I use to know who made the ceramic rods for Spyderco, but I'm blanking.

MyLegsAreOk

MyLegsAreOk

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A while back I found out who Spyderco was supplied by for the aluminium silicate ceramic rods found in the Sharpmaker and other sharpening systems. This other company had a box of sample grits you could buy, and I want to purchase it to fit some various grits in a sheath I will make in the future. I remember there was a box of like 9 all different colors about 7 inches x 1/4 inch or something. Does anyone remember the name? Their logo was like an old warrior's helmet and their name was like Centurion, or Gladiator, or Spartacus or something.
 
Coorstek? They have certainly been mentioned as the probable supplier for Spyderco's stones, but I don't think I have seen anyone from Spyderco confirm this. They do not appear to have any sort of helmet logo and the name doesn't match.

A sample box of ceramics like those supplied by Spyderco, but in different "grits", sounds cool but also very unusual, especially in a range of colors. That doesn't sound like any fused hard ceramic I have seen. What it does sound like though is ceramic EDM stones, which come in that sort of size, in a range of colors which correspond to different grits, and can be bought in sets.

Cannot see any that have a name or logo like you describe, but its another avenue to consider.
 
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C_Claycomb said:
Coorstek? They have certainly been mentioned as the probable supplier for Spyderco's stones, but I don't think I have seen anyone from Spyderco confirm this. They do not appear to have any sort of helmet logo and the name doesn't match.

A sample box of ceramics like those supplied by Spyderco, but in different "grits", sounds cool but also very unusual, especially in a range of colors. That doesn't sound like any fused hard ceramic I have seen. What it does sound like though is ceramic EDM stones, which come in that sort of size, in a range of colors which correspond to different grits, and can be bought in sets.

Cannot see any that have a name or logo like you describe, but its another avenue to consider.
Click to expand...
Check this link out:
https://www.gesswein.com/p-3129-new...MInLPCuse47gIVFovICh3lrwnpEAkYBSABEgKbE_D_BwE

Now I'm not going to say it's Gesswein, but this goes along the lines of what I'm talking about. You can get a box of grits in a fashion like this. I'm not sure if anyone uses them as a supplier, but in an old BF thread I am very certain someone named the supplier and as I looked online I found they sold a set likened to a bunch of those found from Gesswein.

You can get stuff like this from Shapton too but there is no way Shapton supplies Spyderco or their sharpening systems would cost 3x what they charge.
 
Yes, I saw those, as well as some by Kemet with a name of Xebec. Thing is, those are made of ceramic fiber and are intended to use like pencils, abrading on the ends, rather than along their length. I have a set of normal particle based EDM stones that I use for blade finishing, and they too are intended to be used like pencil erasers, on end. Used wet they wear down and cut fast, they can be used flat, but are so thin that they won't last long like that. Very different behaviour to the kind of ceramic that Spyderco sells, which cuts very slowly and does not wear, so remains dimensionally stable for life.

There isn't much difference between the price of Spyderco and Shapton for bench stones in the UK, all around £70 - £85. I got my Spyderco ceramic file set over 20 years ago, when they were about £22 for the set, now they are £60.

Regarding old threads...I don't know what you consider old, but if you go back in time enough suppliers change, or mergers happen and names change. Where I worked we had someone from Coorstek come in to discuss a project, they had bought up the company our senior engineers knew about and the name had been changed. Stuff like that can make searches like this challenging.

I will tell you why I don't think you will find what you have described describe. EDM stones are color coded so that the correct grit size can be selected without reading a label which could be very small, and will wear off eventually anyway. Companies that care about finishing want to know what grit size is being used. Spyderco ceramic sharpeners are known to be very difficult to label by grit size, they do not have grit the way a water, oil or EDM stone does. Their cut is in large part determined by how they are finished. The Spyderco Fine and Ultra fine are the same material, the latter is just finished flat and smooth. It makes little sense to have rainbow color stones of a hard fused ceramic, even if it were possible to make them, which I am doubtful about.

That said, have you looked at this page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoorsTek
Maybe one of the names of a company that they have bought will be the right one.
 
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Yeah I think it's pretty safe to say that they're the supplier.
 
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