dickb Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 I apologize in advance because I think this is the wrong place for this post. I need to replace my old, old combination Carborundum bench stone. I see so may types of stones available that my head is spinning. Would prefer a combination stone about eight inches long in the range of twenty to thirty dollars. I would appreciate any advice as to what material (silicon carbide, green silicon carbide, aluminum oxide, etc. ) would be a good choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 What will you be sharpening? Alloy(s), hardness, etc. I generally prefer blades that are not so hard as to require a diamond hone to resharpen them. I find old stones at the fleamarket and clean and reuse them; but I'm known as cheap! Also; do you need to replace your stone; or do you need to just flatten and clean it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 When it comes to sharpening stones the hard Arkansas stone is hard to beat IMHO. Personally I don't like combination stones but have 3 or 4 Arkanas stones in different hardness grades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickb Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 (edited) 9 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: What will you be sharpening? Alloy(s), hardness, etc. I will be sharpening 1095, 1080, 5160 steel knife blades. The stone is very old and very thin. It broke in half but I managed to use Crazy Glue to join the two pieces together. It's working fine right now but it's only a matter of time until it breaks again. We don't have flea markets around here but we do have garage sales, so I'll give that a try when they start in a couple of months. Edited January 29, 2022 by Mod30 combine posts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Griffin Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Just starting out, get one of those 4 sided diamond blocks. I been using mine for several years and it’s still good. They’re in the $30-35 range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHC Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 I usually don’t care for diamond stones because of how aggressive they can be. If the blade isn’t hard enough you just end up taking a lot of metal off without even producing a good edge. But they do work great on hard steels and last forever. Also great for axes and tools, quick touch up on a machete while you’re in the field. I like Arkansas stones for most knives, diamond for other reasons mentioned. If I were starting from scratch I’d invest in some good Arkansas stones, and order some Gordon diamond stones from harbor freight. I’ve got a set for bench use, but a folding DMT sharpener for field use. Those Gordon stones from HF are cheap but perfectly serviceable. I think my set cost something like $12 or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 (edited) Oh, the romance of hones and stones! If one 'googles' 'choosing a sharpening stone Norton Abrasives', you will be treated to a nice overview... Carborundum is an old name for Silicon Carbide. Norton Abrasives sells their SC stones under the name, 'Crystolon'. I have one of their 2 x 6 combination stones, very nice. I like Arkansas, I will defer to Iron Dragon for those, except to say that they sure can deliver an ultra smooth finish. I have lots of India stones (Aluminum oxide), in numerous shapes, which I use for roughing and finishing on High Speed Steel cutting tools. Also have a combo 2 x 6, love it. I could go on... the big box hdwr stores usually have something on the shelf. If you can not wait for the garage sale season, I myself would be checking out a small local mom 'n pop hardware store for new old stock! Hope you find a good one. Randy Griffin, one thing I have found with diamond stones, is that they can be of highly variable quality. I have some China made diamonds that have given good service for decades, while others are throw-aways. Check customer reviews.... Robert Taylor And yes, SHC. One thing about diamonds, is that soft metals tend dig the bonding metal away, and thus makes the diamonds fall out. I have used DMT, like it. EZ Lap, not so much. Edited January 29, 2022 by Anachronist58 chime-in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Really, the only things that matter when sharpening is the size of the grit, the type of grit, and the shape of the grit. Under magnification of any edge will look like a saw blade with sharp spikes and teeth sticking up. Dulling means bending the teeth over. The finer the size of the grit biting into steel the smaller the spikes and teeth. The type of grit means how hard it is and how much steel it will cut off the edge. Arkansas stones are quartz (Mohs hardness 7), silicon carbide is Mohs hardness 9, diamond is 10. A more angular the grit means how much it will bite into the metal. A new, harder medium will bite better than an old, softer grit. Basically, when sharpening you are polishing the edge and getting the "teeth" aligned. A 600 grit belt will give a more polished edge than a coarse (maybe 80 grit) hand stone. There is a LOT of misinformation, stories, legends, and magical thinking out there when it comes to sharpening steel. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Griffin Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Not sure I’m following y’all. Diamond comes in many grit sizes, use the proper one. Control. You must have control. I been sharpening knives all my life and using diamond over 30 years and it’s my go to for everything. All my blades are hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 To further muddy the waters, who likes rods over stones and why? I personally like ceramic rods for keeping a blade sharp. Pnut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Griffin Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Pnut, since you brought it up, yes, I do use round rods. I have oval shaped diamond that I keep in the kitchen. I have white and gray ceramic. My brother swears by the gray. I haven’t compared them yet but will use either. My go to is a tungsten electrode used in tig welding. It will polish the edge to razor sharp like nothing I ever used before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anachronist58 Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 5 hours ago, Randy Griffin said: I been sharpening knives all my life I have nothing against diamond, has been my primary abrasive for the whole of my Aerospace career... Robert Taylor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Griffin Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 And I would like to get a set of Arkansas stones one day. I’ve never had a good set so really don’t know. I’ve got a couple of small ones but never spent any time with them. To the OP, there are some good topics on sharpening in the blade smith section. You should spend some time there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHC Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Been sharpening my own knives all my life too, and one thing I’ve noticed any time the discussion comes up is that it seems no two people have identical preferences, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen any two people assent that “if that’s what works best for you then that’s best for you.” I’ve seen knife sharpening discussions devolve into arguments as toxic and abusive as those over politics and religion. I don’t care for ceramics, but I’d like to. I’ve seen nothing else produce a finer edge as quickly, but no matter what I do or what I’m honing with it, I can’t keep a ceramic honed edge. With my finer stones and girth strap strop, no problems. Takes some time, but I can keep a keen edge for quite a while and through quite a bit of abuse. My EDC, a Kabar, is used often for chopping small brush, including bamboo, digging in dirt and chopping roots, chopping plastic tubing, cutting light wire, whatever I come across. It’s abused hard almost daily. Last time I sharpened it was about a month ago and it still shaves. It’s missing some of its finish and the leather stack grip has gotten dark and smooth from all the sweat, dirt and blood, but it’s sharp. Ceramic, quick, easy, wicked sharp. Easily as sharp as I can get it with stones and strop in a fraction of the time. Then I open an envelope and it’s done. I want to love it, I really do. But my lack of success in using them means that I haven’t bothered looking for them after moving last summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Bullet Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 Back when I was a dive-tender, one of the most favored devices for sharpening was a ceramic well choke. A tender (as well as a diver) had to have a sharp knife. The tender also had to have a ten inch crescent wrench for attaching hose to helmet and volume tank as well as #10 GIC whips to the compressor and oxygen bottles to manifolds of chambers. If you kept your chromed crescent shiny, it would put as good an edge on the cheap stainless knives we used as anything else. Just use it like a hone. Divers always had the sharpest knives - electricians the dullest. Just a general observation, I'm sure there were exceptions either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Griffin Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 SHC, you should try the tungsten electrode. I like it better than ceramic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHC Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 I had never heard of that until reading this thread and color me interested! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Dickb. Glue your broken stone to a piece of hardwood and it'll last a long time without breaking. There is what must be a 3 year long discussion about sharpening on one of the knife fora and while intense never got rude. Tungsten tig tips will vary in coarseness depending on the size grit they were sintered from. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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