Mike Ternan
06-24-2010, 12:19 AM
Hi
After the bench grinder for shaping I have a simple freehand sharpening regime involving a dia-sharp ultra fine diamond stone followed by a leather strop with jeweller’s rouge. This gives me a sort of polished surface on at least the bevel side of my edges. I say sort of because you can still see scratches on the blade backs. However, this gives me a thoroughly sharp edge that will cleanly pare pine end grain.
I’ve read that the ultra fine dia-sharp (1200 grit) is equivalent to a 3000 grit waterstone. So I’m wondering if this is too course for my final stone before stropping. With a finer stone in between the two I could probably shift the scratches that still remain after the strop?!
Why do I want to do this if I’m getting an edge that is razor sharp already? Durability. I just think that an intermediate step on a finer stone might give me a longer lasting edge. Plus, for much chisel work I could cut out the stropping and just finish with a few swipes on a fine stone – the dia-sharp is too coarse to stop at.
The stones that appeal to me are oilstones – in this case a translucent Arkansas. I just don’t think I could ever warm to the constant flattening of waterstones. Equally, I’d be concerned about the spyderco stones and very very fine diamond plates as I’ve heard they can often be a bit rum. In addition, having a ‘proper’ oilstone in the mix appeals to the galoot in me.
So how fine are the translucents? I’ve read various conflicting things. Apparently, Norton equates them with only a 4000 waterstone, in which case one probably wouldn’t be worth my while. But others say they are closer to 5000 or 6000, and I think I read that Joel Moskowitz rates them as highly as the equal of 8000 grit waterstones. The other reservation I have is that they are apparently very slow. But is this an issue when you’re polishing a small secondary bevel on your final or penultimate finishing medium?
Related to this possible decision is the fact that I’ve just spotted a second hand Salmen’s 50/60s hard Arkansas stone come up for sale. How would this old brand and type compare to the Norton hard translucent?
After the bench grinder for shaping I have a simple freehand sharpening regime involving a dia-sharp ultra fine diamond stone followed by a leather strop with jeweller’s rouge. This gives me a sort of polished surface on at least the bevel side of my edges. I say sort of because you can still see scratches on the blade backs. However, this gives me a thoroughly sharp edge that will cleanly pare pine end grain.
I’ve read that the ultra fine dia-sharp (1200 grit) is equivalent to a 3000 grit waterstone. So I’m wondering if this is too course for my final stone before stropping. With a finer stone in between the two I could probably shift the scratches that still remain after the strop?!
Why do I want to do this if I’m getting an edge that is razor sharp already? Durability. I just think that an intermediate step on a finer stone might give me a longer lasting edge. Plus, for much chisel work I could cut out the stropping and just finish with a few swipes on a fine stone – the dia-sharp is too coarse to stop at.
The stones that appeal to me are oilstones – in this case a translucent Arkansas. I just don’t think I could ever warm to the constant flattening of waterstones. Equally, I’d be concerned about the spyderco stones and very very fine diamond plates as I’ve heard they can often be a bit rum. In addition, having a ‘proper’ oilstone in the mix appeals to the galoot in me.
So how fine are the translucents? I’ve read various conflicting things. Apparently, Norton equates them with only a 4000 waterstone, in which case one probably wouldn’t be worth my while. But others say they are closer to 5000 or 6000, and I think I read that Joel Moskowitz rates them as highly as the equal of 8000 grit waterstones. The other reservation I have is that they are apparently very slow. But is this an issue when you’re polishing a small secondary bevel on your final or penultimate finishing medium?
Related to this possible decision is the fact that I’ve just spotted a second hand Salmen’s 50/60s hard Arkansas stone come up for sale. How would this old brand and type compare to the Norton hard translucent?