Best Waterstones?

R

ritzblitz

Joined
Dec 31, 2006
Messages
293
Hi guys

I'm looking to buy some waterstones. I was wondering which ones perform the best?

Thanks.

Alex
 
I have been experimenting with norton waterstones, and depending on what you want to do they might work. Knives that I have tried to finish with the 1000grit Norton (actually 600grit paper eq), the steel has more of a gray look to it compared to the same steel paper finished. The 220 grit stone removes material fast, but the stone wears quickly. It needs to be dressed about once an hour under hard use. It also drains pretty fast, so you have to stop and recharge the stone with water fairly often. The 1000 lasts pretty long before it needs to be dressed. I have not had much luck with the 8000 yet cause of my form, I keep scratching the stone and the broken bits scratch the steel if you do not stop and flush the surface immediately. Not having the 4000 did not help either. I was using water and a splash of full strength simple green. That is supposed to keep the stone from loading up with metal residue better than straight water. Anyhow, I do not have any finished knives from the waterstones cause of what I mentioned before. I am going to try finishing with paper up to maybe 800 or 1000 and then see what the 8000grit stone does, and work on my form! But, if you want to use the stones from start to finish, you need the whole set 220 to 8000, and the flattening stone is definately a must. I stole one of my wifes baking pans and kept em in there soaking full time so you can use em whenever you want.

http://www.nortonstones.com/Data/El...it.asp?ele_ch_id=L0000000000000004978&Lang=US

If you do some research you can find it cheaper than what Norton wants. I got it from this joint. they are having a special on the whole lineup with flattening stone, pretty cheap.

http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/11954
 
I like diamonds better than waterstones...pretty much zero wear, and you can get diamond powder down to .05 microns, I don't see any need for less than that :D
 
That Norton link has the best prices I've seen.

I use Norton, Shapton, and King. They all work great, but the Shapton stones cut fastest and leave a great finish. King stones cut the slowest, but leave almost as good of a finish as the Shaptons. The Nortons are in between for speed and finish, but their finish is also top-notch.

JWW has the best price on Shapton Pros.
 
Not to hijack but are stones good for hand finishing a blade say after you have ground it out to 320 (flatground mainly)? I'd like to start using some to finish blades out and I mainly use stainless steels. Thanks for any help.
 
They can be. Don Fogg has had good luck with polishing stones for such things and you can, too. If you've ever seen an EdgePro knifesharpener, its stones are polishing stones mounted to an aluminum blank. One good place to find them is Congress Tools. I also know of a sword polisher who uses Shapton's Glasstones with great success.

Regular waterstones might wear down a little too quickly for polishing flats and leave you with a high polished; but highly rounded; surface.
 
JWW?????

I need more then JWW...............please. Shapton's are so $$$$ but work so well.

Thanks

Syn
 
get their catalog.... some of the wood working chisels are unreal;)

i use king stones... have some norton .. king seems to last longer and they were cheap at lee valley

G
 
There's more than waterstones and cooking knives in that catalog? :confused: Must be on the pages I skip.

The Kings are fine stones, but they're very slow. Still, their 4000 grit stone is better than Norton's 4000 grit stone by a longshot.
 
Ritzblitz,

Try contacting D_R_Sharpening over at Knifeforums. He's a professional sharpener and has a set of Shapton Professional stones. Maybe he can let you try some out. There are several more than the ones we mentioned. Searching posts for yuzuha should give you more waterstone info than you thought was possible.
 
For what its worth I tried the same EDM stones that Don was using several years ago. They seemed to work great until I started noticing scratches I was getting from the use of the stones. As far as I know Don no longer uses them and neither do I. I'll stick with a good brand of wet/dry like 3-M.
 
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