Hey, Tradgangers,
I was shopping on Amazon for a wet stone for my hunting knives, but every one of them has some kind of mixed reviews, and online you never know which ones are fake reviews. So I thought I'd ask someone I trust :goldtooth:
I was thinking to go for a 400/1000 or 400/1000 + another finer grit combo (I have ceramic rods for the finer work anyway). Do you have any link to a decent, durable stone ? Ideally not too expensive :bigsmyl:
Thanks
Max
P.S.: I'll take decent over cheap if needed ;)
I was given a Norton many years ago I accidentally dropped it not long after obtaining it and fortunately it broke into a near perfect half. I gave one half away and to this day use the other for all kinds of sharpening. I'm convinced you would be proud to own one. I've had cheap ones and know well the difference. Best wishes!
Yes, I agree about the quality of Norton stones. I use one on the rare occasions when my straight razor needs to be re-honed. The thing about re-honing a straight razor is that you get an automatic angle, and you already have a blade that is probably better sharpened than most knives ever will be before you even start. A Norton Stone is for putting the final edge on an already sharpened blade. You need a way to set the angle and to do some preliminary sharpening before a Norton will do you much good.
Thank you,
I will check them out :thumbsup:
Good night ;-)
Max
I use diamond stones. One is a Smith and the other is from Harbor Freight and both work very well and I like them better than the Arkansas stones I have. Both are very reasonable.
I use diamond to and I'd not use a reg stone anymore. Had it a long time now and use for everything
I use a combination Norton stone (both sides are grey, I think they call it crystolon now) with a course side and a fine side. I've had it since I first joined the Marine Corps over 30 years ago. It had been used so much that both sides were very concave. A couple years ago I straightened it out by running it back and forth on a slab of cement and it is like new again. The course side is just course enough without being too course. Some people make this whole knife sharpening business too complicated. After using the coarse and fine side, I run the blade across a steel and can get it shaving. I have even sharpen broadheads on it. I bought each of my boys their own Norton stone with the India stone on the fine side. If they don't lose or abuse it I expect it to last the rest of their lives. For around $20 or so a Norton stone and a good steel are all most people will ever need.
Japanese wet stone ? You use water rather than oil? ? Not sure if typo error here.
Yes, Japanese waterstones use water rather than oil to remove steel residue. They are very effective.
I also have a Buck diamond stone that is very handy and easy to carry as it retracts and stores inside the handle. It will then fit right in your pocket.
Thank you everyone, this is great advice. :)
And with this nasty virus going around, I'm gonna re-sharpen all my broadheads and hunting blades.
Stay safe
Max
http://eze-lap.com/products/
My favorite.
I use a diamond stone for knives and for a rough edge on a broadhead. But I use an Arkansas stone to fine tune.
I've used all kinds of sharpening stones: Norton, DMT, water stones, ceramics, ......I think if yea keep enough sharps things around your likely to try out all kinds of sharpening materials.....Start with a known brand, various surfaces, get good with what you do have, try others if and when you want.....yea might find one particular band that works for you and your set...
Well, if you want to melt hair off your arm with broadheads so sharp you're afraid to take them out of your quiver (seriously, that dangerous), I just use a progression of arkansas: soft, hard, translucent, and black beginning with soft and ending with black. You have to keep the angles right, and you have to know HOW NOT to switch to the next stone too soon.
Here's a few of my thoughts on the above, however:
1) At first it made sense to buy all 4 as pocket stones (because I was broke): but I found it was hard to get on the bevel before the stroke ended. So I got 10 inch bench stones so I could have a good 8-9 inch stroke. Oh, that was going to be a REAL luxury....
2) I invested $150 into four 10 inch bench stones and promptly found out that my $120/doz grizzlies are not manufactured with a straight bevel: they won't quite lay flat on the wide stones (the middles wouldn't touch). So they couldn't even be sharpened.
3) The fix on the above was to switch back to those annoying pocket stones. Geez, if you are dedicated you can definitely get your broadheads DEADLY sharp on them, but it is NOT EASY.
