In an old thread someone was talking about polishing one side of a spyderco uf and making it a much finer grit. What would I need to polish the face of a finishing hone? I have a DMT8C that I use to lap my water stones, I also have a small barber hone that is clean and flat. Logically it seems I would get better results polishing with the barber hone, please correct me if I'm wrong. Do I need to polish wet or dry? One more 'fer instance'. If I had three grits of stones would polishing one side of each of these provide me with essentially six grits to chose from and would it be worth the effort?
Polishing hones
- Thread starter Shaman
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A DMT8C is fine but you will be there for days. Literally. The polishing questions is one that will vary between users. The Spyderco UF has been my favorite but I haven't tried many other finishing stones. Stones isn't an AD I got into.
The UF works better when it is dry though it will work wet. When it is wet you can see if your laying your blade down right as it pushes the water but either will work. Dry is just my opinion.
Now to the lapping. I think it is absolutely useless to lap them. The results don't satisfy the means of doing it. Then again YMMV
A belt sander, steroids.....maybe a nuke? Seriously - good idea, but its going to take a long time. I'd go with one of the sandpaper routes so you don't ruin your DMT.
I am having trouble to understand this? specially with this statement
I don't think this is right.
you cannot make stone 1 side is finer than other.
you can lap and make it flat that is all.
your barber hone lapped will do the job.(of course depends what type barber hone you have too?) gl
I have heard the Spydercos don't need lapping, however if this is a blanket statement I believe it to be naive. My Chinese 12K was rough and had many high and low points. I can tell the lapped side just looking at it.
I think a piece if 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper used wet will do the job.
As you rub the hone on the sandpaper, the sandpaper is filled with the rubbings from the hone.
So if your hone is 10,000 grit, your sandpaper will become 10,000 grit.
I have never found any real advantage beyond 1000 grit wet and dry.
When you rub, you will know when the hone is level just from the feel in your hands.
As you rub the hone on the sandpaper, the sandpaper is filled with the rubbings from the hone.
So if your hone is 10,000 grit, your sandpaper will become 10,000 grit.
I have never found any real advantage beyond 1000 grit wet and dry.
When you rub, you will know when the hone is level just from the feel in your hands.
I use 1000 grit wet and dry sandpaper on my Norton water stones. I have a UF Spyderco that I use as a barber hone. I have never had to lap it...if I did I don't know what I would do. It would seriously take forever unless you used a belt and flattened it that way...if it ever got that bad for me I would throw it out!
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The more I've thought about it the less sense it has made. Wish I could find the old thread that mentioned it but so far haven't found it. I was just curious if such a thing were possible, apparently not.
A Chinese 12k is a natural stone so it would need to be lapped but ironically I haven't lapped mine in a long time, so they hold up pretty good. Unlike the Nortons that need it too often IMO.
Yes, it is an incredibly hard stone. Mine has held up nicely also.
Sorry about my previous post, my brain skipped over the spyderco bit. 1000 grit sandpaper won’t
do anything to the surface of such a hard stone.
The spyderco UF is a ceramic hone. It has been made by firing and hardening ceramic in a furnace.
I have had one but I didn’t like it. That isn’t saying it isn’t a great hone, it’s just saying it wasn’t for me.
I have also read that on occasion they are not level and need to be polished.
Again, I don’t argue with that but mine was level and it it had not been level, I would have returned for a replacement. In the firing process they must get some rejects.
If you purchase a ceramic that isn’t level just send it back for a replacement.
If you polish the surface, logically to me at least, you are removing the grit that does the honing for you.
do anything to the surface of such a hard stone.
The spyderco UF is a ceramic hone. It has been made by firing and hardening ceramic in a furnace.
I have had one but I didn’t like it. That isn’t saying it isn’t a great hone, it’s just saying it wasn’t for me.
I have also read that on occasion they are not level and need to be polished.
Again, I don’t argue with that but mine was level and it it had not been level, I would have returned for a replacement. In the firing process they must get some rejects.
If you purchase a ceramic that isn’t level just send it back for a replacement.
If you polish the surface, logically to me at least, you are removing the grit that does the honing for you.
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I have no experience with the spyderco - but I seem to remember a few threads detailing how the hone became finer after it was lapped. Again, not saying it is true, just repeating what other's have said.
