I’ve been stoned…

No, not that kind of stoned! Just water stoned.

Greetings faithful reader,

Finally, at long last and long after all hope was gone, I got stuck into stoning some steel today.

I don’t have pretty results yet, but I do have a goodly chunk of data and some thoughts to go with it.

Firstly, the process…

What I did today was get everything ready on the kitchen sink. What? You don’t use the kitchen sink? Me neither, well, actually I did. No trouble here though, since if Mrs. Schtoo doesn’t like it, I will clean it. Nothing new there, since I usually end up cleaning everything anyway. I actually left the area cleaner than I found it, so no complaints.

Next was to just give an eyeball to each stone as it came out of it’s packing. Not a great amount can be learned from looking at the stone of course, since these things are glorified bricks, but it was interesting to note how each stone is presented.

Ranging from a simple box and cellophane wrapper to slick-o sliding sleeves and plastic cases/stands, there’s a box from simple to sensuous. Also a large difference in the amount of effort placed on making the box look ‘professional’ or just business-like.

But we must not forget the old saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover…”

Generally however, there are not too many surprises. Those stones known as ‘fast’ are exactly that, and justify their reputation as well as their price. My own preferences are generally holding true, in that the stone(s) I believe are ‘better, by and large’ are proving to be just that, those that are ‘questionable’ are behaving as such, those that are, well, just ok are just ok.

There is one big shock however, and I’d like to share it with you.

The Naniwa Super Stone #1000.

It’s cheap, we know that. It’s soft, slow and generally thought to be, well, just ok.

And yes, it is slow. It is soft, it is not even half as fast as some of the dragons lurking around here at the moment.

But what a little darling of a stone! To be completely honest, I knew it was going to be slow and just ‘meh’, but what it delivers when it’s done it’s job is amazing and absolutely unmatched by anything else.

It polishes the blade. At the medium, rough as guts glorified brick #1000 grit level, it gives a tidy polish. Followed by it’s #5000 grit brother, and brother you got a sah-weet looking edge right there.

Lets not get too carried away here, since it is the single slowest stone of the whole bunch, but the time spent at this often derided stone is paid back if you are the sort of person who likes to count nose hairs in your bevel.

I can’t yet tell if it’s staying flat or is just easy to flatten, that revelation comes later at the end of testing, but on that score, throw some additional kudos it’s way.

No, I’m not going to use one every day. It is s-l-o-w after all, and I’m not testing out 12+1 stones to go ahead and keep for myself the slowest of the bunch.

Oh yeah, there is one more surprise from today’s activities. I won’t say it now, but panties will be wadded, harsh words will be said, threats will be levelled.

But right now, I am thinking a lot of folks have drunk kool-aid, and called it delicious when the truth is, well, it wasn’t lemon…

What’s worse, I got data that just keeps on piling up proving my initial thoughts right.

And to add insult to injury, it’s siblings are kicking it’s tail in all areas…

Hard. Clydesdale hard. With steel toe boots and a run up on the horse like, hard.

That’s it for now. Still a long way to go, but at least the water’s been broken.

Thanks for reading,

Stu.