I need a low grit waterstone.

C

Conner Michaux

Joined
Jul 8, 2018
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102
I would like to get a very course waterstone, to remove lots of material on a knife im making.

Where should I look to get one?? Also how can I keep a course stone wet?? They dry up very fast.

Also how do I flatten a wetstone??
 
I would recommend a Diamond plate instead, either Atoma 140 or DMT XXC. If for any reason you still want a water stone, I recommend the Shapton 120.

All available at Amazon and other places.

If you get the Atoma, make sure it's the entire stone and not just the replacement veneer.
 
Diamond plates work very well, don't need flattening ever either. Dmts come from 120 grit. If your looking for a one shot deal wet/dry sandpaper works. There are many other stones. Some of the low grits are soft and will need to be lapped(flattened). My lowest waterstone is a 600 chosera. They make a 400 also. Norton 220 is coarse but very soft.
 
Silicon carbide wet sandpaper works better than anything else I've tried, but I go through a lot of it. baryonyxknife.com makes a "Manticore" stone that is specifically intended for this, and I haven't tried that, but I cannot see myself using a tiny 2"*8" stone for roughing after becoming accustomed to 3"*11" strips of sandpaper; I really like making full use of that area. Most recently I am trying inexpensive #120/#180 diamond plates that are a decent size (2.7" * 9.8"), but I don't care for the interrupted surface and I have suspicion that they are not going to last long, but only time will tell.

I just remembered to add: HeavyHanded has praise for the Zandstra Foss speed-skating stone; as a 3"*10" stone it is on my wish list but I cannot justify the expense at this time. About it he writes, in response to my request for a comparison to Crystolon stones:

HeavyHanded said:
As a stand alone stone it is not as good.

But...as a vitreous stone billed to be good with water or oil, it works great with water. Has very good feedback and cuts very fast with comparatively little burr formation. If you tinker with it and use a few trailing passes to finish followed by a hard strop you can eke out a respectable utility edge compared to my Crystalon which can treetop a few hairs with the same treatment.

The kicker, it is very fast. The coarse side has to be dressed with loose SiC grit every so often (the fine side refreshes itself perfectly), but is an absolute beast - the fastest grinding bench stone I own and sheds very little grit. Makes it feasible to charge $5 for a hand-sharpened Chef's knife no matter how hammered it is to start. Coarse side, fine side, microbevel with the G8, a few passes on a Washboard strop with plain paper or a slight blush of compound - if the steel is any good it will be easily treetopping hairs if not whittling them in well under 10 minutes.

For most stainless it has replaced all my other set-up stones. For High VC I reach for my diamond plates, woodworking tools my Suzuki Ya stones, everything else gets the Foss and the G8.
Click to expand...
 
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Low grit awesomeness:

Baryonyx Manticore
Baryonyx Mutt
Shapton Glass and Pro 220’s (I haven’t tried the 120 so I won’t recommend it)
Norton Crystolon Coarse

All of these stones are fantastic. They are also not perfect. No matter which one you choose, each one has a quirk to deal with
 
This is the one I use most:

https://www.theskatenowshop.com/ind...m_virtuemart&Itemid=45&redirected=1&Itemid=45

RadialBladeworks RadialBladeworks says, all the really coarse stones have quirks, this one needs to be reconditioned with low grit (30-60) silicon carbide from time to time, but is an absolute beast. Flattens the back of plane irons and chisels quickly, rebevels most cutlery extremely quickly, and the fine side sets it up for further refinement. Has replaced most of my <1000 grit stones for most jobs.
 
I use a Chef Knives To Go house brand diamond plate, 140 grit. It hogs off metal like nobody's business, and it's about 1/3 the cost of an Atoma. It can also be used for flattening other waterstones.
 
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