Where do I go after Sharpmaker Fine stones?

B

bubblewhip

Joined
Dec 18, 2009
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I guess like many of you other people, I'm on my road to find the best edge. What do I use after the fine stones of a sharpmaker to be on the road closer to a mirror polish?

I'm thinking DMT Extra extra fine, or should I go with just fine?

Or a norton stone? Choices choices.
 
Then you're stuck with whatever works with the sharpmaker. You'll eventually reach a ceiling, which I'm assuming is where you're at now, and you'll have to invest in something else to get a more polished edge anyway.

You could always get a micron paste and load a strop, polish on that.

It wouldn't cost you $200 to learn freehand.
 
The Sharpmaker is freehand.

BW, you could try the Sharpmaker Ultrafine stones, followed by a strop. You could also just go to a strop. The fine stones will give a near mirror polish from what I've seen. I typically use the Sharpmaker for microbeveling and touching up the edge, so the polish I can see is a very narrow region. I also have tried the Mylar backed honing films sold at wood working stores. The final grit is 0.5 micron abrasive. They come with a sticky back, and I stick them to a piece of glass or wood and use them as a final strop. They need to be a little wet. A leather strop glued to a board would work too, using diamond or green compound.
 
Greetings Bubblewhip:
The abrasive size of the Sharpmaker Rods is a follows:
medium Rod 15
fine Rod 6 -- (This is where your edge finish is now)
ultra fine Rod 3.

The next step would be stropping with Diamond Paste or Spray on MDF, leather, wood, cardboard etc. at 1 micron.
Then Diamond or Chromium Oxide on a strop at 1/2 micron.
Then untreated leather with natural silicates, which are about 1/4 micron in size.

I can't detect a difference in edge quality below 1/2 micron. But thats' me. OldDude1
 
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ditto on the UF rods then strops. The F and UF rods share the same micron size, but the UF is finished finer.
 
I think you'll soon realize that you really are ready to spend a little cash and take the next step. www.edgeproinc.com! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

You can get stones up to 30,000 grit, and polishng pastes to .1 micron. :p
 
bubblewhip said:
You said it wouldn't cost me $200. You're right! It wont it will cost me about $300 for an entire set of DMT's. Not including strops and or stropping compound.
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Why would you need the whole set? Aren't you just looking for something to polish on after you're done with the sharpmaker?

Anyway, I think you can get a Norton 4000/8000 grit water-stone for about $80 online. Most of the DMT stuff is going to cost around that much too, especially if you get the continuous surface. You can look for smaller options like the 6x2 inch ones that are a little bit cheaper as well. However, you're really not going to escape having to pay $100-$200 if you're looking for a whole new set of stones.

On the other hand, as people have mentioned, some wood, some leather, and some stropping compound would probably be a better solution, and not to mention much cheaper too.

You can also go and find some very cheap, very high grit sand paper, wrap it around the Sharpmaker rods and use that as needed. That would probably be the cheapest solution, depending on how much the sandpaper costs.
 
bubblewhip said:
You said it wouldn't cost me $200. You're right! It wont it will cost me about $300 for an entire set of DMT's. Not including strops and or stropping compound.
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If you're going to do all of your work on the Sharpmaker and you're just looking for something to finish off with, why would you spend $300 on DMTs? Do you plan on going from Spyderco brown to white to DMT XXC, XC, C, F, etc.?

Just get a DMT EEF or a Spyderco Ultra Fine (either flat stone or the ones that go in the Sharpmaker.)

By the way, you don't really need to get the entire set of DMTs. If you have an XC and an EF, you're good to go. There's really no need for anything else. An F will make it a bit quicker to go from XC to EF, though. But in my opinion, C is a complete waste. XC is, too, if you already have XXC, but XXC has rounded corners, so they may or may not work for you.
 
THG said:
If you're going to do all of your work on the Sharpmaker and you're just looking for something to finish off with, why would you spend $300 on DMTs? Do you plan on going from Spyderco brown to white to DMT XXC, XC, C, F, etc.?

Just get a DMT EEF or a Spyderco Ultra Fine (either flat stone or the ones that go in the Sharpmaker.)

By the way, you don't really need to get the entire set of DMTs. If you have an XC and an EF, you're good to go. There's really no need for anything else. An F will make it a bit quicker to go from XC to EF, though. But in my opinion, C is a complete waste. XC is, too, if you already have XXC, but XXC has rounded corners, so they may or may not work for you.
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The implication is that because I used a sharpmaker I can't polish it any further and I need to hand sharpen everything. I think my decision is to go with the XXF next. Then get some chromium oxide with a strop.
 
Switching between stones will cause problems your are not et aware of. Get the UF rods and a 1 micron strop, if your edges are not a perfect mirror and splitting hair after that then your technique is to blame.
 
Bubblewhip thanks for asking this question because I was about to ask something very similar.

There is so much difference in how ones get to the sea with sharpening, some free hand, some system, some strop, some sand papers, some use paper wheels.

I use the sharp maker as well, like it good enough but only have medium and fine rods. I myself am going to an extrafine rod and then a strop with some kind of compound.

It took me a little while to figure out all the stroping and everything else and how the whole thing progresses. There should be a comprehensive sticky about sharpening progression on here to clear up a lot of this. I think the sharp maker with 3 sets of diamond rods, and then stroping with some kinda compound be it diamond paste or red paste, or black paste or what not will be sufficient for the quality of edge that I'm seeking.

Again, thanks for the question and thanks old Dude for your answer letting me know my thinking was correct on this issue.
 
Ditto on "thanks for asking the question." I too have a sharp maker with the ultra-fine rods. I'm new to all this and up till now have not done anything else after the UF rods. If I want one last and final step (for me) after the ultra fine rods, is it:

leather strop?

leather strop with compound?

Thanks!
 
silverbear said:
Ditto on "thanks for asking the question." I too have a sharp maker with the ultra-fine rods. I'm new to all this and up till now have not done anything else after the UF rods. If I want one last and final step (for me) after the ultra fine rods, is it:

leather strop?

leather strop with compound?

Thanks!
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leather strop with compound. no doubt about it.
You could use diamond pastes by dmt or just plain old green chromium oxide.
 
Greetings Silverbear: The next step in my progression of sharpening media is a HARD leather strop charged with 1 micron diamond spray or 1 micron chromium oxide slurry. The diamond spray is much faster at abrading than the chromium oxide. If you don't have a light touch then diamond spray on MDF might yield better results. Not all compounds are of equal quality, content or abrasive particle size. OldDude1
 
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Thanks OldDude1. I will look around for the supplies. Any place recommended for picking up these items?
 
Silverbear: I NOW use both the diamond spray and Chromium Oxide slurry from Hand American. IMO their product quality is excellent. Their time management skills and order shipping speed has been know to vary drastically. This thread contains information on different compounds types and other vendors. It may be to your benefit if you read it in it's entirety. OldDude1

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=738692&highlight=buy+stropping+compound
 
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