Show Me Your... Bevel Setters!

[earcutter]

So I am reading a case study on McDonald's and it turns out a core strength... if not "the" core perceived strength of the restaurants, is it's clean bathrooms -seriously! Hence the person with the crappiest job holds the power to the chains success!

It got me to thinking about honing! We don't celebrate our bevel setters nearly enough! I guess they just aren't as sexy. It's always this finisher or that... but with out a good bevel set...

So show em to me!!

What do you got? And why do you like it?

[DaveW]

Maybe pictures later, maybe not, but bevel setters I have used and liked:

* medium india (for severe work)
* bester 1000
* bester 1200 (like better than the 1000)
* Sigma power select II 1200 (it's like the bester except harder and finer)
* shapton Glass 1000
* Shapton pro 1000
* Chosera 3000 (an abrasive dense stone that's very fine for its abrasion power))
* a huge 10x3 $29 new cut hard arkansas from a place that calls themselves naturalwhetstone (I like to use this one quite a lot)
* a deep rock coticule with a half-dried slurry, scary fast and can turn the slurry black really quickly

I like all of them, but I do get great pleasure out of running through a progression of arkansas stones that goes like this:
* scuffed side of the hard white arkansas (very fast)
* other side that is intentionally never scuffed (medium fast, but fine enough almost to go right to a finisher)
* norton hard black arkansas that seems to release just a little bit of stuff, not fine enough to finish ,but a good bridge stone
* yellowish-white unidentified translucent or a stone marketed as a black translucent from the same place that sold the big hard white (non-translucent) arkansas stone mentioned above

The edge from that is super keen. A scuffed hard ark has bigger abrasive than a medium waterstone (usually at least, everything natural is variable), and it's actually a bit faster. The non scuffed side preps the edge for finer stones. It takes me as little time to use that progression (maybe less even) than it does to work an ebay razor up through three waterstones. The hard white translucent can stand a little pressure for most of its working time and still leave a very fine and crisp edge.

Keeping arkansas stones together is nice, following arks with waterstones is OK. Following waterstones with arks, I don't like as much unless the ark is fairly coarse. I think it must be the shape of the abrasives in arks that vintage carbon steel razors love so much. I always get a good edge with them no matter how I use them.

Anything alloyed (stainless, or labeled "tungsten steel" or something) and I stick to any one of those ceramic stones mentioned above. Carbides and natural stones generally don't get along as well as I'd like.

[Vasilis]

My choices for bevel setting (photos later) are,
King 1k, but not for long, nothing lasts forever
An amakusa, it's more of a prefinisher, I have shaved with this stone. It hurts like a 4k-6k stone
An old SiC stone I used for years, lapping stones with it, and it somehow became 1k
Classic Cretan hone with slurry, but the slurry doesn't stay coarse for too long.
A worn out diamond plate, it started as a 600grit stone, but became 2k like fine
The medium stone from the pedra das meigas from Spain
And soon the Italian stone from Florence.

Bevel setters are underestimated.

[earcutter]

Bevel setters are underestimated.

Wow great responses so far!!

[Zephyr]

I have only one, well really it's two, but it's still just one....

Two Chosera 1K's, one with base and one without. I got the one with base first, but found that one without base would be more practical for me when honing razors, the one with base is now primarily used for other knives and things in need of sharpening.

What I like about it? It's fast and smooth, perfect for my use.

[earcutter]

[QUOTE=Zephyr;1041477] I got the one with base first, but found that one without base would be more practical for me when honing razors,


Ok so I have to ask - do you hold the stone in your hand when you hone and that's why you don't like the base? Inquiring minds want to know .

Great post - and thanks for the photo.

[HNSB]

For junkers I start on the Chosera 600 or even the DMT 325 if they're really bad. I don't fully set the bevel there, just get it close.

For anything that's close, I use the Norton 1k or Naniwa SS 2k depending on the condition and how close it is.
I always use the 2k SS after the Norton - I don't like the jump from 1k to 4k.

[mainaman]

Sigma power 400 for real heavy work
1k Chosera for bevel set when no major repair is needed.
I have a nice Aizu that also works well but the chosera sees most work.

[celticcrusader]

I use a King 1K but it can take a little longer with blades that need a bit more work than usual, I have been thinking of getting myself a 400 Naniwa super stone so I can just save myself some time and effort on some blades that need a bit more work.


Jamie

[HNSB]

I love my SS 400 for lapping hard naturals without leaving scratches.
As a work-horse for honing, it's awfully soft and will dish quickly, thus needing frequent lapping and wearing fast.
If you'd only use it infrequently, it's probably no big deal. If you'll be doing a lot of razors, you may want to look for something harder.