Is it possible to wear out a stone?

[JWRobinson]

Here is my situation. I purchased a Lansky 5 stone kit from the Px as I'm away from home and had nothing to sharpen my blades with. It has an "extra course" stone and I decided to practice on an inexpensive BFK i had sitting around which had an edge angle I would expect on a good quality axe. I decided to bring the angles down to 19 degrees per side and it was going well for the first 30-40 minutes. After that the cutting action decreased exponentially and the surface of the stone feels more like the "fine" stone. I was using plenty of oil, or so I thought, and wiping the blade and stone clean every few minutes. I've tried scrubbing it clean but it looks like the surface is too smooth to do much. It doesn't have any significant residue or glaze on it that I can see. Did I ruin the stone or is there something I can do to get the surface back to "extra course"?

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I ran into a similar situation with my 'Deluxe' Lansky kit, with the carborundum hones. The XC and Coarse both seemed to lose aggressiveness very quickly. Not sure if it was due to loading up with swarf, or glazing, or some other issue. From early on, I decided to use a supplementary diamond hone (medium) as the 'starter', and then only used the medium, fine and UF hones after that. I later attempted to use the XC and Coarse again, on an S30V re-bevelling job. That pretty well killed 'em. They're dished out now. I've since replaced my Deluxe kit with a new diamond Lansky kit.

Edit:
In retrospect, I think I would've done better to use a Coarse or XC diamond supplementary hone, instead of the medium that I chose at the time. The diamond hones aren't too expensive (~ $15 or so), so I wouldn't worry too much about trying to repair/fix the standard hones.

 

[JWRobinson]

Thanks David. My stone isn't cupped. That wouldn't tick me off as much as it being just plain smooth. Do you know if I can buy a diamond stone that will go with the rest of the kit?

 

[peeper]

you gotta reflatten them with a dtm.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Thanks David. My stone isn't cupped. That wouldn't tick me off as much as it being just plain smooth. Do you know if I can buy a diamond stone that will go with the rest of the kit?

Yes, you can buy Lansky's diamond hones individually. They're the same hones as available in the Lansky diamond kit. You can get them from many places, but here's a link to one of the BF member dealers (Knifecenter); they carry them. I'd recommend the Coarse, at least:

http://www2.knifecenter.com/item/LSLDHCR/Lansky-Coarse-Diamond-Sharpening-Hone-Purple-Holder

Here's a link to the rest of their stock of replacement hones:
http://www2.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_store.html?ttl=Lansky Products&cat=ls&k=hone&

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

you gotta reflatten them with a dtm.

Not worth the trouble, in this case. They didn't perform well to begin with, and the new hones aren't very expensive anyway (~ $15.00). I bought diamond replacements, and never looked back.

 

[JWRobinson]

Thank You!