water stone?

[willy m]

i got an 8000 gr water stone for x-mas i tried it out yesterday. i went from a med.oilstone to a fine poket diamond hone to the water stone.to my strop i thought it would make a noticible diff. but actually not as good. i want to eventually get all waterstones but have to get one at a time. i have been freehand sharpening quite awhile. and cha get them quite sharp.is there a different thenquie with the waterstone? i sharpen using the "cut a thin slice and matched number of strokes on each side". the stone did have a different feel to it though. any ideas? i dont have a nagura stone yet. is there a substitute i can use till i get one? thanks,willy

 

[TMcC]

if you want to see water stone sharpening techniques, check out Murray Carters knife sharpening DVDs.

 

[wetdog1911]

Sounds like you have quite large jumps in grit sizes and in media (oilstone/diamond/waterstone).

The 8000 is really more of a polish stone. Try using it like a strop with trailing strokes. A Nagura would help and they are cheap, like $10/12.

+1 on the Murray Carter DVD.

Rob

 

[Native Justice]

Use your fine stone to remove the deep grind marks in your edge and don't move on until the new grind (scratch) marks are consistently all the new fine marks from your fine stone. Since the fine stone is probably only about a 600 grit you're going to have a hard time removing all of the deep scratches. You should have at least one other stone in the vicinity of a 1000-1200 grit (ideally, adding a 4000 grit stone to the 1000 grit is even better still but I have no problem using just my 1200 grit and jumping to my Norton 8000 grit) to be able to remove the scratches from your edge and achieve a mirror polished edge

Now to the use of the 8000 ...

This stone is easy once you understand how it works. You have to develop a mud slurry to sharpen with which can be done with a nagura (prep stone) or by using a diamond or flattening stone on the surface of the 8000 stone.

The nagura helps develop the mud as you sharpen. You wipe the surface of the 8000 stone with the nagura lightly which leaves a chalk like film on the surface of the stone, lightly wet the surface of the stone and sharpen as you normally would.

or

Use a diamond stone or flattening stone on the surface of your 8000 grit with water until you develop a mud on the surface (this is what actually does the sharpening on your stone and keeps the stone loading to a minimum). Alternate the use of the diamond/flattening stone up and back vertically and diagonally on the 8000. This process is also essential to mainatining a flat surface to sharpen on also so spring for the extra diamond (I like the XC DMT stone myself but also have the Norton SiC Flattening stone). Use a spray bottle to apply a light film on the surface (ONLY enough to keep the stone from getting dry and maintains the mud). Sharpen now as you normally do. YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE STONE MOIST WHILE SHARPENING! If you don't, you'll gouge the stone and dull your edge.

Ok, that's a quick down and dirty description of how to use this stone. Read up or get a DVD or 2 to fill in the blanks. Good luck!

NJ