King combination water stone - Grit cross contamination

[Jeff Myer]

Still a complete noob here but I took the plunge and started working with my King 1000/6000 stone even though I may want to go to a wider stone eventually for my bench plane irons as my current stone is only 2" wide :rolleyes:.

To get to my question quickly- Is there a concern with combination grit stones that the coarser grit could cross contaminate the finer side of the stone? I get quite a slurry worked up on the coarser side and see at least 2 opportunities for that slurry to contaminate the finer side.

1.) When storing in water, the slurry gets into the water bath and the coarser grit could get on the finer side.


2.) I am currently resting the stone on some anti-skid rubber padding sold for drawer and cabinet lining. When the coarse side is down it leaves slurry behind on the rubber mat.

I am sure that both of these opportunities could be reduced to almost nil with rinsing the stone prior to soaking or flipping the stone. Is this something that I should be concerned with or is it not worth worrying about?

As far as other first impressions:

As someone may have mentioned to me on this forum previously, the jump from 1000 to 6000 seems a little big to me although once my backs are all flat and I am focusing on routine honing it may not be too bad.

I had done my initial flattening and bevel creation on some sand paper on my table saw top. While this is functional, I feel as though a some diamond stone configuration may suit my taste better and could double duty for flattening my water stones.

Lastly, it appears that I may have done quite a job on dishing out the center of the coarse side of my water stone flattening the back. In an attempt to not have to flatten 2" of the back of the iron, I flattened the first 1" or so from either side of the stone alternating sides every once in a while. Any thoughts on a better way? Should I just do the full width of the stone to keep wear even?

Your input is appreciated.

[Mike Cutler]

I store the stones in a common container. I have an 800/4000, 1200/8000, and a 15,000. I know I'd like to have something in between the 1200 and the 4000 myself. I'd also like to have something less than 800 too, not necessary, but a nice to have.
The grit and the slurry do "mix" in the container, but I just wipe the stones down before use and keep clean water on them. So far I haven't had an issue.
I personally try not to have one grit of one stone on another when I'm using them, I don't know how much it matters, but I figure if I keep the grit consistent and limit it to the stone in use. It's one less thing to be concerned with if something isn't going quite right.
It sounds as if you had to take a bit of material off the blade to flatten the back. This may have contributed to the dishing of the 1000 stone. I start the back off off on sandpaper adhered to glass and once flat then progress to the stones. The stone still gets worn, and has to be flattened eventually, but it sounds as if you wore the stone down fairly quickly. I only flatten the 1st inch or so also on the stones, but I usually work the entire back on the sandpaper and glass prior to going to the stone.

Do you need to flatten the stones you currently have now? Doing figure 8's with the stone,and flipping it 180 under your hand, on sandpaper adhered to glass works very well to flatten them.