Which waterstone?

[Whit68]

G'day all,

I have just broken my Lobster 6000 grit waterstone so I am after a replacement.

I have a 1000 grit waterstone that is still in good shape, what should I replace my broken one with?

It will be used on my plane blades (Stanley, Veritas and HNT Gordon) and chisels (Berg, Titan and soe HSS Japanese).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Anthony


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[johnredl]

I'm using shapton ceramic stones that I bought from Stu, from www.toolsfromjapan.com I'm quite happy with them

[FenceFurniture]

Why don't you replace it with another Lobster?

[Whit68]

Why don't you replace it with another Lobster?

G'day FF - I wasn't that impressed with the lobster. It seemed to clog easily, dish rapidly and took a long time to get the final polish on an edge.

Regards
Anthony


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[derekcohen]

You need a medium that hones HSS. Your 6000 Lobster did not do this well, obviously. Or, the jump from your "1000" (what is the make?) to the 6000 was too great (which is not the case with all waterstones, perhaps just with yours).

Bottom line: it is difficult to recommend a 6000 (or 8000 or whatever) without knowing what your 1000 is. It is also relevant to know if you hone a microbevel or a full face. The latter will place greater demands on the cutting ability of the stones.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Whit68]

You need a medium that hones HSS. Your 6000 Lobster did not do this well, obviously. Or, the jump from your "1000" (what is the make?) to the 6000 was too great (which is not the case with all waterstones, perhaps just with yours).

Bottom line: it is difficult to recommend a 6000 (or 8000 or whatever) without knowing what your 1000 is. It is also relevant to know if you hone a microbevel or a full face. The latter will place greater demands on the cutting ability of the stones.

Regards from Perth

Derek

G'day Derek,
The 1000 is a lobster as well and I do home a microbevel, I'll have a look for a medium stone as well and see if that helps.

I did some more trawling of the sharpening forum and have ordered a 6000 sigma power select II. I might jump back on and get something in the middle.

Regards
Anthony


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[rsser]

That's a good stone esp. for harder steels. Your Titans and the Japanese chisels probably. For other high carbon steels there are other choices.

HSS doesn't necessarily call for the Power Select IIs cos the hardness is determined by the manner of heat treatment. But if you had a mix of metals I'd be looking at another in that range.

Expect you ordered it from Stu from toolsfromjapan ?

His blog has a very instructive set of test reports on stones; go digging here: Tools from Japan blog. (http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/wordpress/)

[derekcohen]

Hi Ern

It is not about the "hardness" of the steel. Instead, it is about its resistance to abrasion. This is about steel composition not heat treatment. HSS is an abrasion-resistant steel. The honing medium used needs to account for this. Most mediums, even oil stones, will hone HSS. But some will do so slower or faster than others. The Power Select IIs were developed for this purpose.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[rsser]

It's both Derek.

HSS of course covers a range of alloys so I was perhaps misleading in treating it as one metal. It most certainly isn't. It's my std tool metal and there's a lot of variation from diff. makers.

One part of that will come from the tempering done which will determine hardness. Measurable by the Rockwell test. It can be high but the resulting edge will be brittle. The other part of the variation will come from the particular alloying elements added to the steel.

[Whit68]

That's a good stone esp. for harder steels. Your Titans and the Japanese chisels probably. For other high carbon steels there are other choices.

HSS doesn't necessarily call for the Power Select IIs cos the hardness is determined by the manner of heat treatment. But if you had a mix of metals I'd be looking at another in that range.

Expect you ordered it from Stu from toolsfromjapan ?

His blog has a very instructive set of test reports on stones; go digging here: Tools from Japan blog. (http://www.toolsfromjapan.com/wordpress/)

G'day rsser - yup ordered it from Stu.


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[rsser]

Stu's on the ball with this stuff.

There's lots of variation in the interaction of abrasive type, abrasive binder/stone manufacture and the sample of steel you're bringing to the shaping process.

And in what kind of 'sharpening' you're doing with the tool. Most of my tool shaping time is spent lapping and that significantly shapes my choices of abrasive and method.

[NZStu]

I've just recieved a Sigma 6000 (the standard one) from Stu. It works very nicely indeed, and a big step up from the Suehiro 6000 it replaced.

It seems to be very comfortable with the Koyamaichi white steel chisels and the Tsunesaboro blue steel plane blade that I've tried on it so far. Next will be be some Thumbsucker M2 HSS plane irons, but I can't see them being a problem.

[Whit68]

Well I just received the 6000 Sigma Power Select II from Stu at Tools from Japan and it is awesome.

It puts a polished edge on so fast compared to my previous stone. I'll be going back for a more aggressive stone very soon.

I do have to call out how great Stu's service was as well. The stone was sent out very quickly (along with a refund for cheaper than expected postage) and arrived in about 1 week.

All in all fantastic service, great product and Stu now has a loyal customer.

Thanks Stu.

Regards
Anthony


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[derekcohen]

Hi Anthony

Ask Stu about the Sigma II 1200/13000 combination stone. It may just be the perfect team member for your 6000.

I bought the 6000 and 10000 Sigma IIs, and Stu sent me the 1200/13000 for evaluation. I think it is fantastic!

The Shapton Pros are great for high carbon steel and pretty decent on A2, but the Sigma IIs excel on the more abrasive-resistant steels, such as HSS and PM steels.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Whit68]

G'day Derek,

Not a bad idea, I'd better check that out.

Regards
Anthony


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