Fine Waterstones

[Rickyd]

My finest stone I currently own is 6000 grit. While I’m very happy with my sharpening skills, and the razor edge I can produce I have always thought “what if”
Is it worth investing in something like 8000 10000 or 12000 grit stones? Would I see a difference in the sharpness/ edge retention of my knives?

 

[punkrockcaveman]

If your satisfied with the edge, then what's the point? Do you strop? I feel like stropping does a great job after a fine stone and does more for edge retention.

 

[TLM]

Not in a working knife, razors are different.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Wood working tools...maybe a finer stone would be good, if your skills are good enough to show the difference. I too have a 6000 grit water stone, and then a balsa wood lap/strop loaded with Tormek compound or Autosol. A harder strop board gives a flatter effect. I doubt that my chisels and planes would show me a difference with an 8000 or higher stone. However, the chaps that ran the Japanese Tool Group that I once attended certainly thought that finer stones were worth having for their planes, and the Rob Cosman plane sharpening system uses a finer stone.

For knives? Naw...not worth using a fine stone instead of stropping unless your use can show the difference, or unless the sharpening is the end goal itself, like some guys here:

Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment

Your how-to area for discussion on sharpeners, rust prevention, alteration & more.

www.bladeforums.com

 

[Rickyd]

If your satisfied with the edge, then what's the point? Do you strop? I feel like stropping does a great job after a fine stone and does more for edge retention.

yes always strop. That’s what I mean, I’m satisfied and it’s shaving sharp.curiosity got the better of me, thinking that there must be a reason why they have finer grades out there

 

[C_Claycomb]

Its to do with flatness. A fine, flat stone will tend to keep an edge flat, whereas compound on a pliable backing tends to round the edge a little every time it is used. There is also the matter of consistency. A hard stone of a given grit is likely to cut in the same way across its whole face, and in the same way as another stone of the same grit from the same supplier, even from one customer to another. Polishing compound, because it can be applied to different backings, with different degrees of even ness, will tend to have more variation in performance.

All this might matter to the David Charlesworths and Rob Cosmans out there, but not so much to knife users.

 

[Robson Valley]

I put my faith in the two pages of Scanning Electron Microscope pictures in Leonard Lee's book.
The conclusion is that steel is so soft when thin (see for yourselves) that 1500 grit is really a limit.
He advocates paying attention to the total included bevel angle for that performance of that edge in service.
I've measured the bevel angle of every wood carving tool that I've ever bought. Dozens of them.
I'm not about to fluff up an edge that cost me more that $100.00.

I can repeat all those edges freehand. Another good thing that I was taught to do.
I decided a long time ago to follow LL's technique and grit selections. Works just fine for me.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Electron microscope pictures...various sharpening methods and grits.

Experiments on Knife Sharpening
John D. Verhoeven Emeritus Professor Department of Materials Science and Engineering Iowa State University Ames, IA
September 2004

https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_c/articles/verhoeven_sharpening.pdf

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks for the reference. Skimming some confirms my best guesses. I'll read it all later.
Sure is nice to see good pictures instead of assumptions.

What I need to do for my wood carving tools hardly falls into the realm of bushcraft.
I don't do enough knife work.