Here's one for all the actual long time Honemeisters. You know me, I seem to like bashing my head against the brick wall until I have a headache and only then, stop to ask why I've got a migraine.
I dug my hone out of storage in a cold damp basement a few weeks ago to find small green dots of fungal communities growing, mostly on the 4k side. I had some 800 grit sandpaper on hand and thought this would be ok to take those off. It was advertised as wet/dry when I bought it, but when I used it on my hone it stained the stone brown like the paper. It might just be the eBay blades but honing has been a PITA since then. HHT is very difficult to achieve consistency on and the shaves are a bit scratchy. A few days ago I decide to take it to some 2000 grit automotive wet/dry which has scoured the stains away, but only at the two ends of the hone. The middle remains stained and one corner now looks a little grey like the 2000 grit paper. I did this on the bathroom counter top, not the recommended glass.
I'm off to Lee Valley later today and my questions are these:
1. Am I correct in assuming that the staining is actually imbedded 800 grit material in my 4k stone and I should lap that puppy pure white again.
2. Will
this stuff do or should I look to something else? I really want to make sure I'm not compromising my stone any longer by adding a different sandpaper grit.
3. If I do go the wet/dry sandpaper route do I want to steer clear of grits above a certain number to keep the stone clear of particulate?
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