New Stone Break In

[Rich]

I have sharpened 10 knives so far and I can tell that the stones perform differently than when new.  The dilemma I find myself in is it does not seem that the entire stone is getting used.  Therefore, when I run a bit higher or lower than normal on the stone face, I am into virgin surface.  This seems to be causing deeper scratches than the rest of the blade.  Where this happens on the blade depends on the stroke I am using.

I have thought of taking a blank of steel or glass and working the stones over that, starting at the tip top and letting the stone run off the end.

What has been others experience with this?  Any better ideas to get uniform “break in”?

[tcmeyer]

I have worked a few of my stones over the edge of a 1/4″-thick section of plate glass where I had a really difficult cluster of diamonds which didn’t want to be knocked off.  It worked quite well, but I wouldn’t recommend it as part of a normal break-in process.  Instead, I’d carefully focus on using those end-sections as part of your normal use, until you were satisfied with their uniformity.

The last couple of replacement stones I’ve purchased seemed to need less “break-in” use to reach a uniform distribution of grit, so I’m somewhat reticent in recommending the plate glass route.  In theory, it should help to knock off less-than-solidly attached grit particles and I’ll admit that it’s worked for me.  I’m just concerned that a user would over-do the procedure, either with too many strokes or too much pressure.

But then, it shouldn’t be too much more abusive than sharpening ceramic knives, right?

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wickededge

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