Polishing stones

[MooreToolsPlease]

Evening all,
After recieving David Charlesworth's books for christmas, I have begun using water stones again.
Originally I used the icebear kit but have since moved onto a norton 1000/4000 combination stone.
So now im after a polishing stone, I'm just wondering though which would be more beneficial, a 8000 or 10000 grit stone?
is there a noticeable difference between either of them?

 

[MIGNAL]

I can't answer your question directly because I only have experience of the King brand 8000. I hollow grind with a handcrank and go from this straight to the 8000 grit stone, nothing in between. Final polish is done with the green compound on leather. Just one method amongst many.

 

[Philly]

Matt
What about using the 6000 stone that came with your Icebear kit?? I get a great polish with that one.
I also have a 10, 000 stone. I don't notice a huge improvement with it to be honest.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

I would use that, but I lent it out a while ago,
he didnt take any notice of me saying just use water, and has used oil or something on it.
now for some reason the nagura wont make a decent slurry and the stone is very slow cutting, hence me needing a new one!

 

[David C]

We have been using the 10.000 grit stone for a while now.

Less £ than 8,000, nice wooden base.

It is slightly more fussy to use than the 8,000 grit stone, requiring more use of Nagura, as it seems to load up more quickly. Somehow 8,000 is the friendliest to use.

Can't really say the difference of grit size is significant.

As mentioned 6,000 also does a good job.

David

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Matt

With the 8000 waterstone it is possible to by-pass the 4000 'stone and go there directly from the 1000 waterstone (I go to an 8000 King from a 1200 King).

David, can one do that with the 10000 waterstone (And are you referring to the King 10000?), or would you in this can use the 4000 as a stepping stone?

Matt, one more thing. You have not mentioned if you have a waterstone under 1000. I have a 800 King that is used for initial grinding. Can the Norton 1000 be used this way? Otherwise you should be looking at getting a waterstone in this range. And, if you finances do not run to both stones, then I would get the 800 and, until later, use Veritas green rouge on MDF as a strop to hone that edge to a high level.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[David C]

Derek,

Two different jobs come to mind.

When doing initial preparation of a chisel back I would use an itermediate step such as 800, 4000, 10,000.

I actually do 800, 1200, 10,000 most of the time. Can't say that I miss the 4000 much, depends what stones you are using. For some reason I don't understand, King 1,200 seems finer than it ought to be by looking at the numbers. If I used Norton stones it would be 1000, 4000, 8000. The polish on the backs of chisels should improve with each future sharpening, so I don't fuss if it is not perfect the first time.

On bevels and plane blade backs I go straight from 800grit to 10,000grit now. In both cases there is a small change of angle involved in my system. 2 degrees steeper for the bevels in Eclipse honing guide and of course 2/3rds degree from the ruler trick on the plane blade backs.

Hope this all makes sense,
David

 

[Alf]

I don't fuss if it is not perfect the first time.

Who are you and what have you done with David Charlesworth...? :-s

Cheers, Alf

 

[Philly]

I don't fuss if it is not perfect the first time.

Who are you and what have you done with David Charlesworth...? :-s

Cheers, Alf

LOL
Philly :lol:

 

[David C]

Older and a teeny bit more flexible in my relationship with the perfectionist disease!

(on a good day.......)

David

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

I have the 800 stone from the ice bear kit, so I use this initially for flattening backs, then the 1000 does a nice job for the bevel sides.
THe mean reason I asked was due to the 10K grit being cheaper than the 8k!
looks like the 10k will be purchased soon!
THanks everyone for your help

 

[Philly]

Older and a teeny bit more flexible in my relationship with the perfectionist disease!

(on a good day.......)

David

Excellent! :lol:
Incidently, how are you finding the 10,000 grit stone. Do you miss the 6 or 8000 out altogether? I also find the 10k needs a LOT of water. It soaks up a large amount compared to my 6000 King - other members have mentioned that too. Makes using a nagura difficult.
regards
Philly

 

[Anonymous]

Since getting my 8000 grit Norton stone I have carefully observed the scratches it produces by eye alone and at 200x magnification and to be honest, the 8000 grit Norton stone leaves a more pronounced scratch pattern than my 6000 grit cheapo waterstone.

I am very surprised and a little dissapointed

 

[David C]

Philly,

Yes I miss out 6 & 8 in sharpening. Just 800 & 10,000.

Might use 8 for back flattening of chisels,
David

 

[bugbear]

Older and a teeny bit more flexible in my relationship with the perfectionist disease!

I think it's always useful to know "where perfection is", even if you're not going to go there. At least the knowledge allows you to make a conscious choice.

In this respect, I feel that a woodworker who reads (for example...) David C's books, and decides to perform NONE of the techniques oferred has still benefited.

BugBear

 

[David C]

Bugbear,

How kind ;-)

I would like to think that some of them are jolly useful, but then.........

David

 

[MooreToolsPlease]

I have found them very useful!
I've never had sharper chisels and plane irons, and none sharpened so quickly either!