Thread: Help with choosing a finishing stone

Wow, we're a passionate bunch!

But seriously, many individuals across a whole range of "sharpened steel" based hobbies (woodworking, cooking, knife collecting, etc.) all agree that certain steel properties require certain stone properties to get the best edge possible. Microchipping is the biggest reason given as proof; extremely hard, and thus brittle, steel will form microchips along the edge if it is honed on a stone that is itself too hard or too aggressive. But that same stone would be perfectly fine for steel that's a little softer, there's no illusion there.

Shapton GassStones were designed with A2 tool steel in mind because it's a really tough, abrasion resistant, tool steel that is used by Lie Nielsen among other woodworking tool makers. The properties of that steel were not being fully utilized by any other artificial hone on the market, so Shapton made some to suit it. (as an example of certain hones favoring certain steels and vice versa)

And yeah, many times enthusiasm can cause a guy with a brand new hone to rave about it like it's the best in the world when there's no way to know whether that's even remotely true, but outside of the Nakayama that I bought from O_S, nearly all of my stones have been picked up dirt cheap on ebay, at flea markets, or antique stores (more than one Escher for less than $10, not to mention the Coticules, those things are everywhere). I have no reason to favor any one of them over the others, save for their actual performance.

As for the steels properties changing as per the hone used, there's just no proof of that happening, the conditions that cause the steel matrix to change are far outside of proper honing practices.