Water stones

J

JeremyI

Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
36
Well, i've been working with a few cheap stones and knives on my free hand sharpening skills, and I think i'm about to the point that I'm confidant enough to buy some good stones and try it out with a decent knife. Any suggestions on what brand of stones and how coarse of a stone I would need? I don't plan on doing any reprofileing by hand for a while, I was looking at the three stone sets on this page (the second set). And eventually adding a 8,000 grit later.

http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/default.php?cPath=34_501

thanks for the imput

Jeremy
 
Looks like a dicent set for the price. The King S2 stone, which is in the set, isn't as highly reviewed as the G or F (their polish stones go by a code consisting of a letter and a number... F is 4,000, S is 6,000, and G is 8,000 grit, 1 is large, 2 is medium and 3 is small size), but is still a pretty good stone. You can get the G1 here Korin and the F1 here Epicurian edge Korin also has the 1,000 grit King Hyper, which is optimized for stainless steel kitchen knives.

The King's are clay stones (except for the green and black silicon carbide stones, which they also make under the Sun Tiger brand, are made from aluminum oxide mixed with clay and fired). They absorb water much like a clay flower pot (and smell a lot like one too), have good water retention and can be left soaking. They have a decent tactile feedback but cut a bit slower than the Shapton pro resin bonded stones. Bester also makes some pretty nice ceramic stones between 500 and 2000 grit. You can get those at Japan Woodworker , should you later decide you want to add more stones to your set.
 
They also have decent prices on Norton's here http://www.craftsmanstudio.com/html_p/N!LWS.htm

Before someone asks... Tools for working wood list's the JIS standard micron sizes that correspond to the listed grit, while this site lists the actual micron sizes from Norton's product catalog (8000 JIS is actually 1.2 microns in the standards table), Shapton lists 8000 as 1.8 microns and Norton lists their 8k stone as 3 microns.

So, the Norton 8000 is really 4000 JIS, but, as with Spyderco stones, grit size isn't the whole story... People who've used them a lot report that they actually polish that is in between that left by a Shapton 5000 and 8000... more like a 6000 grit stone.

So, Norton's / Saint-Gobain (Norton is owned by a French parent company) grit rating may be just a little bit high, they are still very good stones... they cut fast, work well on stainless (some waterstones leave a dark haze on stainless), are reasonably priced and come in a nice 3" width (most stones are only 2.5 to 2.75" wide), which makes them very popular with people who hone straight razors. And, they come in many odd sizes too like narrow 1" wide and 6" wide versions. http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=BIGP&description=Norton+Super+Wide+Water+Stones&fullimagepath=/prodimg/no/big/NO-WATWIXX_big.gif
 
lie-nielsen.com has the best prices I've found on the Norton waterstones, as well as a
single $6 total shipping cost (last time I checked). They're also a pleasure to deal with. (no affiliation btw)
 
Carey said:
lie-nielsen.com has the best prices I've found on the Norton waterstones, as well as a
single $6 total shipping cost (last time I checked). They're also a pleasure to deal with. (no affiliation btw)
Click to expand...

They are the medium sized 7 3/4" x 2 3/4" stones rather than the 8x3x1 size though.
 
I need to order some Norton stones for my straight razors. I have the King 4000 and 8000 grit stones and the one time I tried to use a knife on them gouged the stone a bit, they are really soft.
 
yuzuha said:
They are the medium sized 7 3/4" x 2 3/4" stones rather than the 8x3x1 size though.
Click to expand...

I think the stones lie-nielsen sells are the same as those offered elsewhere as 8x3x1.
Norton doesn't list a 7 3/4 x 2 3/4 waterstone in their catalog, and my friend's
Norton 8000, bought from L-N, looks like 8x3 to me. I agree that the Nortons are
relatively soft, at least the ones I've tried: the 220, 4000 and 8000. I did like
the feel of the 4000, and am thinking of buying one soon. If so, I'll get it from L-N,
and will post here what the actual size is.
 
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