spyderco hone grit # question??

[kansascutthroat]

i have the spyderco's in medium, fine, and ultra fine. been using them quite awhile and had fairly good success with them. was thinking of buying others as the spyderco's seem to work well on some blades and not as well on others. the question: called spyderco today and was told that the medium was 600 grit, the fine 800, and the ultrafine 2000. she said that other type hones such as waterstones etc: used a differerent scale when rating the grit. have read all kinds of numbers here and elsewhere that gave differerent grit ratings for these stones other than that spyderco gave me. read alot about norton 4000/8000 etc. what the heck should i try??? never used a waterstone and want to get the best one for the money. any suggestions?? anyone know how the spyderco grit ratings compare to other brands?
thanks for the help!

 

[azmark]

I know there is a difference in grit ratings from makers but I'm not very well familiar with it. I've used Spyderco's for a long time and loved them, especially their UF as a finisher. I treated the Medium as a 3K, Fine as a 8K and UF as a 12K. I know their are others who view it differently but it's all in the same realm of each other.

The Norton's are another favorite of mine and for many others. A down fall I wasn't too thrilled about is lapping. They need it often if you work on razors and they need to be cleaned from the swarf.

If I may make a suggestion. I would sell your Medium and Fine and get a Norton 4k/8K combo. You'll have all you'd ever need to maintain your razors but you'll just lack something in the 1K range for chips or heavier work than just setting bevels. Your UF is a nice polisher and good for now until you get hooked and want to expand.

 

[kansascutthroat]

thanks for the response. been using the pyramid method with the fine and ultra fine. works ok sometimes, not always. based on what you said i may try the pyramid deal with the medium and fine, then just polish with the uf. sounds like that would be basically the same as the norton 4000/8000 pyramid. arizona guy? lived there 15 years! sure miss it!

 

[azmark]

thanks for the response. been using the pyramid method with the fine and ultra fine. works ok sometimes, not always. based on what you said i may try the pyramid deal with the medium and fine, then just polish with the uf. sounds like that would be basically the same as the norton 4000/8000 pyramid. arizona guy? lived there 15 years! sure miss it!

I'm pretty sure if you use the pyramid with the M and F you'll be fine and notice a difference. You should be able to shave pretty comfortably off the F and when you're at that point you're ready for the UF to give it the polish and clean up the scratch pattern. Try using them dry though, they seem to work a little better that way.

I love it here. Moved from southern Cal and sold while the going was good three years ago. Now wouldn't move back to CA if you paid me

 

[wdwrx]

I've got the whole set too, and I've been using the UF as a final finisher. Joel rates the UF as closer to 14,000K IIRC, and from what I've seen under the microscope, I would agree. It finishes finer and cleaner than my vintage Thurry or Nani 12k.
Don't be too quick to discard the M or F, that medium is a wicked fast cutter, great for setting bevels and cleaning up an edge, and even though I haven't used the F that much, it's scratch pattern is incredibly regular and fine. It leaves a good base to play around with other stones on. IMHO, I would rate it at about 6K range, but its real strength is in the consistancy and regularity of its scratch pattern.

Also, as you say, some blades like the Spydee's more than other stones.

I've also debated the idea of selling mine to fund a J-Nat, but think they are just too good in certain situations to let 'em go.

My take on it is that I've already got 'em, better to have 'em and not need them than to need them and not have them.

 

[Pete_T]

I'd put the lapped med around 3-4k
lapped fine 6-8k
lapped UF, I really cant say. Its a funny stone. It can pretty much polish anything (I've used it after a 16k), but it is really slow, and works great with another finisher to get you there faster.

The unlapped med is a really good low grit stone, but the unlapped fine might have some problems. I was messing around with one recently to see how fast it set a bevel on a really hard razor and noticed that I was getting chips on the edge under a loupe. All those little texture bumps were knocking away metal. The same razor didn't have problems on interrupted DMT 600 and 1200 grit, so it didn't seem to be a razor prone to microchipping.

 

[CraigJ]

I used to own a 3"x8" UF and really liked the finish it gave. I continually hear 12-15K grit and would not argue with that. My main complaint with it was that there was no feedback from it. I had a hard time evaluating my stroke and would have to do a thumb pad test often to see if I was making progress.

I read that a drop of liquid soap and water would improve the feedback so I gave it a try. This made a huge difference and allowed me to start feeling a bit of stiction during the sharpening.

The 3x8 are not common so you will pay a bit of a premium for this stone. It is money well spent IMHO.