Ceramic Rid

M

MarkPinTx

Joined
Aug 21, 2003
Messages
801
I have a white ceramic rid about 6" long that I bought years ago at a gun show. This was in the era of the Case crock stick and I think I was thinking that I would use it like a steel. I was 12 or so.


Well, fast forward to today and I have a variety of stones and a strop bat with green and black.


I still reach for that rod for touch ups all the time. I feel like in many cases it is giving me better results than the strop. Is this an illusion? Indicative of flawed technique? Do I just like the feel of a toothiet edge?


If there is a flaw in my technique it is probably in not having a progression of fine stones. And perhaps impatience in moving up in grit. I don't use a loupe but I look for even bevels and can see a polished vs scratched edge.
 
I can totally relate.

One thing I've been thankful for, is that I've held on to all of the sharpening 'junk' (as I often used to call some of it) accumulated over the last 20+ years of my knife hobby. For some strange reason ( :rolleyes: ), most of those tools have mysteriously improved in performance in that time. Must be aging to perfection, like a fine wine or a single malt scotch. :D

My counter-example to your ceramic rod is this crock-stick set seen below. Bought it at a gun/knife show back in the early '90s. The rods included in this cheap set may be the best ceramics I've used (2nd pic compares size with a Sharpmaker's rod). And as a bonus, those round rods (3/8" diameter) fit snugly into my Sharpmaker's base, which gives me an additional angle option (4th pic). The pic of the print ad gives some perspective as to why the 'best' may not always have to be the most expensive.


David
 
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Forgot to add, I don't know if your stropping technique is necessarily bad/deficient. Sometimes, a particular type of steel or edge profile will respond better to something else, depending on what you want from the edge. Steel type really is a big factor, because some steels (really cheap stainless, for example) won't necessarily respond well to extra polishing on a strop. Very coarse-grained & soft stainless steel (in the same blade) is a horrible combination for polishing to a very fine edge. I have an old Japanese-made 'inexpensive' paring knife (from a block set), that won't cut worth a darn unless it's coarsely finished. The best edge I've put on it so far, was with a very coarse, black emery board (of the type used for fingernail-filing). Grit is something akin to 220 grit wet/dry paper, maybe coarser. The thin convex that resulted cuts very well, but the steel still doesn't hold that edge very long. Needs frequent touch-ups.

On the other hand, some really well-done 1095 will cut well with any edge finish you choose to put on it (coarse to mirror polish), assuming the edge geometry is good.

You might try different compounds for your stropping, as well. Some compounds may not be aggressive enough for a given steel (like green compound vs. S30V, for example). Other compounds will be the flip-side of that, in that they might be too aggressive (diamond on 1095; even SiC compound sometimes will over-polish some simpler steels).


David
 
interesting. I also have a dmt triangular hone with three sides and corners for serrations etc. It is the same white ceramic (one diamond side) as the rod. I use a flat side of it as a fine hone but it still doesn't do what the rod does. I know about the point stresses generated at the rod/edge interface but I don't know if that explains it. weird.
 
MarkPinTx said:
interesting. I also have a dmt triangular hone with three sides and corners for serrations etc. It is the same white ceramic (one diamond side) as the rod. I use a flat side of it as a fine hone but it still doesn't do what the rod does. I know about the point stresses generated at the rod/edge interface but I don't know if that explains it. weird.
Click to expand...

I have one of those DMT ceramic/diamond triangular rods as well; think it has two diamond sides (coarse/fine), and one ceramic face. It's the only DMT product I've purchased, that I've not really liked at all. The diamond surface area is too small, and the ceramic on mine is too irregular or bumpy. Differently-radiused corners on the ceramic was a great idea, for various sizes of serrations. But the execution in manufacturing seemed lacking, in the one I have.


David
 
Yeah it looked better than it is but is still useful. The diamond insert on mine doesn't extend to the edges of the surface, making it somewhat useless.
 
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