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sharpening: wet or dry?

U

Uncle Bill

Joined
Aug 24, 1999
Messages
434
Do you oil your stones or use them dry? Diamond? Arkansas? Other?

Also, do you approach different types of steel with different methods? Stainless? Tool steel?

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I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but I would prefer THAT to their being educated by the state.
 
Diamond, dry.
Arkansas, wet.
I use the same wet, non-wet guidelines on all steels. Certain harder steels or simply any steel with a damaged or bad edge I start with the diamond. For finish I use wet ceramic.
These work well for me, beat the heck out of corborundum and spit that I first learned to sharpen with.
smile.gif
 
I use both Arkansas and Diamond wet, no real reason I guess, I just like the feel better. Maybe it makes clean up a bit easier or something.

Yeah, I have a vague recollection of carborundum stones in prehistory. Those were savage times.
 
I use DMT's diamond stones at work on carbide tooling, and H.S.S. punches and dies. That is some tough stuff!I have used many different brands and types of stones and these work the best for me! At home I use them in the knife shop. I use them more for fitting, chamfering and deburing hard blade steel than sharpening. I use them wet, water, never oil. I find that it floats the metal particles away and they cut better. I have all kinds of Arkansas stones around the shop, collecting dust.
I would like to hear about someone using an Arkansas stone and getting better results than with the diamond ones!!!! On the knives I make, for sharpening, I go right from a very fine belt to a leather strop and never use any stones.
 
Diamond and ceramic, dry dry dry!

Water stones of any kind, water.

Natural stones, I go the least messy route possible. I start dry, and some natural stones put up with that. But some fill up way too quickly, so I go to water. If they still fill up too quickly, I use oil. Right now I have only one natural stone set -- one of the sets from knifeart.com -- and a *light* coating of oil is what's needed on them.

Joe
 
DRY. I follow advice in the book titled, "THE RAZOR EDGE BOOK OF KNIFE SHARPENING". I use a corse stone and then a fine stone - that's it. After I'm done, I wash stones and scrub them with water. I get a razor edge every time.
 
In a past life, I used water and oil at times. I guess I like the mess. Now, I use neither. Like Hansen above, I have used the a Razors Edge system dry and I recently acquired a Sharpmaker which I also use dry.
 
I find that I get the best edge with stone when using a mix of water to glycerine. I use just enough glycerine to help it stay on the stone.
 
Diamond: For me, Dry. I just seem to feel that "right" pull easier.

Ceramic: Only use a rod, so Dry.

Norton stones: Heavily w/light oil
 
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