Thread: Identifying grits

This is really subjective: I've laid out some sandpapers, shut my eyes and run my finger tips over the stone, then the papers. Try to guess what the equivalent "feel" is.
So far the result is a real river stone which "feels" like 800 and another one that "feels" like 1,000 or finer. Next, I look at the scratch patterns in metal surfaces. For all practical purposes, I know which is which.

What brand of diamond stones do you have?

Thumbs up for the power stropping. It's a very quick cheap way to get a good edge.

If it's taking you a a long time to remove the marks from a previous stone then another grade finer could be used.

It depends on what you want at the end of the day. You already have a system that works. The only reason to change it is if you want to experiment...which is not a bad thing at all.

I can never pick a grit of stone by looking at it. I just look for the scratch pattern left behind.

Sharpening with micro bevels are a quick way of removing a wire edge with less stones.

I find if I have removed a lot of steel when I'm repairing a cutting tool, I end up getting a huge wire edge. I tend to remove it with the final stone, then back up a few grits and put a new tiny wire edge on it. Then I strop that small wire off.

I find the softer the steel, the bigger the wire edge will form.

Thanks Robson and Ben, I like the idea of using sandpaper to guesstimate the grits, must try that. The Coarse Diamond stone I have is Dmt 8 inch but it leaves a mirror shine so it may have started as Coarse and while it still cuts I believe it's no longer a Coarse stone, the Fine Diamond stone is something I picked up at the Wood show, not branded but still cuts ok. I don't have scratches to remove so much as a resistant wire edge. I've got Waterstones and oilstones, just trying to come up with a system that is very fast and causes least mess.

I'm not a fan of DMT but I'm surprised it's not cutting like a coarse stone? How much use has it had? They should last an extremely long time...far longer that normal stones...well in my experience anyway.

I know their are a lot of DMT supporters out there so their gear must be decent.

Let us all know what you finish up with. Power stropping was the game changer for me regarding a faster sharpening system.
What setup are you using? A belt or wheel?

Has not had a lot of use, I have cleaned it with JIF but it still doesn't cut as aggressively as the Fine Diamond Stone I have, in fact it actually puts a mirror finish on my tools.
For power stropping I just attached a cloth (?) wheel to my bench grinder and charge with chromium oxide.
I may start up a separate thread but at this point in woodworking I'd like to be able to keep my tools razor sharp with a minimum of fuss. I get the tools razor sharp, do my paring etc. they lose a bit of their edge, I'd like to be able to quickly restore it to razor edge sharpness.

No worries mate,
Flick us off a link to the new thread if you don't mind. I would like to know what everyone else thinks.

I thought power stropping was as fast as it gets. If their is a quicker way I would like to find out about it!

I did catch a youtube video....I think it was an add for some top end chisel makers in Europe. They had a video of a well known caver sharpening his chisels on a bench grinder power strop. He used 2 wheels. One coarse cutting compound and one fine. He kept them tipped up that way and rarely needed to bring the chisels back to the stone.

Okay Ben, I'll start the thread in the next minute or so within the sharpening sub-forum. I like the bit about not having to go back to the stones .