Gritty Question

[Michael O'Sullivan]

Do the grits on sharpening stones, lapping compounds and sandpaper correlate? For example, does my 600g lapping compound correlate to a 600g stone and/or 600P sandpaper? It seems finer than the stone would be, but maybe similar to the sandpaper.

[David Christopher]

Im not sure Michael but 600 grits per square inch (PSI) should be the same for all

[Robert Rozaieski]

Do the grits on sharpening stones, lapping compounds and sandpaper correlate? For example, does my 600g lapping compound correlate to a 600g stone and/or 600P sandpaper? It seems finer than the stone would be, but maybe similar to the sandpaper.

Nope. And waterstone grits aren't the same as oil stone or diamond stone, etc. There are several references on the net that have cross references if you do a search.

[John Keeton]

This may help.

[Michael O'Sullivan]

John--

That is super helpful. Do you know if there a way to correlate lapping compounds based on grit number?

I am trying to avoid going backward in my sharpening system.

-Mike

[John Keeton]

Sorry Michael, I don't use lapping compounds, so don't have any info on that. I just recalled having this chart saved when I was looking at doing the scary sharp system.

[Jeff Bratt]

That is super helpful. Do you know if there a way to correlate lapping compounds based on grit number?

Don't your lapping compounds have micron grit sizes specified? If not, how are they identified?

[Danny Burns]

Just translate everything into microns, and make sure that you go down in numbers all the time.

[Phillip Pattee]

Johny Kleso's site http://www.rexmill.com/ has a section on sharpening. Inside that he has a grit equivalency. This compares oil stones, diamonds, sandpapers, watertones, and even has micron sizes. I have found this useful several times.:)