Hi all,

When sharpening knives, it has occurred to me that the sound of the 1000 grit stone is higher and less "smooth" than that of the 800 grit stone. The opposite of what normally happens when you go to a finder grit stone. The 1000 grit stone also feels a bit rougher than the 800 grit stone. That said, I cannot see that the 1000 grit stone roughens up the surface made by the 800 grit stone.

How is this for you? Do your 1000 grit stones feel rougher and sound higher than the 800 grit stones? Or did somebody during assembly accidentally put the diamond stones on the wrong sides of my paddles?

mark76 wrote:


We take a lot of pains not to get them mixed up but it's certainly in the realm of possibility that one of use goofed up during assembly. I could tell you by looking at them under the microscope. You might try rubbing them together very lightly, like grit to like, only a couple of times. Then wash them off and try again. It may be that your 1000 grits just pulled in some extra diamonds on the surface that need to be knocked off. If that doesn't work, I'd be happy to inspect them and replace if necessary.

Thanks, Clay! I've got a microscope under way, so I'll take a look myself first. Obviously there's also the possibility I'm just paranoid .

Yep, you are. I highly recommend a healthy dose of psychotropic fortitude.

If we imagine the individual grits (technical term...) as being smaller on the 1000 vs. the 800 or lower, then we can also imagine that there are more of them in a given area and therefor they are closer together.
The 'grits' (not the breakfast kind...) make noise as they travel in contact. If they are closer together, can we then imagine that they are hitting the steel more often?
On mine, I hear, and would expect to hear anywhere, a higher frequency with less amplitude, since the 'grits' are also doing less damage (like a spade shovel vs. a garden trowel).

Well, this is the best I can imagine without some brewed inspiration...

Occasionally I will get a blade which "squeaks" as I stone it, usually on the 800/1000 stones.

Rgds,

Today my (cheap) USB microscope came in. So I could finally see what was going on.

I used the microscope to make photographs of the stones at a magnification of 400x. Here they are.

The 400 grit stone:



The 600 grit stone, already smoother than the 400 grit:



The 800 grit stone, definitely smooter than the 600 grit:



And finally the 1000 grit stone, about which I had my questions:



To me the 1000 grit stone looks (a tiny bit) smoother than the 800 grit stone.

Nothing wrong with QC at Wicked Edge. Thanks, Clay!