Hi again Faithful Reader, of whose patience I must wear thin…
As you might have expected, the last few weeks have been a little rough, and nobody here really sailed though them. Pretty hard losing a member of your family, especially one of the really good ones.
Anyway, he would have wanted us all to get back to living our lives, and that’s what’s going to happen. Back into it, properly, now.
Something that I need to do for several reasons, not the least of which is so I can evacuate some ‘masonry’ from here, is to give a few waterstones a bit of a shake down.
When I say a few, I really mean twelve (12) #1000 grit waterstones, the workhorses of sharpening that whip blades into shape for the finer stones, and the most commonly acquired for sharpening.
Without a #1000 grit stone (or something serving a similar function), how can you effectively sharpen anything? Yes, this grit range is that important…
So, without further ado, the contenders are…
King Deluxe, the old stalwart of waterstones.
King Neo, newer generation for Stainless steel.
King Hyper, newer generation ceramic.
Naniwa Super Stone, popular enough, economical enough, just enough.
Naniwa Chosera, the polar opposite of the Super Stone, and all the better for it.
Bester, highly regarded and with good reason.
Arashiyama, virtually unknown outside Japan, but has good genealogy.
Sigma Power hard, not widely known but has an enviable reputation.
Sigma Power ‘Oribest’, special stone for Stainless steel. A bit of a dark horse.
Sigma Power Select II, HSS specific and means it.
Shapton Glass Stone, lots of airplay, very good, but rarely questioned.
Shapton Professional, recently ‘superceded’ by the Glass Stone, or was it?
The testing itself will be quite simple and designed to remove the human element from proceedings.
Taking several different types of tool steel in the form of chisels and plane blades, they will be given an appropriate bevel, then the edge deliberately ‘dubbed’ by an equal amount/method each time, then the time taken to raise a burr on the back side of the blade on each stone will be measured. All blades will be held in a honing guide to maintain geometry. Then each blade will be sharpened to ‘working condition’ by a #5000 Naniwa Superstone, selected because it is fast but cannot do a great amount of work without running into problems. Each stone will be flattened between uses, the amount of work required to restore flatness measured.
Sound simple? It is! But with even 6 different blades and 12 different stones, there will be ‘at least’ 72 sharpening sessions involved, plus recording data and then building the data into something understandable.
What lurks beneath the apparent simplicity will be cold, hard numbers and a few details that might otherwise be neglected.
By sharpening each blade to working condition, the finish left by each #1000 grit stone can be established.
At the end of testing, each stone will be measured in thickness to establish how much sharpening media was used up through testing giving a measure of the stone’s economy.
Restoring each stone to flat will give a measure of dish resistance, and combined with the final consumption of stone, whether the stone actually does resist dishing or is simply easy to flatten.
By testing various steels, a measure of performance can be given on each steel so that the ‘best’ stone for various combinations of steel can be made.
Testing each stone back to back will give an idea of the differences and idiosyncrasies of each stone, and by ‘mixing it up’, a pattern is less likely to be established, but rather comparisons among all stones as equally as possible.
A few other points will be revealed along the way.
Is this little comparison ambitious?
Of course it is, but I feel it needs to be done, and find myself in the extraordinary position of being maybe the only person to be able to do it easily.
Will there be a winner?
Maybe, but that’s not what I am looking for. With the variety of stones out there, there are bound to be stones that work better in certain situations than others. What can be done is to work out what stone will best suit you and what you need to keep sharp.
(That’s not trying to be PC with no winner or loser, just a simply acknowledgement of the fact that one stone may be a winner for me, but be a complete disaster for you.)
What’s the point?
Well, it’s no secret that I do sell water stones and would very much like to be able to accurately and honestly suggest a stone to suit everyone. While I have used most of these stones in some capacity and have a very good idea of what’s going to come out the end, there’s nothing like hard data to back up gut feelings.
And that’s the whole point. Instead of relying on flowery advertising prose to espouse the virtues of each stone, it is high time to get down to business and ask each chunk of manufactured rock to put up, or shut up.
The ball starts rolling in the next few days. Progress may be slow, but slow progress is better than no progress at all.
So, if you will excuse me, I need to get back to work.
Thanks for reading/wading,
Stu.
