What type of stone do you use for that scary sharp edge?

Matt Shade

Matt Shade

Joined
Nov 24, 1999
Messages
4,981
The finest stone I have right now is a fine white ceramic and as my sharpening skill increases, its just not enough.I sharpen freehand and may not be getting all I can out of it but I would like to go one step finer before stropping if its possible or worth it. I can get edges that shave and push cut like crazy and pass most of the other tests, but its still not quite to that light saber type performance
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I've been looking torwards surgicle black arkansas or spyderco makes ( or at least used to make, haven't seen one in a while ) an ultra fine ceramic stone. I've heard of good results with a 6000 grit japanese stone ( are there any finer than that?) I have a 1000 grit japanese stone that I don't really like to well. It does its job, but went out of flat fairly quickly and storing it in water and everything is a pain in the ass. But I'd be wiling to put up with it if it gave me a better edge. So what do you guys like?

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I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer... but I've got the sharpest knife in the room.
 
Hey Matt. I am too lazy to use a stone. I slack belt an initial edge with an old 220 grit belt. Then I switch to a really old 400 grit belt that feels more like a 1000. When the edge feels fairly sharp, I switch to a hard felt buffing wheel loaded with green rouge and hone the edge. In about 5-10 minutes I can go from no edge to hair popping. An edge touch-up, 30 seconds to a minute. Try it, you'll like it.
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Hugh

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Scraped, burnt, sliced, smashed. AHHHH, knifemaking!!!!
 
Here's a link for anyone interested in what I think is the best sharpener for the money:
The Edge Pro.
The professional model is the one I have and like a lot.
 
DMT ultra fine diamond bench hone does the job for me, finished by stropping with chromium dioxide impregnated strop, followed by plain leather strop. Just lather and shave.
 
i have tried the stones and really can't get nowere when it comes to sharpening i am no good but i like a sharp knife what works best

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I bleed when i am careless
 
I start out with a tough setup by Norton, their Tri-Hone system, shown here, I let Phil Baldwin use my stones to sharpen the sword he made. I'm standing just behind him.
After these three stones I move on to the Spyderco Flat Ceramics and then onto a leather strop. Makes for a very very sharp edge......the blue boxes next to the black stone set are the Spyderco stones, and the Green looking strip is what is left of my leather strop....I sorely need to make another one for myself as it's in bad shape...
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G2

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"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions!"
Take the time to read your Bible Now, don't be left behind...


[This message has been edited by Gary W. Graley (edited 11-26-2000).]
 
Thanks for the replies so far guys.
My grinder isn't set up for slack belt grinding (4x36
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) and I can't get fine enough belts for it either, otherwise I would definitely try that out.
I'm pretty happen with the freehand method, I just want a finer stone if possible. So I probabyl won't be buying an edge pro anytime soon.
Hey Gary, I use a tri hone setup to, mine is the cheapo version of yours. The stones probabyl aren't quite as good but they're not bad at all. The coarse stone is pretty useless for normal sharpening,because its about like a coarse grinding wheel for a bench grinder. The medium and fine are pretty good though. After them I go to a spyderco flat stone also, mine is a fine. Its white and has a blue case like the one in your picture. Do you have more than one type of them ( medium,fine,ultra fine)? After it I strop with micro fine honing compound. I think its the same as jewelers rouge, half micron sized grit particles.

I can get my knives to shave really well and do all the push cutting tricks. With my old delica 98 I could cut a free hangingin plastic shopping bag with a feather light slicing cut. I'm just wondering if I can get even sharper.
Thanks for any more suggestions.

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I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer... but I've got the sharpest knife in the room.
 
I have all three grits of the Ceramic stones,
Coarse, the Grey stone like on the Spyderco 204
Fine, the White stone also like on the 204
Ultra Fine, which is just a smidgen finer/smoother than the Fine

Some knives I use the the sandpaper technique, like on my David Boye Basic #3

I take some deer skin and lay sand paper on top, then I strop the knife across the paper and slowly arch up at the end of the stroke, it makes for a nice convex style blade and wow does it push cut through material!! amazing, I started with 100 grit, then 220, 320, 600 wet/dry sand paper, to set the bevels, then I buffed the knife out. If it needs sharpening I would only go back as far as the 320 and then up.....

G2
 
You can get 8000 grit water stones! They require a nagura stone, a little stone you rub on the 8000 grit stone to get that slurry going. My next purchase of sharpening gear will probably be that 3 stone ceramic set made by Spyderco!

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"Come What May..."
 
Just ordered my EdgePro Professional today. Ben Dale was a real nice guy to talk to, and took my order on a Saturday to boot. Can't wait until it gets here on Friday. I dunno, I tried the crock sticks, I tried the spyderco bench stones, I tried the Lansky system, but the EdgePro is looking like it will be the last sharpening system I need to buy. I just hope it lives up to my expectations
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Hello..

You see, I'm from Belgium, and I about use the same method of sharpening as Totally tactical...muck faster.
But I can reach the same results with a a few stones...a rough one (about 500 grit, a medium one (2000) and a fine one (about 8000-10000)...the edge is then like an intersection between shaving polished and biting...it actually bites, but still shaves good.
The stones I use are a rough synthetic carbasil stone, the medium one is a cermacic one, like spydie's, the fine one is a Belgian white stone. The last one is quit unknown, but it is like a arkansas stone, one with a stronger structure and denser. It simply works faster and wears less.
Downside: a belgian stone is almost not obtainable anywhere els in the world...but you could get lucky.

You can E-mail ne at any time..

greetz.

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"If the world wouldn't SUCK, we'd all fall off !"

member of the BKS
http://www.expage.com/belgianknives
 
I use the set of DMT diamond whetstones to create initial bevels and to get the edge hair-popping sharp.
If I want to get super-high polished edge I finish on SPYDERCO ultra fine bench stone.
 
Translucent arkansa stone,
take away material pretty fast but left a good polished edge....

Joe
 
Hi Matt, I sent you a lengthy mail, but it bounced back. Re: sharpening.

Could you please give me a valid mailadress?

ZUT&ZUT
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(mine is: zut.zut@bluewin.ch)

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D.T. UTZINGER
 
Sorry Matt, the two next mails also bounced (ERROR 550, you are not allowed to send mail to...., user is unknown)
The text is too long for the forum.
Happy sharpening
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D.T. UTZINGER

[This message has been edited by ZUT&ZUT (edited 11-27-2000).]
 
Matt :

I have a 1000 grit japanese stone that I don't really like to well. It does its job, but went out of flat fairly quickly and storing it in water and everything is a pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

They do dish out fairly quickly and yes storage is not as easy as a diamond/ceramic hone. However :

http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/002324.html

solves all those problems. You want to get into the habit of flattening on a regular basis. This way, just like sharpening, you never get too far behind which makes for a long session.

The finest I go is an 800 grit ceramic rod and/or a loaded strop. Using a buffer with a very fine compound would probably be the way to achieve the finest polish as there are polishing compounds finer than any stone.

As well along the lines Gary noted in the above, you can get sandpaper that has insane grit levels like 10 000, 20 000 etc. . I have never used them and they are not exactly common. But if you prefer polished edges you might want to have a look for them.

One last comment, for this type of edge you really want a fine grained edge, something like the CPM's or 52100. Using something fairly coarse like 440C and you will quickly reach a limit above which finer hones do nothing.

-Cliff
 
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