Polished or Toothy finishes

[Chris_P_Bacon]

Jim,
If you still have as large an assortment of high end knives that I assume you may still have. You owe it to yourself to try these new stones. I have tried and own a pretty extensive sets of different stones. My favorites to date, are naniwa resin bonded. But even so, I still seek out the latest because I'm never satisfied and always in search of the latest and greatest.

The newest stones that are getting the highest praises from all the reviews I've read, and am waiting for the complete set to come back into stock so that I can grab these next. Made by a Russian company, Venev, sold by Gritomatic here in the states.

https://youtu.be/CpUP8lP6ilg

Keep in mind these are the second generation resin bonded stones that have the softer binder. Which over comes the short comings of the first generation.

If you're not in a hurry, I've heard rumors BBB will have his coming out possibly later this year. If they aren't crazy expensive I know i'll be wanting to test those out as well.

[Ankerson]

I have some of the Gritomatic stones, the SIC/Ceramic ones.

So I will have to keep an eye out for sure.

Always on the eye out for something that is better.

[Bloke]

I have some of the Gritomatic stones, the SIC/Ceramic ones.

So I will have to keep an eye out for sure.

Always on the eye out for something that is better.

For what it's worth I have some Venev diamond and CBN resin bonded hones I bought from Hapstone a few years ago and I'd certainly recommend them. I went back to buy more a while back and was disappointed to find I could no longer buy direct from Hapstone as their prices were considerably lower than Gritomatic.

Either ways, they're great hones that came fairly flat but not quite, though they're easily flattened conventionally with loose grit SiC and water on glass and wear way slower than SiC. :)

[Ankerson]

I have some of the Gritomatic stones, the SIC/Ceramic ones.

So I will have to keep an eye out for sure.

Always on the eye out for something that is better.

For what it's worth I have some Venev diamond and CBN resin bonded hones I bought from Hapstone a few years ago and I'd certainly recommend them. I went back to buy more a while back and was disappointed to find I could no longer buy direct from Hapstone as their prices were considerably lower than Gritomatic.

Either ways, they're great hones that came fairly flat but not quite, though they're easily flattened conventionally with loose grit SiC and water on glass and wear way slower than SiC. :)

Gonna have to try some of those bonded stones, you guys are killing me here. :D

[Bill1170]

I love a polished edge on my ZDP knives because it holds a refined edge well, but most others I stop at either 1200 diamond or Sharpmaker brown rods. The reason is performance; that bit of tooth really helps blades bite into the work.

[emanuel]

I forgot to add on my other post, I mostly prefer a polished edge on high hardness steels, and a lower grit toothy edge on knives under 60-62 HRC. I feel like a high polish edge on a softer steel no matter the composition really hinders its overall edge retention. I still keep to it and prefer polished edge overall.

[David R]

I was under the impression that knives high in carbides, you leave coarse. If you polish them to an extremely high finish you may have carbide tear out.

Does that sound right?

No, that's a myth, another one of those urban legends that somehow just won't die.

It just doesn't exist.

Some that use diamonds to sharpen have had some issues because the diamonds tear up the apex quite a bit.

That's not carbide tear out, that's chipping due to the torn apex.

So when using diamonds it's best to finish on something else like ceramics or stropping.

Hi Jim,

I'm not seeing that with matrix diamond stones. Surface mounted diamonds sharpen like boulders. I learned the hard way not to apex with them. Matrix diamond stones don't have that problem. I can get a great edge at 600 or 4K with matrix diamonds and have no edge issues at all. And once you apex it takes very few passes with each successive stone. Game changer for me when sharpening steels like K390 and Maxamet.

Also not seeing much edge retention difference between grits over 1K with these. I'll have to try the same knife between 600 through 4K and see how it does.

Can you tell me which matrix diamond stones you use? I'm still using regular old DMT's and would like to try something new.

I have a couple of Venev stones and a full set of the EP diamond stones. They're similar and both are good. I think the EP stones are better. There's a thread on BF where the guy who makes these stones explains how to get the most of them. It's worth a read. Using them most effectively is a little counter-intuitive.