Which stones for mid range steels?

J

JeroenVw

Joined
Jan 2, 2021
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3
Hi, I'm new here. Just into sharpening.
Bought myself the worksharp precision, nice machine for the money. I'm looking to invest in a sharpner which is more capabel to sharp pocketknives and bigger kitchenknives.

Stil doubting between hapstone and Tsprof blitz 360. For my use buying high end steel would be stupid, so most of my knives are 14c28n, 9cr18mov, D2. Of course I want to sharpen everything but my question is, which stones are best for these uses? Pro's and cons between different stones?

Thanks !
 
Good question! Silicon carbide is more than adequate for sharpening up to Rockwell 63 steels. The ones you mention are mostly in the Rc59 range. But, the Blitz 360 comes with diamond plates. You can use those on any steel that is available today, even Maxamet at Rc69.
 
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. Silicon Carbide would make the amount of money to spend a lot more interesting than investing in diamond plates.
I hear a lot of things about leveling the stones, is this something you need to do after sharpening many knives or even after a few? The thing I found interesting about diamonds is that you dont need to do this, but the price is high. Its just for maintenance of 4 kitchen knives and 5 pocket knives.
 
The Blitz Kits are less expensive than the K03 series and are entirely adequate for pocket knives and kitchen knives up to about 6 inches in length. The diamond plates are part of the kit and cost nothing extra. If you manage to eventually wear them out, another set will cost you $48. No question that this kit is the best bang for the buck. However, it lacks expandability as it has very few accessories.
 
Jeroen, welcome to the Maintenance forum. Using SiC grit stones would take years (likely 10) before they would need leveling. And it's no big deal. I could wear down a diamond stone in that length of time. Also, the SiC grit cuts faster and is more economical to purchase. Good luck. DM
 
I would trust David. He has lots of experience. That being said, I always recommend getting replacement SiC stones from Congress Tools. Here's the URL Congress Tools, Inc - Categories - Congress Polishing Stones - MOLDMASTER
The 1 X 1/4 X 6 inch stones cost between $4.50 and $7.60 each. I recommend using them unmounted, without the aluminum backer. Then, rather than leveling them, once they show wear on each of the two faces, discard and buy another one. Finally, these are compatible with both the Blitz 360 and K03 kits.
 
J JeroenVw I would get a Blitz that comes with diamond plates and use the diamond plates for your lower grit sharpening then move to a stone made by Chosera and I would get a 1K 3K and a 5K,I have tried the mold master stones and other congress tools stones and they wear pretty fast plus they don't come mounted to a blank and if you want to se them mounted then you'll have to look after that as well.

The Chosera stones wear much much better then the congress tool stones and will give you a much better edge as well,just use aluminum oxide powder and glass to flatten them,they don't need flattening a lot as they aren't really fast wearing stones,the 1K will wear the fastest out of those 3 and it doesn't wear very fast at all.

If you get the Chosera stones soak them for about 4 to 5 minutes and make sure they stay wet while sharpening,I keep a small container of water near me while sharpening and I dip 2 fingers into the water and then put it on the stone rather then using a mister and making a mess.

https://www.gritomatic.com/products/chosera-stone-edge-pro?_pos=2&_sid=ddb8b38be&_ss=r
 
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