Naniwa Golden Lobster waterstone

The reason they cut fast is because they wear fast, you continually get a new grinding surface on the stone. You need to true them up occasionally when the dishing gets severe.
 
The 120 grit green lobster stone wears just as fast. That is one of the reasons I tried the arato kimi PA 220 あらと君 aluminum oxide stone (a.k.a. "the big pink brick" at Japan Woodworker or Epicurian Edge)... it is about the size of a brick and still cuts pretty fast yet doesn't wear as quickly either. Lee Valley & others have a big green brick (220 grit Silicon Carbide King stone) too, but I don't know how fast it wears. Still, it would be hard to find a stone as coarse as the 80 grit Golden Lobster (think I've seen some "boat stones" and "lawnmower blade" crystalon stones at the hardware store that were pretty close to that coarseness that should wear more slowly, but they probably clog or dull as fast as the GL stones wear).
 
My first waterstones were the Naniwa Green and Golden Lobsters (80x & 120x). Great cutting ability but they seem to melt away right in front of your eyes.


--Dave--
 
yuzuha said:
Lee Valley & others have a big green brick (220 grit Silicon Carbide King stone) too, but I don't know how fast it wears.
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Really fast, even minor sharpening such as removing a micro-bevel will induce a visible hollow in the stone. I just use it for rough shaping so don't care about the hollows. I keep them relatively flat by working the ends specifically when the middle gets a large hollow.

-Cliff
 
Makes sense... Silicon carbide is a bit sharper, but a lot more fragile than aluminum oxide, so it does wear fast when cutting ferrous materials. Which is why I went for the "pink" brick instead of the green one. I ground the heck out of a cheap yanagi that had "no" edge and a couple of other knives on it, and while it did slightly dish the stone, the wear was minimal compared to a SiC stone... Would have totally wiped out my green lobster.
 
HoB,

The Golden Lobster is 80 grit. I wanted to try a really coarse SiC waterstone after reading stuff from Cliff and MtnHawk and getting very fast stock removal with a worn 120 grit SiC EdgePro hone. Did a great job reprofiling S7 (but that's a fairly easy-to-shape steel), but at great cost to itself. It's like a belt-sander for people who don't want heat nearing the blade; just more expensive over time as the trade-off between the two.

Bugmenot,

This stone will be used soley for steel hogging and won't get trued. Maybe replaced with a newer one, green brick, pink brick, or Razor Edge coarse SiC hone.

D_R_Sharpening,

They wear faster as far as I've seen.

Yuhuza,

Thanks for the tip. I'll avoid the green lobster. The pink brick sounds good, too, but I prefer SiC.
 
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