Doing any lapping or flattening work on a Spyderco stone is not going to be easy - nor pleasant. These are extremely hard stones that even Diamond lapping plates have a hard time truing. Sandpaper is not the ideal medium, either.
On other forums, their unevenness out of the box has been an issue. Numerous inquiries to Sypderco by members have been made, and there is a rather large window of error that is acceptable and applied over the entire stone surface, making just about every manufacturer flaw within the specs.
If you wanted to make one side "smoother" than the other (not finer), you could use a DMT E or EE to make the texture on the surface of the stone smoother than that when using a DMT XX. In either case, doing any work to the Spyderco will be a chore.
Good luck!
On other forums, their unevenness out of the box has been an issue. Numerous inquiries to Sypderco by members have been made, and there is a rather large window of error that is acceptable and applied over the entire stone surface, making just about every manufacturer flaw within the specs.
If you wanted to make one side "smoother" than the other (not finer), you could use a DMT E or EE to make the texture on the surface of the stone smoother than that when using a DMT XX. In either case, doing any work to the Spyderco will be a chore.
Good luck!
A hone has a certain grit due to its phsical make-up. You can't change those characteristics by polishing it. It will look nicer and the blade may slide over it smoother but it will never change the grit.
I'm not a specïalist on ceramic hones, but here's what I've picked up, reading various sources:
There are 2 types of ceramic hones:
The first and most common type (Shapton, Naniwa Chosera, etc..) use ceramic grit held together with a binder. The binder is typically much softer and wears while honing. This process continuously exposes fresh particles. This principle is what makes the synthetic water hones so fast. Different particle sizes can be used for a variety of different "grits".
The second type of ceramic based hones (Spyderco, and in their own way also the ceramic line of DMT) doesn't use a binder but a sintering process. This produces a continuous surface with a very rigid, extremely hard structure. The abrasion takes place directly on this structure. The same surface is used over and over again, much like the surface of a diamond hone. It's impossible to designate a precise grit-rating, because the structure is partial to the type of sintering process. Furthermore the abrasion is typically smoother, more sloping, than that of gritty particles bonded together. Hence results can be obtained on a relatively "larger" texture, where the other type of ceramic hone with it's spiky particles need much finer "grit" to achieve the same. That's why sintered ceramics by origin are not sold with a grit rating, but rather something like Fine, Ultra-fine, etc...
Lapping such a hone makes as little sense as lapping a diamond hone. It ruins the surface. On a diamond one you may loose all function, while on a ceramic hone one lapping replaces the original texture with a new one, that's likely less good than the original texture, because it creates grooves in the surface rather than a nice texture with a uniform pattern of projections.
Again, allow me to repeat that this information is gathered from various forums and articles. I have no first hand experience with the second ('spyderco') type of hones.
Best regards,
Bart.
There are 2 types of ceramic hones:
The first and most common type (Shapton, Naniwa Chosera, etc..) use ceramic grit held together with a binder. The binder is typically much softer and wears while honing. This process continuously exposes fresh particles. This principle is what makes the synthetic water hones so fast. Different particle sizes can be used for a variety of different "grits".
The second type of ceramic based hones (Spyderco, and in their own way also the ceramic line of DMT) doesn't use a binder but a sintering process. This produces a continuous surface with a very rigid, extremely hard structure. The abrasion takes place directly on this structure. The same surface is used over and over again, much like the surface of a diamond hone. It's impossible to designate a precise grit-rating, because the structure is partial to the type of sintering process. Furthermore the abrasion is typically smoother, more sloping, than that of gritty particles bonded together. Hence results can be obtained on a relatively "larger" texture, where the other type of ceramic hone with it's spiky particles need much finer "grit" to achieve the same. That's why sintered ceramics by origin are not sold with a grit rating, but rather something like Fine, Ultra-fine, etc...
Lapping such a hone makes as little sense as lapping a diamond hone. It ruins the surface. On a diamond one you may loose all function, while on a ceramic hone one lapping replaces the original texture with a new one, that's likely less good than the original texture, because it creates grooves in the surface rather than a nice texture with a uniform pattern of projections.
Again, allow me to repeat that this information is gathered from various forums and articles. I have no first hand experience with the second ('spyderco') type of hones.
Best regards,
Bart.
