Maintaining Waterstones for use on the Wicked Edge

[Anthony Yan]

Hi Tom,

Kind of a hilarious request for you….
We all love your microscope pictures of knife edges, especially your grit progression photos. 🙂

But how about some microscope images of the ceramic stones before and after use? And then with and without water? I suppose it may look like a mess with all the swarf, and nothing beautiful like a refined edge. But I’m just curious to see what the swarf looks like on the stone, and maybe (maybe?) it would be interesting.

Sincerely,
–Lagrangian

[Mikedoh]

For Ken and those in the know

If using something such as a DMT Dia-Flat lapping plate, which is XXcoarse, when flattening waterstones . . . Does one need to progress serially thru less coarse plates before using the waterstone for sharpening? I couldn’t find my answer after reading thru the posts. Perhaps my question is texturing related?

Would appreciate advise on flattening plate coarseness relative to waterstone coarseness when flattening my Chosera stones.

Thanks in advance guys
Mike

[Phil Pasteur]

Here is something that may help:
http://jendeindustries.wordpress.com/2012/05/

Phil

[Mikedoh]

Hi Phil
From the video, I get the idea that it does not matter what the coarseness of the flattening plate is . . . I guess I’d kinda like for him to come out and say so . . .

My Choseras are for a different system (though I might try a mod to use them on the WEPS), and I only have one of each grit . . . I may have some doubles by mixing my brand X Choseras and my WEPS stones though.

Mike

[Phil Pasteur]

Here is a quote from Ken earlier in this thread

“So you have your diamond surface. What grit is ideal? Well coarser grits leave a rougher surface texture and get the work done quicker. But they leave deeper scratches and wear the stone faster sometimes unnecessarily so. So, for a badly dished stone, use a very coarse plate (eg, 140 Atoma). For coarser stones – also a coarse plate. A finer plate on a coarse stone wears the diamond plate faster. And a very coarse plate leaves a more aggressive coarse stone surface, which is desirable. For finer stones – 1k and above, I use a 400 Atoma, since this leaves a smoother surface or a DMT coarse, however the DMT coarse has very strong Stiction issues so you need to move fast and use lots of water. This also produces a minimum of wasted stone to create flatness.”

I use the DMT wxtra coarse up to my 800 Chosera (400, 600, 800). I use The coarse DMT from 1000 to 10K. I usually run the 2000/3000 and 5000/10K lightly on the WEPS 1000 diamond for texturing. I have done the same sort of thing with my 5K Shaptons. 10k Naniwa, 12 K Superstone and the 15K shapton.

I think the imperative it the flattening process. I tend to “feel” that the texturing is more of a technique for stone feedback. I don’t think that it will actually make that much difference in the edge. You are still using the same abrasive, though the abrasive release may be greater at first, possibly resulting in faster abrasion of the edge.

I also use two stones of the same girt to rub together for a few seconds before each blade. This may lead to a flase sense of security, but it also begins to release some abrasive which makes the stones initially more agressive.

Phil

[Mikedoh]

Thanks Phil
I was looking for it to be more spelled out which is what you provided.
Stones are not inexpensive and I don’t want to be wasting them by aggressive flattening, on the
other hand, I don’t want to spend a life time flattening a stone.

Thanks again
Mike

[Jende Industries]

You do not need to progress through the coarsest to the finest lapping plate when lapping a stone. However, you will notice a definite difference when you lap a fine stone with a fine diamond plate vs. lapping it with the coarsest.

For general use, I don’t think the surface texture of the stone will influence too greatly the final edge, however, when you are looking for perfection, it will. If you lap the 30K Shapton pro with an extra coarse diamond plate, the rather deep grooves left in the surface of the stone can and will influence the final edge. With regular knife sharpening, though, this surface texture will wear down as it gets used.

I still don’t recommend lapping the higher grits with the coarsest diamonds, though – a coarse DMT if you must, but the 400, 600 or the 1200 Atomas will do just fine.

In general, I will do one of the following:

Coarse stones (#120 – 1K):
1. Shapton Lapping plate with coarse (~80 grit) powder.
2. Atoma #140
3. DMT XXC
4. WEPS 100 diamond

Medium Stones (1K – 4K)
1. Atoma 400 or 600
2. DMT XXC or XC
3. Shapton DGLP (#350 grit)
4. Shapton lapping plate with medium (~800 grit) powder
5. Shapton DRLP (#600 grit)
6. WEPS 200 or 400 diamond

Fine Stones (5K+)
1. Atoma #600 or #1200
2. Shapton DGLP (#350 grit)
3. Shapton Lapping plate with fine (~2K grit) powder
4. Shapton DRLP (#600 grit)
5. WEPS 600, 800 or 1K Diamond

[Phil Pasteur]

Thanks Tom,
I think that was what Mike was looking for to begin with…
🙂

[Mikedoh]

Thanks Tom,
That really sharpens the leveling picture for me.
Mike

[Jende Industries]

Anytime! B)

[Ken Buzbee]

Fine Stones (5K+)
1. Atoma #600 or #1200
2. Shapton DGLP (#350 grit)
3. Shapton Lapping plate with fine (~2K grit) powder
4. Shapton DRLP (#600 grit)
5. WEPS 600, 800 or 1K Diamond

Tom, you don’t list a DMT option here but I’m assuming 1200 (based on the other options)?

Ken

[Author]

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