Well I finally bought a stone to sharpen my knives, a Smith's very inexpensive 1000 grit ceramic stone, and for my first time ever sharpening a knife (used my CRKT m16 Tanto) it took my slightly dulled blade to a very sharp edge that even seems on the verge of toothy, which I prefer. I'm curious though, can anyone recommend me a next step up from my 1000 grit ceramic to even refine or sharpen my edge up a tad bit more? Or am I looking at stropping at this point? I could care less about a mirror polish edge just curious if there is any step up from a 1000 grit smith's ceramic that y'all can recommend.
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Smith's 1000 grit ceramic stone/new to sharpening
- Thread starter JJaggar
- Start date
Hi there, glad you like your stone. There's nothing greater then a man who actually likes using his stone. I'm glad you got good results as sharpening a tanto is different from a regular knife or a recurve not to mention its your first time.
There are many steps up from 1000 grit ceramic stones. If you wanted to stay with ceramics because you can sharpen dry a spyderco medium or fine would sharpen up your edge just nice, the ultra fine is like a super polisher. That being said I've never used ceramics but they are on my list. Relying on what I've read and seen to form an opinion here.
Then you could go the water stone route with 3000-4000 grit water stones, be them Norton, Naniwa or even the Shapton glass would be a next step up in a sharpening progression, a lesser quality stone would be the Taidea but they are affordable Chinese made water stones. On that note the Japanese grit scale is probably what your 1000 grit stone is measured in. People sharpening with different grit stones commonly use a doubling regime.
You don't have to double but it follows the prior stone nicely.
There are countless other natural stones as well. You didn't really let us know your budget and these can get pricy and be very slow to use.
However Arkansas stones would tune an 1000 grit edge up just right. A hard or true hard Arkansas would be nice.
Then there are stropping compounds, chromium oxide, iron oxide, cerium oxide. More commonly known as the white, green or red rubbing compounds.
Some of either of those pastes/compounds loaded on a strop would polish the edge.
There are many ways to skin a cat.
This is a really personal kind of question. I do hope I gave you some options.
In time you'll either learn your stone really well and be satisfied or you could be like more of us who have many stones and like playing around to get the best edge possible.
Either way you'll learn what works, and what doesn't. Sharpening should be fun, not something you hate to do.
Scott
There are many steps up from 1000 grit ceramic stones. If you wanted to stay with ceramics because you can sharpen dry a spyderco medium or fine would sharpen up your edge just nice, the ultra fine is like a super polisher. That being said I've never used ceramics but they are on my list. Relying on what I've read and seen to form an opinion here.
Then you could go the water stone route with 3000-4000 grit water stones, be them Norton, Naniwa or even the Shapton glass would be a next step up in a sharpening progression, a lesser quality stone would be the Taidea but they are affordable Chinese made water stones. On that note the Japanese grit scale is probably what your 1000 grit stone is measured in. People sharpening with different grit stones commonly use a doubling regime.
You don't have to double but it follows the prior stone nicely.
There are countless other natural stones as well. You didn't really let us know your budget and these can get pricy and be very slow to use.
However Arkansas stones would tune an 1000 grit edge up just right. A hard or true hard Arkansas would be nice.
Then there are stropping compounds, chromium oxide, iron oxide, cerium oxide. More commonly known as the white, green or red rubbing compounds.
Some of either of those pastes/compounds loaded on a strop would polish the edge.
There are many ways to skin a cat.
This is a really personal kind of question. I do hope I gave you some options.
In time you'll either learn your stone really well and be satisfied or you could be like more of us who have many stones and like playing around to get the best edge possible.
Either way you'll learn what works, and what doesn't. Sharpening should be fun, not something you hate to do.
Scott
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Hey Scott thank you for taking the time and offering up many options. I have been milling around the idea of whether or not to get a guided sharpener or stones and do it freehand for months now. Last week I was on KC's website and saw the Smith's ceramic stone bout 6 inches in length, for $2.95 and it had a full 5 star review with about 24 actual reviews so at that point my decision was finally made. I'm good with my hands, steady so I always preferred the idea of freehand as opposed to the guided although I'm sure the guided can be just as fun and rewarding, i love this hobby so I wanted to develop a real skill at freehand sharpening. The Tanto was very easy and a great first blade to learn on. Then I took my Fall Creek Urge S35VN drop point to the stone and it definitely took that steel to a sharp working edge as well.
