I was less than enthused by the variable results I got with the ceramics. It bothered me that I couldn’t clearly find a grit progression that made sense to me. Then I tried to flatten them on a granite plate with automotive sandpaper and buggered them up good. But I had already decided that film abrasive on glass was going to be my long-term solution. Especially diamond film. There was no question about grit progression. And when a film was damaged or contaminated, you could just change it out for a couple of $. I was also focused on precise angles and film on glass showed me when I was off angle by a bit (>0.1 dps). Strops will give you a beautiful polish, but you don’t really know if they’ve rounded the edges. All was good until I realized that my glass platens were scratching some of my blades (the glass was home-made and poor prep on my part), so I’ve switched to a soft metal platen (brass or aluminum).
If you are really careful to avoid contamination, the films last longer than you might think. I had been using the Superasers to clear the crud from the grit matrix, but I suspect this was bringing contaminating grit into play, so I’ve taken clay’s suggestion of using alcohol. So far, very happy.
WE has diamond film in sizes from 6 to 0.1 micron. If to avoid ceramics, then what to use in progression between 1000 grit diamond stone and diamond film size 6? Is it OK to use diamond film size 6 right after diamond stone 1000 grit?
The 1000 diamond is 7 microns, according to the grit comparison chart on this website, located under “resources”. So I would think you could go right to 6 or perhaps even 3 micron diamond film from there. Just my thoughts, as I’ve yet to try any films.
I’m not sure, Clay. The burnishing I experienced was mainly from the WE diamond pastes. I’ve never experienced it from stones (which mainly abrade). But I’d definitely be interested in an experiment. Distinguishing abrasion from burnishing is quite hard, but perhaps with you equipment it’s possible.
Yes. I still use the ceramic stones in between and then switch to the 3 micron film, but I’m considering to skip the ceramics and directly go to the 6 micron film.
FWIW, I have 4 pairs of stones using film. My normal progression is 400, 600, 800, 1000, 15 mu, 9 mu, 6 mu, 3 mu, 1.5 mu, 1.0 mu, 0.5 mu, 0.1 mu.
From my experience, the 1200 ceramics are virtually identical in scratch patterns to the 15 micron film. The 9 micron is about 1800 grit, very close to the SF 1600.
I hadn’t really thought about it either until I read the thread I linked to… I just thought some metals polished better than others and didn’t realize what was being used to polish made that much of a difference. An S30v blade, or any with a relatively high Vanadium content, would make a good test blade.
If you’re using all diamonds to sharpen and refine and/or polish, it obviously doesn’t matter… I mainly brought it up if someone is considering the ceramics over strops with diamond paste to polish… I’m not sure how well they’ll do on the more wear resistant steels. (I was going to try it before I answered, but didn’t have time.)
So, here’s 1 S30V done with just the ceramics after the 1K diamond (coarse MF –> both SuperFines –> Fine MicroFine)… a bit of a ‘haze’ to the finish, but overall not too bad?
I don’t remember when we changed the formulation with the 1200/1600, but it’s been a few years now. Your comment makes a good question. I’ll have to dig up an old pair from before the change and test them against the new ones. [/quote]
I bought my 1200/1600 in March 2013 but I was not happy with them. The stones felt chalky, easily chipped at the edges and one came loose from the plastic handle. Would the currently available stones be better? Is there any way that I can check/see from which production run/period my stones are?
Much like Tom, however, I go from 1k’s to some 30um films then progress down to 3um (anything lower than this I seem to get scratching, really weird), then strops. I could probably go straight to the 15 or 9um films but it goes really quickly w/ my progression. The important thing isn’t to get an exact grit progression but that you play around with it to find what works for you and that all of the prior grit scratches are completely erased =)
I still have the old email in which I ordered the 1200/1600 grit stones. I did it on December 1 2012. (Wow, I have the WEPS only three years now… It feels much longer .)
IIRC WE changed to the new manufacturer a couple of months (half a year?) later. This could be consistent with Frans’ observations of his 1200/1600 stones.
These are my new favourites as well. But I think it’s more than just a temporary thing. They work fast and they are reliable. I was particularly impressed when I saw the scratch pattern the 6 micron diamond film produced (after the 1000 grit stones), of which you posted pictures in one of threads. I have never been more impressed by such a uniform scratch pattern.
I am waiting for Knives & Tools to get the diamond film and will then experiment whether the transition from 1000 grit diamonds to 6 micron diamond films works fine or whether you’d be better off with the 9 in between. Tom even uses the 15 micron in between and Josh even starts with the 30 after the 1000 grit diamonds.
(My current solution is to use all 4 ceramic stones after the diamond stones and then go to the 3 micron film.)
I don’t remember when we changed the formulation with the 1200/1600, but it’s been a few years now. Your comment makes a good question. I’ll have to dig up an old pair from before the change and test them against the new ones.
I bought my 1200/1600 in March 2013 but I was not happy with them. The stones felt chalky, easily chipped at the edges and one came loose from the plastic handle. Would the currently available stones be better? Is there any way that I can check/see from which production run/period my stones are? [/quote]
It's hard to say. I'll try to investigate it by going back through archived emails to see if I can pin down the date.
A few more pics this morning. I decided to clean up the primary bevel of the sample with a new set of diamond lapping films and the kangaroo strops. Here’s what we’ve got so far:
.5µ Diamond Lapping Films
[attachment file=“.5-micron-film-A.jpg”]
.25µ Diamond on Kangaroo Strops
[attachment file=“.5-micron-kangaroo-A.jpg”]
.1µ Diamond Lapping Films
[attachment file=“.1-micron-film-A.jpg”]
These scratches are also about the right width though they seem more shallow for some reason. I’m not sure what that would be but a guess might be that they’re softer than the fine stones or that the pores are more loaded with filings since they’re more coarse.
Great experiment! Good to see that the superfine stones work about as expected. I’m also curious how the microfine ceramics would come out in an experiment like this.
I already knew the diamond lapping films rule (although there are some unexpected scratches with the .1 micron film?). But the fine diamond/CBN sprays on kangaroo leather also rule.
.)