4) After spending hours honing my broadheads to a dangerously sharp surgical edge, (broadheads so sharp you can miss the deer, and it dies of a heart attack), I discovered that while grizzlies do TAKE a sharp edge, they don't KEEP such an edge. Especially if you use a back quiver (basically just a giant leather-strop). So I was better off not even moving on to the translucent and black stones at all.
5) Knives need really good, harddd, steel (read that as 440 C) to HOLD the type of edge that the translucent and black Arkansas deliver, and most factory, custom, and antique knives DO NOT have this type of steel; and will not hold a surgical edge long enough to do anything useful.
My conclusion was:
A) If you use a back quiver, then a soft and hard Arkansas are all you need, any finer edge will be ruined by the quiver's stropping action anyway.
B) With certain bow quivers, those tantalizing translucent and black Arkansas stones, and the finer edge they produce, begin to make more sense.
C) Some broadhead and knife brands come with a blunt factory bevel and you need a much COURSER stone than soft arkansas to start out with. You'll literally ruin your soft stone even trying. I have an old diamond paddle that I use for such heads, and I also have a pocket stone of artificial variety in about the coursest grit available. They both work well for this purpose.
That's all that needs to be known about buying whetstones.
Here's something you don't need to know, though:
Those lansky and smith jigs work. I almost recommend them*, especially for repairing or re-doing a bevel: Biggest bane of my existence when hand sharpening with a whetstone is a knife or broadhead that lacks a perfectly flat, straight, uniformly angled bevel, and my god, those lansky/smith jigs and a course diamond will fix any bevel out there.
If you order the lansky/smith jigs, you still buy the same stone progression: course diamond, then soft and hard arkansas. (You still need to do the translucent and black stones by hand).
* However, the manufacturing process on the smith jigs is worthless, and you have to use them VERY GENTLY to avoid stripping screws, shifting the clamp, etc. Yet, if used within their limitations, they accomplish their job and do it well. They are just cheaply made. The first jig I bought was defective and I had to send it back. Your money is never going to be well spent with smith, but your edges WILL BE SHARP.
Call Ron at KME...1-800-561-4339....He has some really nice stuff...and really good advice... :campfire:
Have used the brown spyderco (med) bench stone for over 20 years of knives and heads. I think its about a 1200 grit stone. I use a 1500 then a 6000 waterstone for strait razors that I shave with. The water stones are soft so you use them with care to not dish. The spyderco is hard as hell, you use dry or with water and I havent dished mine yet. They also list a white (fine) stone that Ive heard was about a 3000 grit but havent tried one yet. 1200 will pop hairs on your arm with ease.........YMMV
Yeah going to 3000 is kind of like finishing with the black hard Arkansas I use (they don't measure the arkansas by grit size). But it's the law of diminishing returns: you're already sharp, and to make it any sharper is pointless unless you have REALLY good steel, because such a thin edge won't hold up anyway.
I use the Lansky 5 stone system, Rada wheel, and a fine half round file to fine tuning. I get my knives and Zwickeys surgical sharp. KME has a very good system as well.
PS, The Lansky Sharpening System is reasonably priced as well.
I'll second the advice about KME! It is the most precise sharpening system on the market. I can get a shaving edge with a stone but the edge you can get with the KME will make your eyes bleed just looking at it! Ron has the best customer service and is a Great guy to deal with. :clapper:
Denny
I have a King brand whet stone from amazon that was under 20 bucks and is 250/1000 and it been really good for a couple years. give em a try.
Quote from: madmaxthc on March 15, 2020, 09:06:15 PM
Hey, Tradgangers,
I was shopping on Amazon for a wet stone for my hunting knives, but every one of them has some kind of mixed reviews, and online you never know which ones are fake reviews. So I thought I'd ask someone I trust :goldtooth:
I was thinking to go for a 400/1000 or 400/1000 + another finer grit combo (I have ceramic rods for the finer work anyway). Do you have any link to a decent, durable stone ? Ideally not too expensive :bigsmyl:
Thanks
Max
P.S.: I'll take decent over cheap if needed ;)
Hi I have used Smiths tri stones for many years they work fine. Halls makes very good stones as well I opt for two sided stone one side hard arkanas the other soft. There are some excellent diamond sharpeners out there as well.
islander