If you could pick three grits?

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Dec 28, 2012
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If you could pick three grits of stones for sharpening and restoring dull and damaged edges what would you Pick?
 
400 grit, 1000 grit, and 0.5 micron strop. You won't get the perfect mirror edge without a proper grit progression, but the strop will make it much easier to get a fantastic level of sharpness and touch ups will be very easy.
 
Grits alone are not the only item of importance. The type of grit and the binder/ stone make up are important as well. I like a coarse, fine Norton SiC and a fine India. 100 grit, 220 grit and 320grit. DM
 
With three grits, I'd personally place emphasis on the 1st and last stages. At the 1st stage, a universally effective coarse grit for setting bevels on any steel (a coarse diamond would handle that). And the 'right' combination of abrasive type, grit & backing substrate for stropping at the last step is of huge importance; it can really alter the cutting character of the finished edge in all the right or wrong ways. Whatever comes 'in between' is more up to individual preference, such as how toothy or polished the finished edge needs to be, according to preference, prior to stropping.

The first stage chosen is what will make it easy or difficult to quickly repair or re-bevel a damaged or blunt edge profile; if that can't be done effectively or in a timely manner, following stages won't matter much anyway. The last stage (stropping) will greatly affect & ideally enhance the edge characteristics created in the intermediate stage. I'd say the last stage is the trickiest to figure out, and should be built around selecting a stropping grit & substrate combination that will both be effective in burr removal, and hard enough to work on high-wear steels (if applicable), but not so aggressive as to completely erase or obliterate the best attributes of the edge created from the stones.

Having said all the above, I tend to think anything from 320 thru 2000 grit (ANSI or FEPA-P standards) works well for most tasks & uses. Anything in that range would be what I'd likely choose for the intermediate step. Stay to the lower 'toothy' half of the range for draw-cutting tasks in coarse/fibrous materials, or to the higher end if fine slicing or chopping uses are the main priority. Either way, I've found anything within that range will work well enough for either use, most of the time.

What David Martin said, about grit type and binder/backing is important. Even at equivalent 'grit' size ratings, different abrasive types (diamond, silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, natural/Arkansas) will perform in vastly different ways on the same given steel. Some won't be as effective on high-wear steels. And differently again, depending on the binders used and/or overall quality of the stone. The abrasive type needs to be chosen first, appropriate to the steel(s) that will be sharpened. Something like diamond for very high-wear steels with heavy vanadium carbide content (S30V, etc.), or perhaps natural/Arkansas stones if only simple low-alloy carbon steels are the only ones used. For the most part, silicon carbide or aluminum oxide can handle most steels; the Norton stones suggested by DM are good examples, in both abrasive type and overall quality.

Very hard to recommend any 'best' trio of grits/stones, as there are too many variables to consider in narrowing down to only three stones for everything that may be sharpened. More details about steel types and desired uses of the blades would help in choosing what might work best.


David
 
This is a loaded question.

Different brands of stones use different grit grading systems. Also different stone brands use different abrasives which all play differently together. Even different stones within the same line of the same brand can use different abrasives.

Shapton pro I would go 320 , 1500 , 5000
Shapton Glass I would go 500 , 2000 , 8000
Nubatama , 150 , 1000 , 5000

Give us an idea of what brand you are looking at and we can point you in the right direction
 
My current is 325, 600 and 2000. I'm thinkinng of adding 1000 stone into my sharpening proccess, so that I don't need to spend so much time with 2000 grit.
 
Agree with the above observations re different abrasives and binders. If I had to choose it would be a combination SiC stone and just use the grit from the fine side for a stropping compound / finishing hone. A close second might be a Norton 4k/8k waterstone and some sort of green silicon carbide coarse stone at 200 grit or so.
 
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