ged my whitby is number 2 a flat grind. ive ordered the diamond block fro a tenner and my friend has offered to load me a 1000/6000 grit whetstone when i can pick it up form bristol. i think ill see how i get on with that lot for now. ill be practising on my hults knife and mora before doing anything on my stainless. is the same method used on stainless as is on carbon?
You'll get on fine with those.
Yes, same methods, differences in technique are more about the blade geometry than the material but if you do a lot of this you'll soon start to notice differences in the way the different steels behave.
I try not to mix the abrasives that I use on carbon steels with those that I use on stainless. If you have particles of carbon steel in the abrasive matrix and then use it on a stainless blade you can embed those particles into the stainless and that can help corrosion to start in the stainless.
Clean the diamond block faces with a cloth after you've finished work and keep them dry or oil them so that you don't get rust forming. You don't want to embed rust particles into an edge.
Try always to remove the minimum amount of metal from your blades. Use a strop and polishing paste more often than you use the harsher materials like diamond and carborundum.
Most of the time a quick strop is all that's needed and the blades will last a lot longer that way.