I don't have a particular preference to stay with any certain type of stone. I have been thinking about getting some dmt diamond hones, maybe the 4 inch small ones to start with. I guess my question is would the dmt Extra Fine hone be a more fine of a grit than the Smith's 1000 grit ceramic? I'm trying to keep a low budget for my sharpening as you can tell from my smith's purchase but I will say it was worth every penny and works well. I guess I'll try dmt's fine n extra fine 4 inch hones as I am being cheap right now due to me being in firearm purchase mode...just bought a Walther PPS 9mm and a AR-15 build yer haw!
I don't have a particular preference to stay with any certain type of stone. I have been thinking about getting some dmt diamond hones, maybe the 4 inch small ones to start with. I guess my question is would the dmt Extra Fine hone be a more fine of a grit than the Smith's 1000 grit ceramic? I'm trying to keep a low budget for my sharpening as you can tell from my smith's purchase but I will say it was worth every penny and works well. I guess I'll try dmt's fine n extra fine 4 inch hones as I am being cheap right now due to me being in firearm purchase mode...just bought a Walther PPS 9mm and a AR-15 build yer haw!
How could I forget about the beloved DMT's. I have a coarse 4x1 which leaves a nice working edge. As to if the extra fine is finer then an 1000 grit ceramic. I believe dmt quotes the extra fine at 1200 mesh. Not grit. Diamonds also leave a harsher edge due to their nature.
It's really up to you!
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The Smiths ceramic stone is a very fine stone it's quite a bit more fine then the DMT EF and is probably roughly equal to a 4k waterstone. Your best bet would be to pick up something like coarse/fine DMT or a Norton India combo stone to sharpen with and use the Smiths as a finishing stone.
Fsatsil I love the Misfits! I'm a rocker to the core. Thanks for the info, I guess I'll just grab a course and fine dmt stone. I have been continuing to work 2 of my knives on my smith's ceramic and I can't believe how razor sharp they are. I suppose if I were to continue working the knives on the 1k grit ceramic it would eventually polish the edges or am I looking at stropping with compound at that point?
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It would likely take a very long time to polish the edge if that ceramic stone is all that you were using. Im terrible at explaining things like this so I apologize ahead of time if I end up confusing you.
To get a nice polish you need to start with a coarse stone and work the bevel until you have removed all the scratches from the factory sharpening belts. Once that is done you would move on to a medium grit stone and grind the bevel until you have removed the scratches from the coarse stone. You keep repeating this with finer and finer stones until you achieve the level of polish that you want. Your grit progression might look something like this coarse DMT>fine DMT>xfine DMT>Smiths ceramic>strop w/compound. Hope this helps.
To get a nice polish you need to start with a coarse stone and work the bevel until you have removed all the scratches from the factory sharpening belts. Once that is done you would move on to a medium grit stone and grind the bevel until you have removed the scratches from the coarse stone. You keep repeating this with finer and finer stones until you achieve the level of polish that you want. Your grit progression might look something like this coarse DMT>fine DMT>xfine DMT>Smiths ceramic>strop w/compound. Hope this helps.
Actually that was a very straight forward explanation I will definitely grab the dmt hones and a strop with compound. There is a Bark River Knives double sided strop that comes with 2 compounds, green and black for around $40 on KSF's site. Anyone familiar with that, would that work for polishing?
I personally would pick either green or black, and keep the second side bare leather. I do green compound on one side, and smooth side bare leather on the other. I have actually had really good results on certain steels doing bare rough side leather followed by bare smooth side leather.
I also use a Smith 1000 grit ceramic for final honing. Also, if you don't want to invest a lot of $$ in stones, I use a piece of 1500 grit emory taped to a paint stirrer for a "polished edge". Be sure to only use a pull motion, away from the knife edge if you use an emory. For coarser blade work, reprofiling, etc. I use a Norton Crystolon combination stone; then a Smith's ceramic.
Rich
Rich
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Strops like that are very popular. Keep in mind the grit level on the compounds; white (12,000 grit), green (6,000 grit), and black (3,000 grit). Some people feel the white is to high of a grit, but that depends on what level of polishing you want.
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You can save some money if you don't mind making your own strop. It's very simple, all you need to do is get yourself a block of hardwood and glue a piece of leather, denim, or balsa onto it, let dry overnight, then load it up with your favorite compound and you are all set. Just make sure not to over strop, you want to get your edge sharp and as burr free as possible using the stones then use the strop to clean up and refine the edge, shouldn't take more then 10 stroke or so.