Like some of the guys, I’ve drifted away from using the 1200/1600 ceramic stones, just because they don’t feel right. I’ve compared the scratches they produce with abrasive films of comparable grits and they look pretty close to identical. It’s more of a “fingernails on the blackboard” thing. I’ve managed to accumulate a set of glass platens so I can run film instead of the ceramics.
That said, I’m not one of the experienced guys but I have a little something to offer. I did a bunch of Googling, looking for grits vs microns and finally came to the conclusion that grits are pretty arbitrary. There’s a relationship between grit size and micron size, but every outfit comes up with their own results. What we call grit is what others call “mesh,” the size of the screen through which the bits of abrasive fall. The higher the mesh, the smaller the size of the abrasive particles. Generally, if you divide the number 20,000 by the micron size, it’ll give you a number representative of grit size, plus or minus maybe 50%.
If you’d like a copy of my spreadsheet, send me a personal message with your e-mail address.
If a vendor comes up with their grit sizes by comparing the scratch patterns with another media, their numbers will vary by the degree of subjectivity. Hold up your thumb, eyeball it and say “Yup, that’s about right.”
Tom
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