Stone of diminishing Returns

[Tony Wilkins]

Not talking about the object chased in a B-movie but sharpening stone or equivalent in your sharpening regiment. What is the highest grit/lowest micron media that you've found that you don't get benefit if you go finer than?

[David Weaver]

1 micron (15k shapton).

[Jim Matthews]

Does this depend on the grain size of the steel involved?

I use some fairly soft (by today's standards) steel with a high carbon content.
They take a keen edge that doesn't last terribly long.

I contrast that to the Blue Spruce chisels I traded recently, which I struggled
to hone freehand. They were VERY hard by comparison to the cheapos I use every day.

For me, the objective is to raise a wire edge quickly and polish it off carefully.

I stop at 3 micron diamond paste before stropping.

[Curt Putnam]

13K Sigma or green compound.

[Zach Dillinger]

Translucent Arkansas followed by a dry leather strop.

[David Weaver]

Diminishing returns needs to be defined. I have generally not used anything other than a washita stone and a bare strop for at least the last 9 months, unless I'm playing with something new. I have used jasper to chase the burr sometimes, but usually not.

That's definitely not as sharp as a 1 micron stone makes, but in getting away from the one micron stone, I haven't had any more tearout nor any slower work (faster maybe, because I'm encouraged to take thicker shavings and avoid chasing a surface). That said, light still reflects off of the wood when I'm done.

1 micron, to me, is the point where there's very little additional sharpening noticed for the same geometry, and there's very little issue with wire edges at that fineness, so you don't really have to have any understanding of a wire edge and when it's removed and when it's not if you finish with that.

On a razor, there is a difference, though - clearly and easily felt.

So, if diminishing returns is just in what's practical, most of us are overshooting unless sharpness is an extremely important part of the equation (low angle plane with single iron, for example) to avoid tearout or something.

[Graham Haydon]

India and strop, too much more and I get bored :)

[Tony Wilkins]

David, didn't define diminishing returns because it can mean different things to different people. If I had to pin it down, for me, it would be that you spend time on a stone/media and you can't tell a difference in use if you were to have skipped it.

What made me think of it was the link to the comparison chart in the diamond versus waterstone thread (http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Sharpening-Stone-Grit-Chart-W21C60.aspx) It suggests moderate returns above 8,000 grit waterstones and equivalent and reads to me that they may even think 4K might be good enough.