Thread: Japanese Water Stones?

What's the best thing for making sure a stone is true?

I assume they need to be almost perfectly flat. What do you do if there not?

Would you recommend a 10,000 grit hone as well as the King or two stones instead?


Regards,

Paul

i just drew a grid on the stone and wet some 600 grit wet &dry and a piece of 10x6 saftey glass placed the wet &dry on the glass and rub the stone in a figure of 8 until the pencil grid disapears.
i went for the norton combi 4000/8000 as there is plenty of info on here as to how to use and maintain them. also these are good value

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MST-water-stone-straight-razor-hone-final-polishing_W0QQitemZ140169726218QQihZ004QQcategoryZ 11840QQcmdZViewItem

and he sells good razors too

that mst stone would be a good addition to the king as a final polish. you can also look at the chinese stones form woodcraft, they are very inexpensive and i hear the results are good (albeit slow)

These slip stones look very similar to the Tiger brand slip stones I have. These were to be a stopgap measure for me until I could fund a Norton purchase, but a year later they seem to be here to stay. (Thanks Illija)

That said they are slow cutters (you will need about 4x as many strokes as a Norton) and if you think you are going to be getting bunches of razors or want to sharpen bunches at a time, these are not what you want. I have only about a dozen razors and have accumulated them slowly and have sharpened them up slowly. As soon as I have one to sharpen I do it, I don't wait around to have several in the project bin.

I have a 4000 and an 8000 stone. They do the bulk of the work and do bring a razor to shave readiness but leave it feeling a bit harsh so I go from the 8000 to newsprint and this is what gives me the final edge. These are my workhorses, only for full sharpening sessions with new purchases or one that has a problem. If I need a touch-up honing I will do that with a Swaty barber hone right at the sink, I won't bother to get these out.

They can do the trick for you if you are in a pinch financially and are willing to put up with their shortcomings, at least for a while. I have no real issues with mine, though my honing routine is specifically adapted to their use and I never really used anything else.