Chosera stone maintenance

[Matt Cole]

The concept of texturing a ceramic stone (and that it will last) is kind of a revalation for me. In another thread I had asked for a solution for getting ALL of the 1k diamond scratches out faster when moving to ceramics or films or whatever. It seems a coarse textured 1.4 micro fine may be useful. And going back to custom stone combos on paddles, a set with the same 1.4 mic. stone on both sides that could be textured differently would be interesting. Followed by a set with double .6 micron? I suppose the same could be done with two sets of the original combo, just not quite as cool.

[Phil Pasteur]

It seems intuitive, but it’s not.

???
I believe I said that it was intuitive to me. I am not sure that this is something that can be argued. It is. Of course, not everyone will feel the same. Something about having sharp edges and rubbing them against steel to get a fine finish just does not compute. Having a very smooth surface against the steel, now that just makes me feel better..
:woohoo:

But if your desire is to have a fine grit stone give you the finest “best polish” finish possible (that in some of the posts I got the impression that’s what some people are after)… lapping/texturing it to a fine finish won’t necessarily give you that, and actually in most cases won’t. … It goes to Clay’s 3rd point that I just saw… a bit of texture helps the stone break down, develop a slurry, and provide a better finish.

I guess I missed the part about anyone wanting to get a finer finish by texturing. At least I did not get that impression. In any case, I can agree that there will be no finer finish at the edge obtainable with a given grit stone than when it is perfectly flat and smooth. I will go further than the “in most cases” and say that IHO, it is pretty much impossible to obtain a finer finish by *adding* texturing to a waterstone! If there is some perception that this is what I meant, I would like to correct that.

BTW, I think having mud (not slurry) will make the stones more aggressive, not result in a better finish.

From Clay:

Adding a tiny bit of texture before rubbing my waterstones together will speed the process of developing a slurry. This seem to only matter on my 5k/10k stones. The lower grit stones develop a slurry very quickly when rubbed together.

Nothing about a better finish. In fact, from memory, Tom recommended in his sharpening progression video for the Chosera stones to not develop mud on the finer stones by rubbing them together in order to allow one to get a better finish. In any case, I don’t rub the 2K, 3K, 5K, or 10K stones together before using them. I only do that when I am done… then rinse off the mud produced before storing them. At these levels I am not really looking for aggressiveness. For the 5K and 10K stones, I spritz them with water, wipe them off with a paper towel, then spritz again and continue sharpening.
Obviously others may like to do things differently. This is simply something that works for me.

[Phil Pasteur]

The hypothesis is still (for most people here, I think) this doesn’t impact the edge.

Just saw this. In jumping to Clay’s excellent photos I must have missed it.

Just curious how you decided that most people here agreed with you Mark.
In light of Clay’s work, I guess you may have to rethink that hypothesis.

[Mark76]

Hey all,

I wrote a blog post based on the discussion here about how ceramic stones may work. You can find it here: http://moleculepolishing.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/the-mystery-of-the-spyderco-and-the-wicked-edge-ceramic-stones/

I hope you enjoy the read. And many thanks to everyone who participated in this discussion and particularly Clay, of course!

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Phil Pasteur]

Mark,
Interesting read.
I left a comment.

[wickededge]

Nice write up Mark, thanks for sharing it here. I would add that there are at least several different techniques for creating ceramic stones and that the 1200/1600 series we sell are created in a ‘vitrified bond‘ and have a very different set of characteristics than our micro-fine series which are sintered. It appears the the 1200/1600 series is a matrix of abrasive where the bonding agent has been vitrified but the particles have not been heated enough to fuse. I’ll see if I can get more information from our supplier about their process though they are pretty secretive about it.

-Clay

[Mark76]

Thanks Phil and Clay. It’d be really interesting if you could get more information from your suppliers of their production process, Clay. Although I now know already a lot more about ceramic stones than I ever knew 🙂

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[wickededge]

Thanks Phil and Clay. It’d be really interesting if you could get more information from your suppliers of their production process, Clay. Although I now know already a lot more about ceramic stones than I ever knew 🙂

I’ve exchanged a couple of emails with the supplier of our 1200/1600 series today. They really won’t say a word about how they’re made…

-Clay

[Author]

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