of the SC can not withstand the Spyderco stone and is quickly reduced. It's highly probable that you're going to wear down your SC stone far more than you'd expect.

I've never tried it and am by no means an expert.

What I can tell you is that when I pour 60 grit SC on glass, the Spyderco Ultrafine mostly just keeps reducing the grit of the SC into smaller and smaller bits.

When I use SC sandpaper, the Spyderco Ultrafine rips the grit off the sandpaper and then reduces it to fine powder.

The point of the sandpaper is that its inexpensive and disposable. You'll want several sheets of it in a range of grits

An Atoma Diamond plate or perhaps a DMT DiaFlat would be by far the most effective way to cut a Spyderco UF, but they are expensive and it's hard to justify the wear on them.

I recommend elbow grease, lots of it, on sandpaper, and then diamond plates for the final finish.

No matter how you approach it with SC, you'll end up with a very fine and smooth surface since the grit of the SC gets reduced
 
SubMicron said:
What I can tell you is that when I pour 60 grit SC on glass, the Spyderco Ultrafine mostly just keeps reducing the grit of the SC into smaller and smaller bits.

When I use SC sandpaper, the Spyderco Ultrafine rips the grit off the sandpaper and then reduces it to fine powder.

The point of the sandpaper is that its inexpensive and disposable.
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I have had the same experiences, but from them I don't know why you would choose sandpaper. Loose grit is more inexpensive and works faster. I use granite tiles which I think are more durable than glass as lapping plates. Someone (Diemaker?) recommended one of the synthetic quartz counter top materials, if you can get scraps.

Atoma and DMT plates are intended for cutting metal. There are tools intended for grinding and polishing stone that I think would be more suited to this task.
 
I think major point with SiC sandpaper is that glass/granite is not abraded and dished and hence the stone could be properly flattened.

One might try loose grit on worn sandpaper to see if it helps fasten the process.
 
The problem with sandpaper on glass, or a truly flat surface, is the periphery of the stone will be worn more than the center, so it is not quite flat.
 
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