What stones before going to diamond

I switched over to diamonds for steels that need it, nearly a decade ago. Prior to that, I just used economy SiC and Alox dual-grit stones in the 100 to 300 range, like some of those mentioned that you can still get in hardware stores. Still have a few Norton economy stones lying around in a box somewhere.

I didn't switch to diamonds because of speed of sharpening, at the time, I switched because they offered other advantages I was after. Today, if I take a super steel blade with vanadium carbides in the 4% to 5% range, I can tell a difference in how fast I can get things done on diamonds versus say on my SiC stones. But it's not a night and day difference, and since I'm not sharpening for a living, the speed of sharpening has never been a big concern. Now, the main reason I use diamonds is they seem to get the best results with certain steels. And with some steels I have such as D2 from anybody, or Buck's 420HC, while diamonds are not required, I do get pretty good results so I keep using diamonds on those steels too.
 
Before I bought diamond plates, I had a Norton medium Crystolon and fine India stone. The Crystolon side is worn from being used without oil. I didn't realize I was smoothing/wearing the stone like that until it got worse and kinda stopped cutting. I probably should figure out how to use loose grit and a flat plate to fix it, but I'm not very motivated to do so.

The medium Crystolon definitely cut well, but it was never really impressive like a very low grit stone is. When I got the DMT XXC stone, as part of my three plate system (XXC, C, EF), I was totally blown away by the cutting speed and easy to see scratch pattern. That plate changed my sharpening. For the first time, I was seeing scratch patterns, watching the bevels form, and consistently forming full length burrs. Basic stuff that had eluded me for many years before this.

The XXC is kinda the magic stone in the DMT line. It's very tough and does not seem to shed diamonds, even when I press harder than I should. Which is most of the time. I've damaged my DMT C plate by using too much pressure. It has several "slick" areas with not very much diamond left on them. The EF has held up really well, but it only gets used for refining the scratch pattern, so that's expected.

Of course the XXC, like any very coarse stone, leaves behind a deep scratch pattern that can be hard to get rid of. If you care about that. For me, the edge that is left by the XXC, C, EF combo cuts like a demon, though it isn't a very polished edge at all. I stopped chasing the polish several years ago and now I'm much happier to see just how much cutting power I can get from an edge finished between 300 and 900 (ish) grit.

All of this translates well to the Work Sharp Ken Onion as well: The SUPER coarse belt I have, a 60 grit ceramic, eats steel rather quickly and can overheat a blade if you're not careful. It also leaves behind a very deep scratch pattern. In most cases I'm better off using either the 80 grit belt, or the X200 Norax belt. Both produce a similar finish, though I think the X200 cuts faster *and* leaves behind a more refined scratch pattern. YMMV. Again, with this system as well, I try to stop in the medium grit range; usually no higher than X16 for working blades, or X5 if I want more polish.

Diamonds are great, though I don't use mine as much as the WSKO. I'd like to have a coarse Crystolon to play with. I bought an 8x2 ACE hardware stone a few months ago thinking it was going to be SiC (Crystolon), but was fooled. I'm almost 100% sure it's AlO2 (India).

Brian.
 
Brian, if your ACE hardware stone is more grey looking, it is Alo2. If it is jet black it is SiC.
Some interesting comments here and I enjoy reading them. DM
 
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