Finer grits from cheapie carbide stones.

[DocNightfall]

I've discovered that my regular coarse/medium carbide sharpening stone can be made into an almost-coarse/almost-fine by spraying both surfaces with a generous amount of heavy duty silicone oil and then letting it dry. Slightly even finer grits can be achieved by lubricating the surface of the silicone-treated stone with water, like a wet stone.

Has anyone else tried anything like this?

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Johnston has advocated letting stones load to make them finer for years. I tend to prefer a naturally finer stone to get a more aggressive cutting action. I do however grade stones initially to make them cut faster on occasion.

-Cliff

 

[DocNightfall]

Great thing about silicone spray is that the solvent dries up really fast and leaves a slippery viscous film.

Dry to the touch and really sticks to steel. Wiping it off is really difficult and the only way I have found to get it off completely is soap and water. I've been using it for years to protect my carbon steel blades.

I had been using generic nameless mineral oils when sharpening with carbide stones. But then I had to do some emergency sharpening (my girlfriend thinks that my sharpening is compulsive behavior) and ran out of that stuff so I grabbed the closest substitute that was at hand. When the silicone oil was still wet, the stone behaved normally for an oiled carbide stone. But when it dried, the stone felt significantly finer.