Ceramic stones / rods

Steve6 · Dec 16, 1999

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone here can answer.

Ceramic stones come in various grades (medium, fine, extra fine, etc.). Is the ceramic made differently in order to achieve the different grades, or is it just finished differently?

Do ceramic stones become smoother with use as a belt does as it wears?

Last but not least, I recently received my Battle Mistress

Needless to say I like it a lot (made a couple of modifications to it). Busse recommends a ceramic rod for maintaining the edge. Any ideas on where to get a large one? Also, I have a 14" DMT fine diamond steel. Any opinions on using that to maintain the edge?

Thanks for the help.

[This message has been edited by Steve6 (edited 16 December 1999).]

Cliff Stamp · Dec 16, 1999

Ben Dale who sells the Edge Pro Apex also sells ceramic rods (two grades I think). Another choice would be the Sharpmaker from Spyderco, you can use the hones as rods freehand. Ceramics do wear over time, I would imagine you could flatten them with a diamond abrasive. I would guess that would restore the hones cutting power as well. You might want to ask about this in the Spyderco forum as they have been using ceramics for awhile.

As for the DMT diamond steel, I have that one as well. Because of the cutting power of the diamonds, it will not align the edge as much as it will hone metal right off. It leaves a very agressive edge as well. Great for slicing and such, a bit too coarse for a heavy chopper. For a chopping Busse I would use a steel and a loaded stop for routine sharpening. If you do a lot of slicing then Joe Talmadges dual edge sharpening system would be of interest (leave the low impact area of the blade at a rougher grit finish).

-Cliff

Steve6 · Dec 16, 1999

Thank you Cliff,

One more question, I have a Spyderco fine ceramic bench stone (pale blue case). Does anyone know if using this flat stone on the Battle Mistress would be OK or if it more or less has to be a rod?

Cliff Stamp · Dec 16, 1999

Steve, I have sharpened my BM on all manner of hones, the reason that the ceramic rod is recommended is that it removes very little metal and aligns the edge (when you use it trailing as illustrated, when you go the other way it tends to grind more metal away). Since the edge holding on the BM is fairly high, you don't need to remove a lot of metal to restore it. A benchstone will do very little edge alignment unless you stroke very lightly edge trailing, I have never done that though, and so sharpening on a flat hone is achieved by removing enough metal so that the edges meet.

If you are using a benchstone and you grind hard or long enough you might form a burr which you will need to grind off. Since the other side of the bevel is convex it would be difficult to do this on the benchstone (you would to rotate the blade during the stroke so as to match the curvature of the bevel. I have never been able to do that with any degress of success). Anyway, in order to remove a burr that has formed on the convex bevel you can simply use a loaded strop or take a piece of fine sandpaper, lay it on some styrofoam and stroke the blade edge trailing, pressing down so as to allow the curvature of the bevel to sink into the styrofoam.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 16 December 1999).]