Thread: Ceramic hones ok?

Hey guys, I was just wondering what are your thoughts on Dennis Moor's white 8000 grit ceramic stones? I've heard of some people using the spyderco ultrafine bench hone, but since the grit's not listed for that, I'd rather stay away than hone with it and end up with a dull, chipped razor. Does anyone here actually use Moor hones? It seems they'd wear slower than water stones, and be a lot like barber hones in that respect.

The grit's not listed for the old ceramic barber hones either, so I'm not sure that that's much of a negative. The concensus guess for the spyderco ultrafine is that it's in the neighborhood of 12k grit.

Hmm, interesting... any consensious on what the Spyderco Fine ceramic is? I wonder is that could be a Norton 8K equivalent....

I think that the fine is nore like 1200.

Rick

Joe L. and Robert still get good results out of it though.

Edit: I was referring to the Ultra Fine. Fine could be in the 1k range for all I know.

I went rummaging back through the archives on this, and like the ceramic barber hones nobody really knows what the grit in the ultrafine ceramic spyderco really is. But Joe Lerch thought his gave an edge similar to a 10-12k grit (japanese scale) hone. But that was after lapping, and I've found that the ceramic hones act a lot finer depending on how they're lapped. One of the finest finishing hones I've ever had was an unassuming brown barber hone called "The King" - after I lapped it on 600 grit wet/dry it had this shiny polished sheen to it and would put on a better edge than my 15k Shapton. At least it did until I dropped it :-(

I bought one of these when I was at the Spyderco clearance store in Golden, Colorado (also home of Coors). They're hard! They're really great for Spyderco's really hard (and somewhat brittle) steel. I own at least ten Spyderco models and their stone is a good match for their steel. I wouldn't use it on my straight razor due to it's unforgiving nature.

Interesting, I used to work in a tool store that sold the DMT diamond and Spyderco Ceramic (hence, I have a couple for my wood working tools- wish I bought the extra fine). According to Spyderco their ceramics never need to be lapped and will never wear.
I wonder if they mean for the average person or if they consider some of our honemeisters.....

Found this thread on the Spyderco forums about Ceramc grits.
There;s differeing opinions on the grits.

I have used the Spyderco hones on Str8's and found that they are not as good as the Norton 4/8. The ceramic is difficult to keep clean and when new a person needs to "break in" the hone. It has high points that will chip the edge of the razor. You must also pay attention to the edges for the same reason.
IMHO both the diamond hones and the Spyderco hones are not suitable for razors.