Thread: Glaze on kitchen hones

I'm not sure if it's because of the swarf. Every hard stone gets like that, over time. The "new" man made ones don't, but for the rest, I think, that's the true cutting power of the stone.
I don't know about the coarse Arkansas, but for the 1-5$ coarse SiC stones, I have seen it dozens of times. And, I was getting annoyed too.
What happens is, the stone comes from the factory with a coarse surface. You can feel it with your hand. This happens on every stone when it comes from the factory, that's why we lap them, and whenever someone has a problem with his new 4/8 norton, we ask them "have you lapped it yet?".
But for those coarse ones, it's a good thing, because they cut faster with that type of surface. And, after a while, they loose it, and cut as they suppose to cut.
And, if you would like to try this, buy a new one of those, lap them with 200-500 grit sandpaper or diamond plate, under running water, to be sure that it's not about particles clogging the surface. After some lapping, try the stone, and you will see that it cuts as the one you use for your knives, i.e. slowly.
It also happens because the stone is so hard, the particles of silicon carbide do not go away when the steel passes above, only lose their "teeth". And you end up with flat particles without any cutting power whatsoever, until a new one comes up, that can cut.
And, lastly, the hardness of the stone is a double edged knife . If the stone is too soft, a coarse stone scratches the steel so deep, it needs additional time on a finer stone to remove all those deep lines. That's why people are paying 50$ for a coarse Chocera, Shapton or Suehiro. Those big companies know how to make great quality stones without most of the bad qualities of the cheap ones.