Spyderco ceramics

[db]

I've seen posts trying to determan what the finish of the Spyderco ceramics compare to in grit size. The best way is in judgeing the finish they leave. Is there a difference in finishes if it's a benchstone vs the triangle rods? Do the medium brown bench hones produce a finer edge than the same triangle rods? I have a Double stuff and a newer medium bench hone and they both give a very simular edge finish, finer than my Shapton 1000 grit hone.

 

[hardheart]

Cliff did a comparison of finishes and put it on his site. the estimate was 12.5 & 6.5 micron +/- 1, IIRC.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Yes, that was based off examining the finish of edges from the rods under magnification as well as measuring the sharpness and using a 600 DMT rod as a known micron finish.

-Cliff

 

[yuzuha]

Hard telling but the Lanskey sapphire hone seems somewhere between the fine and ultra-fine and the UF seems similar to a 6k-8k waterstone, but they are really way too hard to polish with the way you can a waterstone. They also seem to scratch a lot because they load up with swarf and smear that into the steel leaving streaks (probably not a real concern on a thin edge bevel). They are not exactly flat either so it would take a lot of grinding to get a perfectly smooth surface (until you wear them down, even the flats of the triangle rods leave a line contact like the edges). Not something I would consider trying to polish a bevel with, but they do a really decent job of sharpening softer steels like your standard kitchen cutlery (I do my Wusthof's on the sharpmaker since it almost does a better job on those than my waterstones). I like a softer stone for harder steels.

For your amusement, here is a scope photo of the medium, fine and ultra-fine sharpmaker rods (plus a bit of swarf) Optical mag is about 60x but probably around 200x effective.
http://members.cox.net/~yuzuha/spydrod3.jpg

 

[db]

That is what I thought most comparisons have been to the Sharpmaker rods. Anyone have or used both the Sharpmaker rods and the Spyderco bench hones? If so is there any difference in the finish they leave?