India stone is too slow, need other ideas.

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yepimonfire

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Nov 7, 2013
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Coarse norton india stone seems to take quite awhile to sharpen dull knives, as many as a total of 1500 strokes even on easy to sharpen steel, on knives that just need restored to razor sharp from "working sharp", it can take awhile (200-300 total strokes) to raise a burr.

Anything faster? How about crystolon? Mainly hitting 8cr13mov, unknown hampton forge knives in HC stainless, SK 5, vg 1 etc. Nothing crazy. I have lots of fine grit stones for finishing that work well.

On a side note does anybody know what grit their combo coarse/fine stone is?
 
I've been doing a lot if research myself lately on stones. Unless you know the exact manufacturing co of it Its not likely u will know 100% but. That's a few to many strokes, u should have already shaped it. But I would scrub the shit out of your stone with a nylon brush hot water and dawn. Re-oil and try again.sounds to me like the pores are clogged.
 
Pretty much any silicon carbide combination stone will grind faster than the coarse India stone. The one I picked up at my local ACE hardware works very well for rough work.

If you give the coarse side of the India stone a sound lapping with a loose grit it will come around quite a bit - both of mine seemed to be a bit glazed from the factory and very slow as a result. Will still not be as fast as silicon carbide, but can be improved from original.


Edit to add: I would highly recommend a light mineral oil on either stone type to prevent - as mentioned by buckman - the stone plugging or loading up, or glazing.
 
yepimonfire said:
Coarse norton india stone seems to take quite awhile to sharpen dull knives, as many as a total of 1500 strokes even on easy to sharpen steel, on knives that just need restored to razor sharp from "working sharp", it can take awhile (200-300 total strokes) to raise a burr.

Anything faster? How about crystolon? Mainly hitting 8cr13mov, unknown hampton forge knives in HC stainless, SK 5, vg 1 etc. Nothing crazy. I have lots of fine grit stones for finishing that work well.

On a side note does anybody know what grit their combo coarse/fine stone is?
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The combo stones are around 100 and 300 grit respectively.

They are decent stones but as you see a $20 stone has it limitations. If your willing to step up to a higher price bracket ($80-$100) you will find stones that far exceed any norton oil stone.
 
A Norton combination coarse / fine India is 150 & 320 grit. That is way too many stokes to not see good results. Technique has a lot to do with freehand sharpening. A SiC stone / grit works faster and a larger stone helps. Like a 2X8". Does the knife have a thicker bevel at the edge? Try marking the bevel with a black magic marker, to make sure your grinding at the bevel. What are you using on the stone to float the swarf? If your grinding on a dry stone the stone is clogged. I sharpen S30V on a fine India in far less strokes than that. DM
 
David Martin said:
A Norton combination coarse / fine India is 150 & 320 grit. That is way too many stokes to not see good results. Technique has a lot to do with freehand sharpening. A SiC stone / grit works faster and a larger stone helps. Like a 2X8". Does the knife have a thicker bevel at the edge? Try marking the bevel with a black magic marker, to make sure your grinding at the bevel. What are you using on the stone to float the swarf? If your grinding on a dry stone the stone is clogged. I sharpen S30V on a fine India in far less strokes than that. DM
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I may be exaggerating a bit lol.

Jason B. said:
The combo stones are around 100 and 300 grit respectively.

They are decent stones but as you see a $20 stone has it limitations. If your willing to step up to a higher price bracket ($80-$100) you will find stones that far exceed any norton oil stone.
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I've got norton water stones, from 220-8000 grit, but I figured the India was coarser, so I start with that and just go to fine India and then a hard Arkansas and then 4000-8000 water, do I have the wrong idea? Any other stone suggestions?
 
Your 220 waterstone though a different grit should be roughly double as fast as the India stone. The numbers are only a general idea of the grind pattern you will receive and hardly ever give the full story.

Most good waterstones or diamond plates like the atoma would be better for starting bevels, and much faster.
 
Norton's coarse Crystolon cuts very quickly. I have an 8x3 version from sharpeningsupplies.com. Only ~$18 + shipping. Well worth the meager cost. Works a treat for freehand reprofiling. :thumbup:
 
Yes, that SiC stone cuts fast. The coarse is 100 grit. Very economical. You could purchase 4 or 5 of them for the price of just one other stone. DM
 
yepimonfire said:
I've got norton water stones, from 220-8000 grit, but I figured the India was coarser, so I start with that and just go to fine India and then a hard Arkansas and then 4000-8000 water, do I have the wrong idea? Any other stone suggestions?
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The Norton 220 will be reasonably fast, though not much more so than the coarse side of a Norton silicon carbide stone. The 220 dishes very quickly as well, so move around the stone and lap it flat often if needed.

If you have the set of waterstones, just use them as a progression from 220 to 1k, 4k, 8k. Nortons 8k will finish off with a near mirror polish, finer than most Arkansas stones. The hard Arkansas is likely in the range of the 4k if not a touch finer.
 
HeavyHanded said:
The Norton 220 will be reasonably fast, though not much more so than the coarse side of a Norton silicon carbide stone. The 220 dishes very quickly as well, so move around the stone and lap it flat often if needed.

If you have the set of waterstones, just use them as a progression from 220 to 1k, 4k, 8k. Nortons 8k will finish off with a near mirror polish, finer than most Arkansas stones. The hard Arkansas is likely in the range of the 4k if not a touch finer.
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I do pretty well with the 8k waterstone, gets very polished.

Thanks, I will just use the water stones exclusively.
 
Yes, good advice^. The SiC stone wears more than the India stone. Should you choose to use the SiC you'll need to gain some experience in lapping. Yes, these effects can be suspended by grinding on different areas of the stone. DM
 
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