Thread: Too much of a jump?

Will there be any problems that ensue from jumping too many grit sizes?

I currently have a 1000 / 6000 waterstone and will probably soon buy a 12k Chinese waterstone.

Will that be enough to make a shave-ready edge? Or will skipping the 4000 and 8000 grits cause any issues?

Personally, with your setup I would add the extra hones. Many people feel that the smaller steps at the beginning are more important to a well established edge. In your case one or two steps inbetween the 1K and the 6K. If you can't afford more hones try out some lapping film.

After the 6K you may be able to jump to a 10~12K hone but not with the Chinese one. It is very slow and you would go insane with the amount of time you would need to spend on it. Again if you can't afford the extra hone in between try out the lapping film.

You may also want to try out paste compounds. Applying various pastes to a bench hone or strop is some peoples way of doing it. Either the pastes or the lapping film will get you where you want to go but I really think you need a few more steps in your progression.

FYI, I only used a 3K and 5K along with lapping film for a long time and never regreted it. The edges off of lapping film are very clean. I still do my bevel setting on 30 micron lapping film. Presently I have added two coticules to the program and am really liking that addition.

In short if you can afford them I would recomend hones, if you can't aford them, get a cheaper alternative and learn to use it. There are many ways to get the shave ready level but we all have our own little tweaks that we add to the honing prgression. What ever you chose, if you are having difficulties just ask for help on the forum.

Unless you really like your stone time I would add the Norton 4/8k combi stone. It will fill the two gaps 1-6 and 6-12 very well. Granted your using very small steps in your grit ladder but the translates into less time on each one.

There are many roads you can take and your current stones are (I feel) just a tad out of range, but not overly. Well 6k to that 12 may be a reach or not, I don't have one so I can't tell what side it falls on.

Originally Posted by Jaepheth

Will there be any problems that ensue from jumping too many grit sizes?

I currently have a 1000 / 6000 waterstone and will probably soon buy a 12k Chinese waterstone.

Will that be enough to make a shave-ready edge? Or will skipping the 4000 and 8000 grits cause any issues?

the 12k chinese stone is extremely slow. Now fine-grit hones tend to be slow anyway, but the 12k chinese is extremely slow compared to other similar-grit hones. Jumping from 8k to the C12k can take several hundred slow, careful laps, and the number of laps needed to bridge a gap increases exponentially with the gap size, not linearly.

Get an 8k-10k intermediate hone or a faster finishing hone, like a Coticule, Thuringen, Naniwa 10k, or Shapton 16k, or a pasted paddle with some suitable set of abrasives.

Well it really depends on where your hones were made as to the grit size compared to the Norton 4/8k hones. Problems, not really but it depends on what you call problems. As mentioned above, a large jump in grits may cause you to spend more time on the hones. I would say give it a spin and see what you get. Your conclusion is the only one that matters. To cut down on the difference you should use the same hone with tow techniques. Start out with a little bit of pressure and then finish up with almost no pressure. The more pressure the deeper the scratches. When you get to the 6k hone start with a bit of pressure until the 1k scratches are removed, then lighten up on the pressure until the scratches from the 6k are of minimal depth. Going to the Chinese natural hone next will be very slow, but you can reduce the time by working with a slurry on the hone and dilute the slurry slowly as you go. In the end time equals money. The less money you spend on hones the more time it will take to get results similar to using more hones, up to the physical limits of the hones you are using. You can always add stropping pastes like CrO to improve the finish.

Keep us updated on your path forward. Feel free to PM me if you would like further assistance.

Good luck!

I tried this exact setup a couple years back except I used wet/dry 1k grit paper to set the bevel. I could shave after finally coming off the 12k, but it wasn't very comfortable. The 6k simply didn't get the blade sharp enough. So, after coming off the 12k, I would have a highly polished rather dull blade.
A Norton 4k/8k would fill the gaps in your honing progression nicely.

Would it be fair to say that the OP's 6k and the Norton 4K would be quite similar stones, in terms of both being cutters, and so he would only really *need*the norton 8k, or something in that range of cutters which begin to polish before transitioning to the pure polishers?

Just trying to get see if I have a good grip on these things.

=)