Thread: Natural options for "1-8k work"

I wonder, has anyone tried the yellow Chinese stones that are sold on eBay and advertised at 3k grit? They are very cheap so I may have to give one a try.

Originally Posted by MattW

I wonder, has anyone tried the yellow Chinese stones that are sold on eBay and advertised at 3k grit? They are very cheap so I may have to give one a try.

I've wondered about those myself - I'd be very interested to hear what you think if you try one.

I have an oohira suita with dmt slurry that can bring a dulled edge back quickly and no micro chipping. A tsushima black with a tomo of the same is like 5-8 k. I just ordered one. Have heard that is a great stone. ANd Ive also heard(no first hand now) that some aotos come in at 3k. I don't know how reliable that is and many coarser jnats can chip. The Chinese stone you are talking about I have no idea. BBWs are relatively fast cutting and wont chip and they aren't expensive. I don't know what you are looking to spend though.

Originally Posted by bill3152

I have an oohira suita with dmt slurry that can bring a dulled edge back quickly and no micro chipping. A tsushima black with a tomo of the same is like 5-8 k. I just ordered one. Have heard that is a great stone. ANd Ive also heard(no first hand now) that some aotos come in at 3k. I don't know how reliable that is and many coarser jnats can chip. The Chinese stone you are talking about I have no idea. BBWs are relatively fast cutting and wont chip and they aren't expensive. I don't know what you are looking to spend though.

Oh, I already have some other naturals that can be used for bevel setting, I was just curious about this Cnat as I haven't read anything about it as of yet.

Originally Posted by MattW

I wonder, has anyone tried the yellow Chinese stones that are sold on eBay and advertised at 3k grit? They are very cheap so I may have to give one a try.

Are you talking about the things called UUSHARP? I have two of them and don't find a lot of favor in them. They are extremely soft and feel like any other white alundum hone when you use them, except that they shed grit like crazy.

The I have one that I still use on tools a little bit, but only out of curiosity, and it comes apart so fast that I use it dry and even dry, I haven't had to clean it despite what looks like loading. It is still shedding grit dry.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Are you talking about the things called UUSHARP? I have two of them and don't find a lot of favor in them. They are extremely soft and feel like any other white alundum hone when you use them, except that they shed grit like crazy.

The I have one that I still use on tools a little bit, but only out of curiosity, and it comes apart so fast that I use it dry and even dry, I haven't had to clean it despite what looks like loading. It is still shedding grit dry.

This is the one that I am referring to: Slurry Water Hone Whetstone Straight Razor Yellow Stone Knife Sharpener 3000GRIT | eBay
I would still like to order one if no one else can comment on it.

Originally Posted by MattW

This is the one that I am referring to: Slurry Water Hone Whetstone Straight Razor Yellow Stone Knife Sharpener 3000GRIT | eBay
I would still like to order one if no one else can comment on it.

Looks like any other guanxi stone, though I guess it's really hard to tell anything about any of those until you use them (guanxis - every one I've tried has been a little different, and unfortunately, one of them slurried on its own).

re: the original question, if I was going to do a natural progression, it would be three arkansas stones - soft, hard and translucent, and if I felt like I needed to cut fast, I'd slurry the soft.

The issue with arks is that each vendor's stones are a little different. Dans trans and black and vintage trans and black are great, but dans softs aren't very good for much based on my experience with two. Naturalwhetstones softs are good (and coarse enough to do work), and their fines are OK, but I like dan's fines better. Vintage pike washitas are a great soft to hard, depending on how you use them, but they're getting expensive - you could actually use one to shave if you used it for tools for a while and conditioned the surface and didn't lap it.

A slurried softer vintage slate and a decent finer slate would also make a progression you could use. Neither would be as fast as a 1k synthetic, but they would pick up right after that.

The key to me, to make marginal vintage natural stones work well (or good quality vintage small razor hones) is a vintage silk finish branded linen. They will bring an edge up two steps from most marginal stones better than any newer linen I've tried, but it isn't always easy to find a vintage unused clean silk finish branded linen.

Originally Posted by Oscroft

And finally, today it will let me upload a photo. Here's what a bevel set on my La Pyrénées with slurry looks like under the USB scope...

Attachment 147165

Hi Oscroft, do you stil use the Pyrénées hone as a bevel setter? can you tell a bit more about it now that we're a couple of months later? I'm still thinking about buying this hone but haven't found that much info on it yet

I have an aoto that is finer than 1k and coarser than 8k....

Originally Posted by Bram

Hi Oscroft, do you stil use the Pyrénées hone as a bevel setter? can you tell a bit more about it now that we're a couple of months later? I'm still thinking about buying this hone but haven't found that much info on it yet

I'm not Oscroft, but the La Pyrenees I received as a sample from Ardennes is doing okay for me. I don't have the broad experience that others here do, but it's been a godsend in my situation. I do La Pyrenees-->BBW-->Coticule (La Veinette)-->BBW-->Coticule. I must be doing something incorrectly the first time through, because I get a noticeable improvement going back through the BBW and Coticule again after having gone through it once already. I wish I had the BBW-La Pyrenees back when I first started honing. Might have saved me some frustration. YMMV.