Hi all,
I recently obtained the new Micro Fine ceramic stones and finally had some time to use them. I wrote a blog post about them. You can read it here.
A brief peek ahead: I had a fine shave.
If there are other people who have these stones: I’m also really curious about your experiences!
Nice writeup Mark!
Time to pass the knife around 
Also, we need some shaving video from you soon if that is going to be your testing criteria!
Nice. Just got mine too. Used them once so far. Best edge yet!
Did you lap yours Mark? I didn’t and they seemed fine.
Ken
(BTW - I have the same knife, it’s excellent!)
Yes, I lapped my Micro Fine ceramics. I don’t know whether it was really necessary. But Clay recommended us to do so and I saw some scratches on the blade when I hadn’t lapped them yet, so I thought I’d better be sure than sorry.
Kinda the same place I was. I decided to try them for a bit “stock” to get a feel for them. I figured I could always lap them later. I did take the corners off my 1200/1800s to chamfer them a bit to be more like the micro fine (I thought that was a better design) Caused a small chip on one corner, but nothing that will impact their function.
Ken
I received my micro ceramics last week. After using them on a few knives, I was pleased with the results until I lapped them last night and used them on a knife this morning. MUCH better results to say the least.
I started at the 100/200 and progressed up through the 800/100, rotating the ceramics after about 8 to 10 strokes. I used a bit of dish soap on a sponge to wipe off the stones and ceramics to clean out the debris on the each. I couldn’t be more pleased with the mirror edges after lapping the ceramics.
Unrelated to this, I’m having problems with cleaning and loading diamond paste on my strops.
I cleaned them really well, smoothed them and loaded them. When I use them, I am getting residue left on the edges and them seem a little sticky or tacky. Any thoughts on this??
My experience with the strops is that the tackier the better. I get the best results when my strops are really grabbing the metal.
[quote quote=“Deputy115” post=4272]I received my micro ceramics last week. After using them on a few knives, I was pleased with the results until I lapped them last night and used them on a knife this morning. MUCH better results to say the least.
I started at the 100/200 and progressed up through the 800/100, rotating the ceramics after about 8 to 10 strokes. I used a bit of dish soap on a sponge to wipe off the stones and ceramics to clean out the debris on the each. I couldn’t be more pleased with the mirror edges after lapping the ceramics.
Unrelated to this, I’m having problems with cleaning and loading diamond paste on my strops.
I cleaned them really well, smoothed them and loaded them. When I use them, I am getting residue left on the edges and them seem a little sticky or tacky. Any thoughts on this??[/quote]
[quote quote=“Deputy115” post=4272]I couldn’t be more pleased with the mirror edges after lapping the ceramics.
[/quote]
I had a different result as far as mirror edges. I sharpened a Kershaw Blur from 100 diamond thru 1600 ceramics. Then I switched to 5,000/10,000 Choseras before going on to the 1.4/0.6 micro ceramics. The mirror edge after the 10,000 Choseras was great, to the naked eye. But after the micro ceramics, the mirror edge had changed - inconsistent polish thorughout the edge that just didn’t look right. Has anyone else noticed this?
However, at 400x magnification, the edges seemed about the same.
I couldn’t get the lightening right with regular photos showing the mirror edge difference but I did take some 400x photos of both 10,000 Chosera and 0.6 micro ceramic edges.
After 10,000 Choseras:
And here are two more photos of the same blade after the 0.6 micro ceramics (different lightening):
This is just one knife so I’ll try some more after lapping the micro ceramics.
[quote quote=“holymolar” post=4280]
I had a different result as far as mirror edges. I sharpened a Kershaw Blur from 100 diamond thru 1600 ceramics. Then I switched to 5,000/10,000 Choseras before going on to the 1.4/0.6 micro ceramics. The mirror edge after the 10,000 Choseras was great, to the naked eye. But after the micro ceramics, the mirror edge had changed - inconsistent polish thorughout the edge that just didn’t look right. Has anyone else noticed this?[/quote]
Not quite the same experience. But tonight I sharpened another knife, finishing with the micro fine ceramics and again I noticed some scratches similar to the ones in the first photograph of the edge in my blog post. Don’t know exactly why.
Clay, can you tell us why you think lapping the stones would be a good idea?
For two reasons - 1) I had noticed that one of the brown stones had a rougher surface than the other 2) I’d read somewhere that the only difference between the Spyderco Fine and Extra Fine stones was how they were finished i.e. they were the same stone but one that was lapped to a finer surface which led me to think it would be worth a try since the same company (Coorstek) that is making our stones makes the stones for Spyderco. I’ll try to dig up the post I read for reference later. I contacted my rep at Coorstek to ask about it but he didn’t know anything and is supposed to get back to me.
[quote quote=“mark76” post=4282][quote quote=“holymolar” post=4280]
I had a different result as far as mirror edges. I sharpened a Kershaw Blur from 100 diamond thru 1600 ceramics. Then I switched to 5,000/10,000 Choseras before going on to the 1.4/0.6 micro ceramics. The mirror edge after the 10,000 Choseras was great, to the naked eye. But after the micro ceramics, the mirror edge had changed - inconsistent polish thorughout the edge that just didn’t look right. Has anyone else noticed this?[/quote]
Not quite the same experience. But tonight I sharpened another knife, finishing with the micro fine ceramics and again I noticed some scratches similar to the ones in the first photograph of the edge in my blog post. Don’t know exactly why.
