Issues with water stones and sharpening

W

Wpieter

Joined
Jan 13, 2018
Messages
5
Hello, I am just starting to become serious about sharpening my knives, and have encountered some issues. I start with my 250/500 grit el cheapo stone, move to my 1000/6000 grit king waterstone, and end with a strop (smooth side) with 2 micron polishing compound. My first issue is that the 6000 grit side of my waterstone has become full of little bits of steel and no longer works correctly after sharpening only a few knives. I soaked the stone for about 5-10 mins in water before use, and was careful not to dig into the stone. Any ideas about what is causing this and how I can fix it? I managed to get some decent semi-mirrored edges, but am struggling now because of the issue I previously mentioned. Another issue is that the wood I glued my strop to curled up, so the strop is more or less useless at this point. I suspect it was because of the glue? I will attempt to seperate the two tomorrow. Thanks for your time!
 
Welcome to bladeforums. You'll probably get better answers to your question in our knife maintenance forum. Move it by flagging your own post.

What do you mean "little bits of steel"? It's common for a waterstone to become 'glazed' with a shiny black coating, made of lodged steel particles, which requires re-flattening to remove. Glazing is hastened by problems with technique. However a glazed waterstone doesn't look like it has little bits of steel in it, it just looks glazed. If you're actually seeing flecks of steel…then…:eek:

What kind of steel are we talking about?
 
I agree with vanadium vanadium something sounds funky

If scrubbing with the rough side of a sponge doesn't work, try some sand paper, I use one of those foam sanding blocks. Using a professional flattening/ resurfacing stone would be best.

If it takes much more than 5-10 minutes with any of these techniques , I'd strongly suspect a problem with the stone or knife.
 
You need to lap waterstones before every use to clean and refresh the surface. A good diamond plate in the 120-140 grit range is preferable.

For your strop issues, sounds like you got too much moisture in the leather from the glue. Follow the link in my signature, it's a quick and simple guide to strop making.
 
Jason B is right on with his advice.
After your stones are nice and flat and you start noticing swarf build up you will want to gently clean it off.
I mostly use the Naniwa 600 grit cleaning stone but on certain stones I go with DMT credit card size stones.
The 6k King does load quickly but it cleans off easily too.

Good luck and welcome to BF!!!!
 
vanadium said:
Welcome to bladeforums. You'll probably get better answers to your question in our knife maintenance forum. Move it by flagging your own post.

What do you mean "little bits of steel"? It's common for a waterstone to become 'glazed' with a shiny black coating, made of lodged steel particles, which requires re-flattening to remove. Glazing is hastened by problems with technique. However a glazed waterstone doesn't look like it has little bits of steel in it, it just looks glazed. If you're actually seeing flecks of steel…then…:eek:

What kind of steel are we talking about?
Click to expand...
It is 18cr13mov steel. I do see little shiny bits in the stone, along with a black glaze.
 
Jason B. said:
You need to lap waterstones before every use to clean and refresh the surface. A good diamond plate in the 120-140 grit range is preferable.

For your strop issues, sounds like you got too much moisture in the leather from the glue. Follow the link in my signature, it's a quick and simple guide to strop making.
Click to expand...

So I need to flatten the stone every time? Wouldn’t that wear though the stone pretty quick? Thank you all for the help!
 
Yes and it depends.

How fast the stone wears away depends on how much you sharpen. I can wear down most stones in a year's time but I also sharpen thousands of knives per year. The average person may take 10 years.
 
I got this diamond plate for lapping my water stones and it works great for me,also to make sure your stone is not dishing in the middle(meaning it's getting a low spot)draw a grid pattern on the stone with a pencil before you deglaze the stone and the pencil lead that is left behind will show you where the stone has high and low spot's,just repeat if need be until all the lead is gone after flattening.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TSUBOMAN-A...324886&hash=item2cc8be802c:g:ZQIAAOSw6btXRAdH
 
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