Ceramic Rods

Straight from the Spyderco website, it says their AC rods for the Sharpmaker are made by bonding man-made saphires to a ceramic bonding agent. This would lead me to beleive that the saphire itself is a different size, based on desired grit, since that is the real cutting agent.

That being the case, I would not hink that you can change grit on THOSE by rubbing with sandpaper. I think they will stay the same grit for the life of the rod. Can't speak for other types of ceramic.
 
I think Protactical hit the nail square on the head with his description.

I use the Shapton Stones and the 320 grit stone is 320 all the way thru - you are not going to change that!

Just to restate, I believe the make up of the ceramic rod I have is very fine. By 'roughing' it up with SC paper it creates ridges that make it 'act' like a rougher grit than it is.

This is making more sense to me now.

Thanks, Protactical

Steve
 
Just to restate, I believe the make up of the ceramic rod I have is very fine. By 'roughing' it up with SC paper it creates ridges that make it 'act' like a rougher grit than it is.


That does make sense Steve...on the Sharpmaker you use the corner of the rod first as it is "courser", then you move to the flat for a "finer" grit. Being the same rod one would assume the whole thing is the same grit so the edges must just be more agressive.
 
Actually, the corner of the sharpmake is not more coarse than the flat. It has to do with how much pressure is exerted on the blade in a given area. For example, 5 pounds of pressure distributed across an inch, will give much less pressure than 5 pounds across 1/32 of an inch. A long blade laid flat across a wide surface, will not cut that surface easily, but the same blade cutting at an angle will cut much faster, because the surface is reduced, but the pressure is kept the same. That being the case, one could surmise that a wider stone will apply a finer edge than a pointed edge like the sharpmaker, even with the same grit.
 
We just had ceramic tile installed in our bathroom, and I took a 3/4" x 4" piece of leftover and smoothed it with a worn 15 micron belt. Seems to work pretty good for the final polish by stroking a blade very lightly across it as you would when using a steel.

When my Edge Pro arrives perhaps I'll try cutting a fragment to size and gluing it onto one of the stones...

Shalom,
Mark
 
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