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DennisStrickland

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not new to forum but new to this area. i've ordered 2- 8 by 2 in. white spyder hones. one in ultra fine & the other in x-tra x-tra fine grit or ultra ultra fine white grit . does anyone know the particle [grit] size?thanks dennis.
 
Spyderco has 3 ceramic bench stones in medium (M), fine (F) and ultra fine (UF). According to Spyderco, "Alumina ceramic stones are grit-graded differently than any other abrasive and not measurable by standards used for natural stones, diamond abrasives or sand papers." The M stone are open cell and the F and UF are closed cell. The only difference between the F and UF stone is the finer finish on the UF. The cell size is the same.

It was stated awhile back in a Spyderco Q&A that was subsequently referenced in a forum discussion that the approximate "grit" was 600 for the M stone, 1800 for the F and 2000 for the UF, but having used all three I question the number for the UF in particular. Many dealers continue to use these rating in descriptions although I haven't seen any reference to grit rating on the Spyderco website lately. Sal Glesser himself has indicated in forum discussions in the past that determining the grit rating on the ceramic stones is guesswork due to the nature of the material.

Some sharpening enthusiasts have compared scratch pattern on blades using other abrasives with known grit ratings to approximate the grit ratings of the Spyderco stones. I have read their suggestions in forum discussions that the M stone is approximately 800-900 grit from one source and 700-1000 from another. The same sources estimate the same 2000-3000 grit range for the F and 4000-6000 grit range for the UF.

All I know is that they are excellent stones and I can make a step from the UF stone to a 8000 grit water stone or even straight to a .5 micron chromium oxide loaded strop to further refine an edge.
 
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thanks Brisket for the additional perspective. i plan to use these stones as steps before moving to strops. diamond strops will eventually get a fair mirror edge but the stones should reduce the time needed to achive same . thanks guys dennis.
 
My subjective impression is that the medium stone does not give quite as fine an edge as a Norton fine India stone. You can shave hair after the medium, but the hair won't jump off your arm. The fine Spyderco stone seems comparable to a white hard Arkansas, but is not nearly as good as a translucent or black Arkansas stone. I find the ultrafine stone is more like a coarse strop compound or a bit finer...I haven't used that one enough to judge.
The stones are very good with harder stainless steels. I use them dry, since they seem to work best that way.
I don't use them for woodworking tools or carving tools, but they are excellent for hard stainless steel knife blades.
 
They are great stones. More and more for me the brown is enough. You can create a hair splitting edge with is and still retain a distinkt 'bite'. If you want to re-profile and an edge you will need something coarser though.

JD
 
J D Wijbenga said:
They are great stones. More and more for me the brown is enough. You can create a hair splitting edge with is and still retain a distinkt 'bite'. If you want to re-profile and an edge you will need something coarser though.

JD
Click to expand...

+1. I picked up the UF stones thinking I needed the "best" edge possible, and sure I could scare the hair away from just about anything I dared bring it close to.

However, I find more and more that a little bit of tooth to the edge will help quite a bit, especially when cutting boxes, tape, and doing kitchen prep. I finish my Sikayo on the flats of the brown rods and that works perfectly.
 
Its better to grade them in microns, M 15, F 6, UF 3 microns, using grit will not give you a proper impression of their effect.

These are finishing stones and not for profile work, the brown stone being the coarsest could do minor profile work on softer steels but not something I would suggest trying. Also be careful with steels above 60Rc as I've experienced micro chipping, carbon steel and ZDP specifically.

Low alloy stainless seem to respond best to these stones, most notably VG-10 gets stupid sharp after the UF stone.

For further progression a 1 micron strop after the UF stone will yield a bright mirror finish and straight razor like sharpness.
 
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