Thread: Three Stone Set from Best Sharpening Stones

Well done. I usually use as coarse as I can reasonably use - cheap 60 or 80 grit. Sanding those stones is like sawing wood. The tooth size in a saw has to match the thickness of the cut and the hardness of the wood or you can end up sawing slower with a more coarse saw (and it feels bad, too, just like it would feel terrible to sand a stone with a 36 grit belt).

Diamonds in the black isn't bad policy, it's something garrett hack has been advocating for years. I've never done it because I value the ark surface, but half micron would actually be a good match for razors. You can always lap it off if you don't like it. I keep some diamond powders for the jasper stone since it has almost no cutting power unless it's slurried (and it's like slurrying a ceramic mug when you do slurry it - harsh and hard).

If you find stones with a ton of sway and extra thickness (some of the suitably old washitas, etc, were 1 1/2 inch thick), you can track down a coarse belt for one of your grinders and run the high parts of the sway off in a couple of minutes. It's like getting something for almost free if the stone is very cheap, as they often are in that condition, and you're usually still left with a stone thicker than the later boxed stones.

Good thread. Interesting read. Thank you.