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Your Touch-up Stone

C

CLuttrell

Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
27
I'm curious as to what you guys use for a touch up stone on your edc once the strop doesn't bring your edge up to where you want it to be. I'm assuming you don't have any damage such as chips that would necessitate you going to a very coarse stone to fix.

In order for this to be meaningful, please list what you finished on before to get your edge where you wanted it, i.e., DMT extra fine, 4000 water stone, translucent arkansas, 0.5 paste, whatever you stopped on before.

I'm sure I'm going to get many "Sharpmaker" answers and that's fine, I'm just curious as to how far back up the grit scale you are going to go to get back that edge you want, whatever the edge criteria that is for you personally.

Chris
 
I sharpen on DMT stones up to extra fine and finish on a leather strop loaded with green compound. I used to touch up on the extra fine stone. After getting the Sharpmaker, that is my preferred use for regular maintenance.
 
Most of my EDCs get done on just a 800 grit ceramic. In generally I need a toothier edge, so thats what I use. for lighter use knives, I may use white or black compound on a paddle, if needed those will get touched up past that on the 800 and then 8k ceramic.
 
Most often, I maintain on a Washboard (link in signature) with the stock honing compound - silicon carbide in the 4k range. This is generally how I finish them off in a progression as well following some 600-800 grit wet/dry or the 10 micron jointer stone. For a toothier edge I finish off backhoning on the 10 micron jointer stone and strop on paper.
 
I use Japanese Waterstones most often, 1k to do regular sharpening and between 2k and 5k to finish depending on the blade and steel.

I can wear out an edge with a good day of work so my edges see the 1k stone a little more often. I will use my finishing stones as much as possible to maintain the edge and I only strop after using stones.
 
I usually strop on firmly-backed denim with white rouge or a similar AlOx compound, for most maintenance. When that hasn't quite been enough, a few passes on a 'Fine' DMT (600/25µ) keychain hone or Dia-Fold, or on the 'Fine' side of a SiC stone (~320), puts the 'bite' back into the edge.


David
 
Once the strop doesn't work, I take my blades to a Norton fine India stone. The American made one from the 70's and use mineral oil. On this stone it will give a hair popping edge. DM
 
I finish with a hard black arky and then strop with leather loaded with white compound. If I can't bring the edge back with the strop after use, I will go back to the hard black arky or the soft arky if the edge got really dull. I will only go back to the india if I damaged the edge somehow.
 
Wow! This really shows how many options we have to sharpen a blade. Diamonds, ceramic, washboard, wet/dry sandpaper, silicon carbide, jointer stone, Japanese water stone, India stone, and Arkansas stones. I would have thought it would have taken several pages of replies to see this many options, but this list came from just a few posts. Most of the replies concerning your touch up stone grits made perfect sense to me...only a few surprised me.

It's plain to see we like different levels of refinement to get our knives sharp as well. I appreciate your replies and keep them coming.

Favorite Blade,
If I had to tell my answer to my own question, all I would have to do is copy your answer.

Chris
 
CLuttrell said:
Wow! This really shows how many options we have to sharpen a blade. Diamonds, ceramic, washboard, wet/dry sandpaper, silicon carbide, jointer stone, Japanese water stone, India stone, and Arkansas stones. I would have thought it would have taken several pages of replies to see this many options, but this list came from just a few posts. Most of the replies concerning your touch up stone grits made perfect sense to me...only a few surprised me.

It's plain to see we like different levels of refinement to get our knives sharp as well. I appreciate your replies and keep them coming.

Favorite Blade,
If I had to tell my answer to my own question, all I would have to do is copy your answer.

Chris
Click to expand...

I 'tinker' with different stones/methods all the time, but the options I mentioned (Fine DMT and a Fine SiC stone) are probably the most versatile and/or convenient for me, across a very wide range of steels; especially so in a pocket-sized format that's always available to me (the DMT keychain hone is in my pocket everyday). I also have an AlOx pocket stone I purchased at Sears (for a whopping $2.50), that's been almost as handy; and I'm starting to like an old pink/white medium Arkansas stone I got years ago, on blades in simpler steels like 1095, CV and low-alloy stainless.

Bottom line: I like to keep my options open, and there's a lot of value and fun in figuring out which hones really hit the 'sweet spot' for specific steels and uses. :)


David
 
If the edge is really bad then my Lansky diamond hones, if it just needs a quick touch up then my Lansky 4 rod turn box with the brown, 600grit, then the white, 1000grit ceramic rods.
 
I run my blades through my ken onion ws...the purple 6000 grit belt on its slowest speed alternating passes, 3-5 passes each side will yield a clean edge, even removing some chips...
 
In general my "touch-up" stone is the 1k Chosera. Depending on the steel, I will go to 3k Chosera, 2.45 micron Shapton Glass, or 0.5 micron strop. Even if I don't go for a polished bevel, I still like to use the strop to make sure I have a clean edge.
 
I've gone over to more coarse edges, these days, I like the DMT dialfold green/beige. Once in a while, I'll drop down to a Spyderco brown ceramic.
 
It really depends on the knife, and my whims.

Sometimes I touch up on a coffee cup, other times I pull out one of the DMTs, still other times I pull out a ceramic hone such as the Crock Stix or the Sharpmaker.

Last week I touched up a friends field knife on the edge of his truck window.

I used to touch up on one of my strops (and still do with my straight razors).

I guess I don't really have a single goto item...and I enjoy the variety;)
 
i tend to start off with 1000 grit alox, and if that is taking some effort i'll back down to 600 grit. i'm not a stickler like a lot of people here, so i'm happy once the blade can push cut receipt paper (my wife always has tons of them lying around) and shave arm hair. which i guess really can even be done fine with 600 grit, but i still go up to at least 1000.
 
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