What do ceramic benchstones do well?

G

G Clarke

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Apr 2, 2004
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Hello,

I was able to visit a Woodcraft store and asked the employees, and some customers, their opinions on sharpening. Now, a lot of them are sharpening wood tools and not necessary kitchen and pocket knives. However, I was a bit surprised how none used or recommended ceramic sharpeners, (most were diamond ie: Paul Sellers, one Shapton and the rest Arkansas and India stones).

I'm leaning toward diamond bench stones, (maybe a Shapton down the road) but wonder if there is a place for a ceramic sharpener in my kit.

Does a ceramic bench stone excel in any way over other bench stones?

What are ceramic bench stones best for, why have one?

Opinions and insights are welcome.

Thanks,
Clarke
 
After reading opinions on various Internet sites over the years I've come to one conclusion about sharpening--there's more than one way to skin a cat. Everyone has a favorite system, method and tool. And every one of those systems, methods and tools works for the person who uses it. So, that said, I can only tell you what I use and opine that it works really well...for me.

After various methods I've settled into using a DMT combination coarse/fine bench stone for dull knives or for knives that need edges thinned or repaired. Since I don't use my knives heavily, I only need to use the DMT occasionally and that's usually when my wife complains about her kitchen knives becoming hard to use. She tends to use them until they are totally dull. Mostly I use ceramics either alone or after using the diamond stones. Normally, I just use the Spyderco fine bench stone and strop (or not) or I'll follow the fine stone with a Spyderco ultrafine. I've actually used the ultrafine rods from the Sharpmaker until recently when I added the ultrafine Spyderco bench stone. This method, these tools, work to my satisfaction as of today.

I like the feel of working on the ceramic bench stones. I use the Spyderco stones with a little soapy water to prevent them from collecting steel debris. From the sound and feel of the knife traveling across the surface of the ceramics I get feedback on how I'm doing with keeping close to the proper angle. With diamonds, it just sounds and feels like I'm scraping a rough surface with the knife. While the ceramics do not remove metal as fast as the diamonds, they cut pretty efficiently. Depending on grit, they leave the edge with either a toothy or polished edge but with a little more refinement than with diamonds. At least in my opinion. Since sharpening is kind of a Zen thing for me, I have to enjoy the process and I do enjoy using ceramic stones more so than diamonds.
 
Ceramic is good to use after your fine grit stone and before a sapphire stone. Ceramic will hone and polish the edge but not to a super shiny finish.
 
For the most part, I think ceramic stones/hones are unique over other bench stones for three main reasons:

  • They can be used dry with no lubrication needed (compare to oil/water stones).
  • They'll essentially last forever, as their abrasive grit is very hard (less prone to being worn over time, therefore glazing isn't an issue) and won't ordinarily shed from the stones under normal uses.
  • Because they don't shed grit, they'll stay factory-flat essentially forever (compare to other oil/water stones, which will eventually dish over time unless periodically flattened/lapped).
As for finish quality or polishing, there are innumerable other ways to accomplish the same thing with a variety of stones/abrasives; no particular advantage there. And the vast majority of ceramics won't be very aggressive either, if heavier grinding is necessary; most ceramic bench stones are tailored to finishing/polishing tasks. Some specialty ceramics can be found at much coarser grit, but they're usually very small in size and tailored to specific uses (burnishing, deburring tasks in industry, for example).

I think ceramic hones are best applied in a portable/pocket-sized application, as they're very useful for quick touch-ups in the field, on most any steel. No requirement for lubrication also lends itself to in-the-field usefulness. That being said, I've never had much use for bench-sized ceramics though; I have the Spyderco Medium and Fine bench stones, and have almost never used them.


David
 
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My favorite ceramics are the Spyderco fine 2"by6" for home use after the diamond plates , and the Fallkniven DC4 for portable use. I like the final edge they put on all the steels I have ( any type) and they don't show any signs of wearing down.
Easy to clean with powdered cleanser at home , and I found out a paste of wood ash and water cleans them very well in the bush.

Re-profiling is out of the question as they don't remove a lot of metal fast , but for a final polish at the apex I really like them a lot to the point that I don't strop much anymore ( unless my knife is convex.)
 
Aren't shapton glass technically ceramic? I think with that in mind the answer would change a big. Russ
 
mycough said:
Aren't shapton glass technically ceramic? I think with that in mind the answer would change a big. Russ
Click to expand...

A lot of synthetic abrasive grit is ceramic, much of which is utilized in water stones (maybe like the Shaptons, but I don't know if they specifically utilize ceramic grit). Also used in some grinding belts, sandpaper and grinding wheels. But I'm assuming the OP's reference specifically implies the 'ceramic stones' such as Spyderco's, not used with water or oil, and which are more tightly-bound or sintered, so they don't shed grit like a waterstone. The answers would indeed be different, depending on which 'ceramics' are being discussed, no doubt.


David
 
Several years ago when I got back into sharpening and really started my journey, I bought some new stones. One was a combination Norton with medium Crystolon on one side and fine India on the other. The man who sold me the stone said "and you just have to have one of these!" and handed me a leather pouch with a Spyderco medium profile stone in it. That's the teardrop profiled 8" x 0.75" stone that Spyderco sells for various sharpening tasks, made of the same ceramic as their medium bench stone and medium sharpmaker rod. I think he sold it to me for $20.

I took everything home and started working and was able to get some ok edges. The Crystolon cut pretty fast and let me put a starter edge on a few blades. They weren't good edges at ALL. I couldn't even begin to shave or anything useful from the Crystolon. So I graduated to the fine India and worked some more. If the edge improved much, it was hard to tell. It still wouldn't shave hair. Then I tried the medium Spyderco ceramic.

BINGO! Now I had an edge that would shave, and it happened very quickly. For a long time, that stone was my finishing stone for all blades. ...and the edge it produces seems to work pretty well. I'm still not sure why it works so well. For the next few years, I would come back to the fine India every now and then and I couldn't ever get much of an edge from it. Then one day I had a blade from a coworker; a Schrade in carbon steel of some sort. The fine India put a great polish on the edge and made it really sharp! I finished it with the Spyderco anyway and made it (seemingly) even sharper. My coworker was thrilled.

These days my skill level is higher than those first few years. I'm not bragging; just saying I've gotten better. I was recently working on a DMC C with ZDP-189 and the edge coming right off of the DMT was incredibly sharp, shaving hair like crazy right off of the stone with no stropping. I only mention this because the DMT C and fine India are in the same ballpark of abrasive quality. Not the same, but sorta similar. So I think with good angle control, good pressure control, and most importantly, good deburring, you can make a great edge on medium grit abrasives like these in the 320 grit range.

All that said, the point I'm trying to make is that the Spyderco medium allowed me to make very sharp edges, with a very low level of skill on my part. Is there something special about them? I think it's a combination of very fast grinding speed (for it's grit rating), high hardness, and flatness.

I'm not sure this answers the original question in any way, but I hope someone finds it interesting.

Brian.
 
I only use my Spyderco ultra fine for my razor and very rarely for perhaps One knife blade to remove splinters. So, I don't use it much and not enamored with it. In my sharpening stone inventory I could have done without it but I have it in reserve and I'm good with that. If I had it to do over I would not have spent the money for it. DM
 
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