Which combination of benchstones

[HoB]

A few things: $85 is actually a pretty decent price for the DMT XX 8", its the going rate in the US as well, even though there is at least one ebay store that sells it cheaper (thanks Thom!).

It is my firm belief that on a soft waterstone, you have to use trailing strokes. If you don't, you will gauge the stone, but more importantly, you will dull the edge. Gauging means that the edge bites straight into the abrasive and even if you don't gauge, just a tad too steep angle will actually shave abrasive, which is just as bad for the edge. On hard abrasives I usually use a leading edge stroke, but on a soft waterstone, just like when using a strop, a trailing edge is essential.

The 60 grit dressing stone is a bit on the rough side, but you can use it on both the 1000 and the 3000 grit side. The will wear a tad quicker if you dress them with such a rough grit, but it will neither harm the stone or the knife that you are using on such a dressed surface. Try and use light pressure when dressing the waterstones to keep the scratch depth to a minimum. Alternatively, you can first dress the stone with the 60 grit and then finish the surface with a few passes on a 220 grit wet/dry sandpaper "glued" with water to a flat surface.

 

[Hyperborean]

Hello, at the knifecenter DMT 8 inch Diasharp are half that price ,42 USD I think (although prices at the knifecenter don't included consumer taxes).
Thank you for advice. I used a leading stroke on 1000 grit stone side which is softer than 3000 however I could feel if I had the right angle. Not on the 3000 grit though. I will try to use trailing stroke on 3000. Btw the moment I saw how soft these stones are I knew why people here talk about Shaptons so much. You have to be much more carefull with softer stones or I guess they could get ruined. I think were not exactly meant to sharpen curves and recurves. Maybe that's why japanese kitchen knives are without curved egdes

 

[yuzuha]

Hello, at the knifecenter DMT 8 inch Diasharp are half that price ,42 USD I think (although prices at the knifecenter don't included consumer taxes).
Thank you for advice. I used a leading stroke on 1000 grit stone side which is softer than 3000 however I could feel if I had the right angle. Not on the 3000 grit though. I will try to use trailing stroke on 3000. Btw the moment I saw how soft these stones are I knew why people here talk about Shaptons so much. You have to be much more carefull with softer stones or I guess they could get ruined. I think were not exactly meant to sharpen curves and recurves. Maybe that's why japanese kitchen knives are without curved egdes

So they are the Suehiro Cerax stones? I was wondering since the picture I saw was actually a Naniwa super ceramic. (the Naniwa super ceramics all have an "ebi" or shrimp/lobster on them and look like this http://www.rakuten.co.jp/sekinohamonoya/440372/452465/526009/526012/ and the actual Cerax stones look like this http://www.suehiro-toishi.com/pro3.html )

You can use the 60 grit flattener on them, just press lightly as possible on the finer stones, (or ease off the pressure as you lap if they are badly dished). Soft stones do require some care to keep the angle to avoid gouging but I've never had any trouble using a back and forth motion on anything but the Naniwa 10k (I only forward stroke that with small knives and with extra care about holding the angle exactly. Draw an X on the face of the stone with a pencil before lapping. As you lap, the lines shold evenly shorten towards the center. When the point where the lines cross in the center vanishes your stone should be flat. You should also bevel off the corners of your stones a little bit if they have sharp square corners (sharp corners are prone to chipping when you ram them with a handle or slap a knife down at a slight angle, so slightly rounding them will prevent that)

The 3k shouldn't dull unless you're angle is too steep (or you are pushing too hard, which can force the edge down too much) or your stone isn't flat (they don't always come perfectly falt from the factory). You can smooth out the surface of the 3k after lapping by giving it a rub on a 1k and then rinsing (I usually give my polish stones a rub on the back of my 1k after lapping them on my diamond plate).

Matsunaga uses King brand for their clay stones and Sun Tiger brand for their silicon carbide stones.

 

[65535]

Unless your edge is totally thrashed a Spyderco Fine Benchstone is great, I was able to remove a sizable chip ~ .5mm out of my 156 CSK in D2, imho it's a great grit for any steel.

 

[Hyperborean]

To HoB:
I sharpened the Mora 2000 again and this time I used trailing stroke on the 3000 side and it works. The edge was near razor sharp,not quite there but close.


To Yuzuha: I have New Cerax (CR-3800) by Suehiro. The 1000 grit is blue and the 3000 is pale yellow. Matsunaga Sun Tiger 6 inch combination waterstone is grey (250 grit) and brown (1000 grit). I haven't used it yet, it's still unpacked, but today I found a dull cleaver in kitchen drawer so probably I will use it to sharpen that cleaver (I tried to sharpen it on cerax 1000 grit but it's too thick). The shrimp/lobster sign is on a pvc box of the truing block so I guess that is by Naniwa. I didn't know that. The truing block is made of ceramic so the surface is not that abrasive as I would thought considering the low grit. Thank you for the advice on lapping and sharpening. I will keep that in my mind .

 

[HoB]

I am happy to hear that you had success! The rest will come with practice.

Hello, at the knifecenter DMT 8 inch Diasharp are half that price ,42 USD I think (although prices at the knifecenter don't included consumer taxes).

I don't see the Diasharp 8" XX at Knifecenter.com at all. The XX and the EE are significantly (usually about twice the price) more expensive than the other grits.

 

[Hyperborean]

I am happy to hear that you had success! The rest will come with practice.



I don't see the Diasharp 8" XX at Knifecenter.com at all. The XX and the EE are significantly (usually about twice the price) more expensive than the other grits.

Well thank you for telling me about the proper way...should I use the trailing stroke on 1000 grit as well or just on 3000?

 

[HoB]

To me it all depends on the softness of the stone. If the stone can even be slightly scratched with the fingernail, I would use trailing strokes. However, coarser stones tend to be harder (their bond may be soft, but the size of the particles often prevents cutting into them).

Also, at the coarser grits you are usually not estabilishing a very fine edge yet, so it is much less critical. Personally, I tend to use back and forth strokes up to about 1000 grit (twice as many strokes on the stone per unit time), to shape the edge. Only on the finer grits I usually use trailing strokes. I might even start with a few back and forth strokes and light pressure to remove scratches from the previous grit, but when I want to finish the edge I will use only trailing strokes. This of course is for soft waterstones only. On a hard ceramic stone like the Spyderco stones, I would stay with leading edge strokes. On a hard stone I find a trailing edge stroke somewhat ineffective. You will get a feel for the hardness of the stone very quickly.

The only exception is if I want to finish the edge intentionally on a fairly coarse grit, like 700 or 1000. On a soft stone such as the King 1000 (which is actually of medium hardness) I would finish with a few very careful trailing strokes. To stay with the example: if the 1000 King is not the final grit, I would not bother fully cleaning up the edge and would do only back and forth strokes, because the King 1000 is of a hardness where edge degradation due to plowing is not that pronounced.