Difference between 800 / 1200 Black Oilstones

[John Crawford]

Hi folks:

I'm looking to get some basic oilstones for sharpening planes and chisels.

I am becoming dizzy from surfing and looking for details, so at the risk of starting another "sharpening" thread, I just thought I would ask your experience.

Natural Whetstone Company has some black Arkansas stones that they list as 800 and 1200 grit. Is there much difference between these two? After using a soft Ark, is there any need to use both of these? Or would one suffice before going to a strop?

Thanks for you help!

[Chris Vandiver]

After the soft ark you'll only need the hard black arkansas(1200gr). Go to Dan's for your hard black arkansas.

[John Crawford]

Thanks Chris--I'll go check their stones out too....

[Brad Roof]

John. I bought three stones from that company, soft (400),hard,(800),and black(1200). I don't really see much of a difference between the soft and hard. If you notice on their site they also offer a very expensive black stone that they claim is (1400) grit. I went with the 1200 grit stone and when I got it I was worried it wasn't the real deal meaning genuine noviculite. I called the owner and he said try the stone out and if I did not like it he would refund or exchange for the 1400 if I wanted to do that. I tried it out and followed that stone with some green honing compound on mdf and can get all of my irons and chisels hair popping. You definitely want to strop with compound as the last step. I have narex chisels, old plane irons, and some new a2 lee valley irons. I have even been able to hone all of these with the set, however the a2 does take some additional time on the stones, it does work though. I got the 3x10 stones. The hard and black were very flat, the soft has a dip in one corner. I use an eclipse style guide so that is why I got the big stones individually. They are nice and the price is fair. I think looking back I might have been better off getting the dual stone instead of the individual ones just to save money and space. I really think the key though is finishing with compound on mdf. I tried two types, the gold stuff from that carving company and green stuff from harbor freight and I like the green the best. Just put some on, work it into the mdf with some honing oil with your fingers, then work the back of a blade or two until you get a consistent black film. Once you have that, you can easily touch up an edge of a chisel before going back to the stones. It is a cheap way to get that final polish on your edges. Maybe the 1400 is better, but i dont think you need to spend that much money to get the results you are after. I am not sure how much sharper things need to be, I always test the result with shaving end grain in scrape pine and it works, so that is sharp enough for me. If you are planing on working up some old irons, I have found using sandpaper is the fastest way to get things back into shape( flattening backs ect....). Once you do all of the heavy removal that way, go to the stones. You only need to do that heavy lifting once on an iron unless you damage it.

[John Crawford]

Thanks for the report, Brad. I was thinking about the dual stone as well, but I didn't know about flipping it over every time I want to switch.... It is a pretty good deal. I'm also attracted to the wide stones, as I use a honing guide.

[jamie shard]

Those wide stones are a great bargain. I use the soft, black, and then a sypderco ceramic stone as the final stone (then a strop). I thinkif I did it again, I would use a Norton medium india, then a Natural black, and then the spyderco ceramic. Here's my current set up: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?198397-Small-Precision-Neander-Work-(help!)

[David Weaver]

Ditto the sentiment from Chris - Dan's finishers are better than anything else except vintage, and I'd say they're on par with vintage. I have one of the "translucent black" stones from NW, and it is a good stone, but I'm not sure that it's as good as dan's black ark, and I don't like it as much as I liked a Dan's white trans that I sold a while ago. I like them both better than norton's trans white stones (which I've had two of, and they were both similarly unimpressive in relative terms).

You can sharpen with any of them, though, it's a matter of if you're going to buy, buy something good if they're similarly priced.

I'm not a big fan of the dual stone concept for something like a smoother or a chisel because oilstones are completely intolerant of hard particles on the surface. Or more accurately, your iron will get nicked if there are foreing specks of dirt on the surface of your hard stone. You can wipe them off, but they will get you often enough to make you really annoyed.

[Matt ONeill]

John,

I purchased Natural Whetstone's "10 x 3 x 1 Black (1200 Grit) Arkansas Novaculite Whetstone" along with a soft whetstone about a year ago, and couldn't be happier. They're a great deal compared to some other suppliers. Although, I've never used a stone from Dan's, so I couldn't speak to the differences.

I agree with the use of a strop. About a month ago, I switched to honing with a convex bevel on the black stone (after reading about it constantly on Peter Sellers' blog) and then using the strop. Because oilstones don't really create a mess at all, I leave the stone and strop sitting on my bench all the time. The result is that I sharpen far more often, and therefore my tools stay much sharper. I thought hollow grinding and then freehand sharpening was fast, this is much faster.

Just my experience.

- Matt