Clay, can you tell us why you think lapping the stones would be a good idea?[/quote]
The quote about the F and UF Spyderco stones comes from Cliff Stamp on his blog:
When I first used the micro fine ceramics (esp. the “brown” stone) , I did notice a different scratch pattern on the edge, however, after lapping them, the scratch patterns appear to be much more refined and consistant although I am not looking at them under 200x. Just my 2 cents but I’m curious to see other results.
[quote quote=“wickededge” post=4284]The quote about the F and UF Spyderco stones comes from Cliff Stamp on his blog:
Here’s a bit more info you might find interesting from Sal (Spyderco’s president):
All of the ceramics use the same micron size (15-25). the different grits are created by different carriers, different firing techniques and diamond surface grinding.
We’ve spent a great deal of time trying to determine grits for our stones. The manufacturer has also worked with us, to no avail. A guess seems to be best.
Most abrasives are measured by the grit size used in the matrix. Our ceramic doesn 't work that way. Grit size is constant.
We’ve tried to compare scratch patterns as Cliff mentioned and this is probably the closest, but nothing that we can say “This is blah blah”. Then the Japanese water stones jump into the equation and suddenly there is whole new set of numbers.
So where we end up is:
Our diamonds are a 400 mesh (measureable). (600 on the Duckfoot)
Our gray stone is “medium”. (Same material as fine but different carriers and heat treat).
Our fine stone is fine.
Our extra fine is a surface ground fine.
Our Ultra fine stone took many years to develop and few know about them. I was convinced enough with the stone’s potential that we finally were able to make a 3" X 8" version that is not much more than a quarter inch thck. Two sides, flat and fine.
It took five years for our R&D teram to finally produce this stone. The challenges kept cropping up and needed to be overcome. Technology in the area of ceramic stones has improved and we can now make stone shapes before not possile.
We have the new UF 3X8, a 2" X 4" fine slipstone with 1/2" down to 1/8". And we also have a ceramic version of the byrd duckfoot, fine grit. A true “Golden stone”. The downside is the high cost.
50,000 years from now when the Pyramids have crumbled and humans are but a memory, Spyderco ceramic stones will be seen sticking out of the earth, ready to work.
Source: http://www.spyderco.com/forums/showthread.php?31188-Ceramic-benchstones-compared-to-DMT-extra-fine
Thanks for posting CBW, that’s awesome info.
With all of this info on the Spyderco stones, I wonder whether the Micro Fine ceramics are the same material as the Spyderco fine/ultra fine stones? Or are they different stones that happen to be made by the same manufacturer?
I don’t have the Spyderco stones for comparison and the manufacturer doesn’t kiss and tell 
It’s a good question though and maybe I’ll order up a set so I can compare.
My perception is they are not the same. The Spyderco stones feel a bit harder and just feel different. I have all the Spyderco bench and Sharpmaker stones as well as a 701 profile set. They are all the same as each other (by grit) and different from the WEPS ceramics. JMO
Ken
I happen to have a Spyderco Sharpmaker, my favourite sharpening system until I got the Wicked Edge. My Sharpmaker came with two stones, which Spyderco calls “medium” and “fine”. As cbwx34 wrote, Spyderco hasn’t published any grit/ratings or micron sizes of these stones.
Here are the Spyderco stones next to the Micro Fine ceramics.
As you can see, the color of the coarse micro fine ceramics is exactly the same as that of the Spyderco medium stones and the color of the fine micro fine ceramics is the same as that of the Spyderco fine stones. Coorstek has probably used the same pigments to color the Spyderco stones as the Wicked Edge stones. To me the stones also feel very similar (smoothness, hardness).
I took a few pictures of each of these stones under my microscope. This is the Spyderco medium stone:
And this is the coarse Micro Fine ceramic:
Although they look similar, the difference between these pictures seems significant: also if I take pictures on different spots on the stones, the Micro Fine ceramics have more and larger grey areas.
This is the Spyderco fine stone:
And this is the fine Micro Fine ceramic:
Again, the difference between the pictures seems significant: the Spyderco stones have more white spots, all over the stones.
I don’t know what to conclude from these pictures, other than that both the Spyderco and the Wicked Edge stones have similar structures, probably because they have been manufactured using similar processes. Which is not too surprising, since they were both manufactured by the same manufacturer .
But it would be interesting if somebody could take a microscope picture of the Spyderco ultra fine ceramics.
To show that not all ceramic stones have the same structure, here are microscope pictures of the 1200/1600 ceramic stones. These were made by a different manufacturer.
The 1200 stone:
The 1600 stone:
[quote quote=“mark76” post=4389] To me the stones also feel very similar (smoothness, hardness).
[/quote]
I agree… they seem more similar than different. I guess you could do a comparison picture of what type of finish they leave on a knife… although the fact that the stones’ finish can be altered by lapping, this probably isn’t necessary… or wouldn’t really tell that much anyway.
Nice pics!!
my blog updateI have experimented a bit more with these stones and I took some additional microscope pictures. I think these stones are a bit coarser than I initially thought. See .