Smith's Tri-Hone medium stone pitting

fetzer85

fetzer85

Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
2,163
Hello,

In the past I've always used assisted sharpening systems (Lansky Deluxe, WSKTS, etc.) however after doing some reading in this section I decided to try free hand. I bought a Smith's Tri-Hone and have only been using it for less than 2wks. I'm struggling to get my knives past paper cutting sharp but that's not my reason for this thread.

I noticed last night after getting it oiled up that the medium grit stone has a substantial amount of pitting. I don't know if it's an issue but it certainly doesn't look good. I tried to capture it in a few pics but I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see it. Towards the middle of the stone they are finer and then at the one end there are some larger ones. It wasn't like this when I started using it so I wanted to see if it was normal for a cheaper stone or if maybe I'm doing something wrong. The only knives I've used on it are an Ontario RAT 1 and a Buck 110. Thanks for any input.

http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy159/fetzer85/IMG_20131023_112707257.jpg
http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy159/fetzer85/IMG_20131023_112600280.jpg
http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy159/fetzer85/IMG_20131023_112637788_HDR.jpg
 
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Does anyone know if the current Smith's Arkansas are natural or manufactured? My soft Arkansas has a bunch of small holes and voids similar to the pics - does not effect performance.
 
HH, I checked the box and the way it's worded makes it sound like the Arkansas stone is natural and the other two aren't.
 
fetzer85 said:
HH, I checked the box and the way it's worded makes it sound like the Arkansas stone is natural and the other two aren't.
Click to expand...

That's perfectly normal in a natural stone, no problems. Should make a very nice edge. It will have trouble with harder stainless, but on carbon and most common stainless will work fine - Buck's 420hc and Aus8 get along very well with Arkansas stones.
 
My pics are of the medium stone though, not the natural Arkansas. (which has no divots at this time)
 
I thought the tri-hone had a coarse manufactured stone, a soft Arkansas, and a hard Arkansas. The soft would be normal to show pitting or voids, the hard should look pretty much solid.
 
This is my first stone sharpener but the box is only calling the fine stone an 'Arkansas' stone.
 
I know this is an older thread, but I too have a smith's stone with pitting. I have been searching out the stone on the older small Smith's 2 stone kit, came with a dark brown oil stone on top, and a hard arkansas in the bottom. If it helps you any, my oil stone has pitting too, and it does not seem to affect performance for me.
Whatever stone is on my 2 stone kit, its the nicest oil stone I have ever tried, and I wish I could figure out what it was so I could buy a full size version. The medium oil stone on the current Smith's tri hone kit looks a little bit different from the smith's 2 stone kit, but I wonder if it reacts the same...
Either way, pitting is normal from my experience, its probably air pocket that were in the abrasive before it was vitrified.
 
That looks more like natural voids or pores in a natural stone, as opposed to 'pitting' (which I'd infer to be some sort of erosion or fracturing; doesn't look like that, to me). So long as there aren't any high points proud of the surface for the edge to hang up on, I wouldn't worry about it.

As previously mentioned, many or most of the tri-hone setups usually have a medium/soft Arkansas as the 2nd step, with a man-made AlOx (or diamond) for the first (coarse) stage, and a hard Arkansas (like a translucent) as the finishing stone.


David
 
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