Need ceramic abrasive advice

[the_mac]

I'm going to be putting together a crock-stick / sharpmaker style sharpener to give to a friend to use on kitchen knives, planning on getting my abrasives from Congress Tools.

The current plan is to use EDM stones at 400mesh for the coarse/medium stone:
http://www.congresstools.com/congresstools/catalog?action=getcat&parent=14

and then to use SuperFine stones at 1200mesh for the finish stone:
http://www.congresstools.com/congresstools/catalog?action=getcat&parent=23

I still haven't decided whether to go round or triangular or rectangular, but that's no biggie. The plan is to get a hardwood base and then drill/mill holes to give angles of 10, 12, 15, 17, 20 degrees per side (gives 20, 24, 30, 34, and 40 inclusive). This is easy enough to do.

My questions are as follows:
1) Do you think the 400-1200 is too big of a jump? Would I be well served to instead get something like 320 - 600 - 1200, or can I get away with just two grits?

2) Is 400 coarse enough for doing back-bevelling (not major reprofiling), and is 1200 fine enough for kitchen knives?

3) Am I forgetting any angles?

4) Are my stone choices decent? Ruby or Moldmaster instead of EDM? Is superfine going to wear too quickly or not cut well?

5) I'm leaning towards rectangular stones. Any real benefit of going round/triangular?

Thanks for any insight you have for this.

 

[Zeasor]

...
5) I'm leaning towards rectangular stones. Any real benefit of going round/triangular?
...

1x1/2x6 rectangular stone provides greatest surface area (except for 1x1x6). The wider (1") face makes it easier to align the edge flush (parallel) with the face for full contact rather than slightly canted which would then contact only one corner of the stone.

 

[Mikel_24]

...The wider (1") face makes it easier to align the edge flush (parallel) with the face for full contact rather than slightly canted which would then contact only one corner of the stone...

That is the problem I find with the Sharpmaker. It is not that easy to aling the edge to match fully the flats of the stones, so if you look carefully you end up using only the spots closest to the corners. The belly of the blades tend to be honed on the true flat surface, but not the straight part of the blades. That is (I think) why I end up with shaving sharp bellys with no effort and have a harder time with the straight part of the blades.

So as Zeasor said, go with the widest ones you can buy.

Mikel

 

[coolcrow]

I tried the ruby stones from Congress to use for reprofiling on my Sharpmaker, and I wasn't impressed. They weren't very uniform and had different angles from one to another in the Sharpmaker base. I'd go with the rectangular stones.