Newbie with a question about grits, microns, etc.

Hi there. I’m new here, and fairly new to the WE system. I’ve had it for about 6 months, have sharpened maybe 60 knives. I have lots of questions, and I’ve been reading on here and I realize you guys could help me a lot, which I appreciate. I guess for starters, let me tell you what I have: I have the basic system, upgraded to pro plus (with the new, much better arms). I’ve got 100,200,400,600,800, and 1,000 grit stones. Then I have the ultra fine (?) ceramics – not the 1200 and 1600, but the ones that say “coarse” and “fine” on them. Then I’ve got 2 sets of leather strops, one being the 5 and 3.5, the other one is blanks, on which I use .5 micron paste and .25 micron diamond spray (can’t remember where I got the spray. I know I researched it and it was supposed to be good). SO…don’t ask me how I ended up with such a mish- mash, I just did. I guess my initial question is, should I get the 1200/1600 ceramics? It sounds like you guys use those a lot. I know the answer has to do with what I’m trying to accomplish (I’ve learned that much!), and my answer is I don’t know. I do like getting that mirror-ish edge (I use a 60x loupe to check my results) look. But it needs to cut well too, of course. And my other related question is, if the principle is to go from coarser to ever smoother grits, then based on that grit comparison chart it would seem like you’d want to go up to the 1000 grit (=7 microns), then to the 5 micron paste (on leather or balsa) or the 1200 ceramic (also 5 microns), then to 3.5 paste, then to 1600 ceramic (=2.85 microns), then microfine ceramics (=1.4 then 0.6 microns), then to the finer pastes or sprays on leather or balsa. I know it’s not that simple, and I’m probably trying to be too analytical, but I’m just trying to learn how to think about this stuff. Hope my questions made some kind of sense. Because I’ve got a bunch more. Thanks for any patient help/direction/clarification.

I don’t think you need the 1200/1600 ceramics, at this stage anyway. I actually like the set you have a little better. If/when you get more nit picky 🙂 you may want to add them, but for now I wouldn’t.

Although you’re right that in principle you move from coarse to fine in order… generally the ceramics leave a finer finish than the diamonds, and the paste/sprays on leather leave a finer finish then either the diamonds or ceramics. So I would move from the diamonds, to the ceramics, then to the leather/balsa… even though you’re first leather (5microns) might be rated more coarse than the ceramics, you’ll probably find the opposite in use. Paste/spray on balsa/leather tends to polish better.

But there’s no hard rules… experiment and find what works best. For example, I’ll often finish an edge with the fine ceramic you have even after some leather stropping… it leaves a great edge.