why not a coarse benchstone?

[Steffen]

is there a reason why spyderco doesn't make a coarse benchstone?
it would make a great companion to the fine stone i have(i think medium is too close to the fine).

thanks.

[jackknifeh]

This is a pretty common question. I have not seen a coarse ceramic stone before. Is that something that can't be done with ceramic? It must be the manufacturing aspect of it in some way. They are already doing so much and a new product may take away from what they want to do right now. Plus, there are about a million of other stones available to do the same job. This is just me thinking on the keyboard.

Jack

[Donut]

I looked for the coarsest Ceramic stone I could find, I got a Bester/Beston 500 grit. It's fairly coarse, but it doesn't cut away at the steel like diamond or some other abrasives do.

[.357 mag]

If you want a coarser stone just to to coarse DMT and move to the Spyderco ceramics.

[Cliff Stamp]

Is that something that can't be done with ceramic?

No, however you probably would not want a coarse stone which is solid sintered like the Spyderco stones.

-the more coarse the abrasive the faster it will wear

-this means the stone will smooth out and both hollow and lose cutting aggression

-how are you going to flatten it

For a coarse stone you want some release of the abrasive to allowed continued and consistent cutting.

If you want to see what a coarse ceramic stone would act like, just buy a norton blaze ceramic belt, cut it into a few pieces and glue it to a piece of wood.

[JD Spydo]

is there a reason why spyderco doesn't make a coarse benchstone?
it would make a great companion to the fine stone i have(i think medium is too close to the fine).

thanks.

"Steffen" I myself have been beating that drum for quite some time myself. Because it truly does put the knife user at a disadvantage by not having some type of "coarse" benchstone or even a smaller pocket stone or even one like a 701 Profile stone in the coarse grit. I carry my Spyderco Doublestuff stone almost daily in my work clothes and it would be so handy to have one with a coarse grit. I was thinking that either an aluminum oxide or coarse diamond stone would be a great aid for field use or for users who like myself use a lot of tools during the course of the day.

And you're right the gray/medium stone that Spyderco calls "medium" is realistically between a true medium and a fine stone. Spyderco's sharpening equipment is so great for many different sharpening jobs but they do seem to fall short in the area of coarse stones or any kind of sharpening device which would be great for quick stock removal.

[Slash]

Try norton 8x3 1000/4000 combo waterstone.