Got some Venev prototype stones to try out and review.

[wade7575]

I got some new Venev stones from Konstantin of gritomatic to test out and review,what I got was 2 1500 grit and 2 2000 grit dual sided stones.

I sharpened both knives with my metallic CBN stones starting with 80 and 120 grit then I moved to the Venev 240 400 800 1200 and then moved onto the 1500 and 2000 grit stones I received.

I used my TSProf K03 to sharpen these knives.

This is a picture of the scratch pattern I took for comparison before moving onto the 1500 and 2000,the knife is a Manix 2 in M390.

These are picture's of the experimental resin and the first picture is the 1500 grit yellow stone and the second is the 2000 grit red stone.

These are pictures of the OSB resin stones I also received for testing,from what I understand the OSB resin is already being used in some Venev stones,the first picture is the 1500 grit OSB and second picture is the 2000 OSB resin stones scratch pattern.

The knife in these pictures are a Manix 2 in M4.

From what I found of the experimental resin stones is that they cut extremely slow and hardly and swarf at all was on the stones after sharpening with them,where as the OSB stone removed metal faster for sure.

I understand that when it comes to stones that are 1500 and 2000 FEPA grit and 6000 and 8000 grit Jis when converted from FEPA but the experimental resin just wasn't hardly doing anything at removing metal at all,the experimental resin did improve the sharpness of the edge a bit but not as much the OSB resin.

If I were to choose between these stones I would go with he OSB resin because it gives you a sharper edge,the scratch pattern of the OSB looks a lot worse in the picture then it does to the naked eye and any scratch's left over could easily be removed with a Chosersa 5K or Suehiro G8 8k stone.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

Damn I am jealous of all of your diamond resin and metallic bond stones. They seem like so much fun. I am still wondering where I could make a bonded diamond stone fit into my philosophy effectively. A lot of good looking options out there.

What is your opinion on diamond bond stones? Best performance in the low end? In the high end? What are you liking and not liking about these types of abrasives?

 

[chalby]

Damn I am jealous of all of your diamond resin and metallic bond stones. They seem like so much fun. I am still wondering where I could make a bonded diamond stone fit into my philosophy effectively. A lot of good looking options out there.

What is your opinion on diamond bond stones? Best performance in the low end? In the high end? What are you liking and not liking about these types of abrasives?

They are good for getting a more refined edge on the higher carbide volume steels. Diamond plate is more cost effective size for size, but the I find the finish on plates to be toothy even for the "fine" grades, which works well if that is what you want.

For me they are comparable in cost to plates, but I use them freehand. I haven't really used them for ingot steels, although I might try them at some point.

What I like about them is they cut consistently and I get results on the higher end powder steels similar to what your Choseras and Shaptons give for kitchen knives and lower alloy steels. They don't cut the fastest, but that is a good thing in some ways.

What I don't like about them is they load really quickly. I have seen reports of people using these with oil which apparently reduces loading, but I much prefer using them with water and just use a magic eraser every couple of sharpening sessions to keep them fresh.

I'm not sure whether I would bother buying these new stones, but I get great results with the current OCB stones.

 

[RadialBladeworks]

They are good for getting a more refined edge on the higher carbide volume steels. Diamond plate is more cost effective size for size, but the I find the finish on plates to be toothy even for the "fine" grades, which works well if that is what you want.

For me they are comparable in cost to plates, but I use them freehand. I haven't really used them for ingot steels, although I might try them at some point.

What I like about them is they cut consistently and I get results on the higher end powder steels similar to what your Choseras and Shaptons give for kitchen knives and lower alloy steels. They don't cut the fastest, but that is a good thing in some ways.

What I don't like about them is they load really quickly. I have seen reports of people using these with oil which apparently reduces loading, but I much prefer using them with water and just use a magic eraser every couple of sharpening sessions to keep them fresh.

I'm not sure whether I would bother buying these new stones, but I get great results with the current OCB stones.

I was suuuuuper interested in the metallic bonded stones, but I just couldn't swallow the price against my Atoma 140. I would really like to get a genuinely good diamond finishing stone as well as a low grit that I could put some pressure on without fear of shearing diamonds. The metallic looked good for the low end, but reconditioning the surface looked like a bit of a project, and I have yet to see particularly enticing finishing options. If I could use WD-40 as a lubricant, I'd be interested, and as I understand them, the bonding of these stones may actually permit that, but yeah, it's just not quite looking "there" enough to justify the pricing

 

[chalby]

I was suuuuuper interested in the metallic bonded stones, but I just couldn't swallow the price against my Atoma 140. I would really like to get a genuinely good diamond finishing stone as well as a low grit that I could put some pressure on without fear of shearing diamonds. The metallic looked good for the low end, but reconditioning the surface looked like a bit of a project, and I have yet to see particularly enticing finishing options. If I could use WD-40 as a lubricant, I'd be interested, and as I understand them, the bonding of these stones may actually permit that, but yeah, it's just not quite looking "there" enough to justify the pricing

Another thing to look at is the vitrified diamond stones as well. Not a cheap option though.

 

[Mr.SATism]

Sucks to see Venev struggle with their higher grits. They’ll get it eventually, but I’m satisfied with their second generation 2000 FEPA-P stone (the OCB stone). How similar would you say that the edge is to the current OCB stones? I know that’s a little weird considering the grit differences between the 1200 OCB, or the former 2000 OCB, to the 1500 stone.

 

[Mr.Wizard]

2000 FEPA-P stone (the OCB stone)

FEPA F, not P, and that is only an approximate equivalent. The actual grade is the 1/0 micron value which is finer than F2000; there is no absolute FEPA F equivalent.