oil stones

[D_W]

IFAIK the 1.2K is Alox and the 1K SiC. The 1.2K is quite porous as in you can see the water soaking in and is definitely a fast cutter quite happy to handle any steel I have used it with. Comparatively soft as in you do get particle release but you are not down and playing in the mud like the Kings. I do not like the much vaunted Shaptons and wish I had never bought them. I sharpen in my kitchen so no frozen buckets of water for me.

The Stanley #7 seems to be quite flat from toe to mouth and then falls in a convex curve to the heel , my guess it that it has been sat for years with the frog screws over tightened and the cap lock tightened down. Draw filing is an option, hand abrasive paper or I did read about somebody using a scraper on cast iron planes, dunno never seen one.

Never seen a IM 313 but you can buy them for 295 quid, silly money you can buy a ProEdge for that!

I wouldn't buy a pro edge over an I'm 313, but I wouldn't buy either for 300, either. The shells with old stones can be gotten really cheaply here, and the oil bath setup makes it so you literally never do any stone upkeep. It's really nice.

I think I gather what you're saying about the stones, but I always thought the 1.2k was the hard one in white alumina. I did have a 3k of the sic sintered type, but it was too sloppy for me.

Don't know what causes 7s to be like you say, but I've gotten 7 like that. Another option if you have a reference surface is to use a 2x3 inch wooden block and really coarse paper to spot remove. That's the fastest method I've tried because the area on the block is small enough to allow the paper to dig in.

Filing requires a file that flexes a little and doesn't have an area of no teeth at the end. Simonds maxi cut is a good choice.

 

[essexalan]

I thought the Crystolon stones were sintered but it appears not magnesium bonded https://www.knivesandtools.co.uk/en/pt/ ... tabbutton1 and you can use them with water or so they say not that I would dare ;0). Only 60 quid for a replacement stone. Suggest looking at the Naniwa range of SiC stones/bricks direct from Japan nice and cheap if not quite so pretty, not that I am in the market for one, but the postage will be more than the stone.

80 grit Proflex on a block is what I have been attacking it with but I think 1) the block is too big and 2) I will ink it up and hit the high spots with the file as well. Reference surface is 2 feet so not really long enough for a #7

 

[D_W]

I thought the Crystolon stones were sintered but it appears not magnesium bonded https://www.knivesandtools.co.uk/en/pt/ ... tabbutton1 and you can use them with water or so they say not that I would dare ;0). Only 60 quid for a replacement stone. Suggest looking at the Naniwa range of SiC stones/bricks direct from Japan nice and cheap if not quite so pretty, not that I am in the market for one, but the postage will be more than the stone.

80 grit Proflex on a block is what I have been attacking it with but I think 1) the block is too big and 2) I will ink it up and hit the high spots with the file as well. Reference surface is 2 feet so not really long enough for a #7

Good God they're expensive there. I'm sure that one of the polish manufacturers or someone else from continential europe makes them cheaper there.

the last time I bought one here, they were about $35 (and they are a consumable of the three stones in an IM 313, the other two should have indefinite life). 60 quid is too much. A quick check here shows they are $41 now including shipping, which is iffy considering a $7 gray grinder wheel will certainly grind more than any grind stone ever will.

There are generic versions of those stones here in the states for about $20, but I haven't used any. The beauty of the "real" crystolon (the new ones) is that they let go of grit at just the right rate to be fast but not clog.

re: japan, stuff certainly is cheap over there. I have been getting a bunch of stuff from there lately - not from the retailers who cater to gaijin, though, but directly. Anything under 2kg is pretty reasonable to ship, but wouldn't be cheaper than the crystolon prices here.

We have retailers over here (namely the woodcraft group, but other japanese too shyster offshots on the west coast) who sell us things like the imanishi 8k stone for over $100. The price of it on the open market in japan is $39, and the faster second generation king stones ("hyper") are about $15 for full sized stones. There's a huge difference in the price of common natural stones, too, but the ones that are truly rare still go for big dollars there.

 

[D_W]

I just noticed which IM 313 you were showing for 295 quid. It's just a standard one. That's AWFUL!

Over here, you can get one with a hard black stone in it for $295, or a norton trans.

The standard versions with crystolon and india stones are a little less than $200 from a kitchen supply place, but there are usually a few used on ebay, including older metal ones, and they are often less than $75. I bought mine new years ago with a trans stone in it, but replaced the trans stone with something that had a little more bite, which brought the net price of it to about $200 after switching. Not sorry I bought it as it is a near magical knife sharpening setup, and I get a lot of neighborhood knives and knives from friends of my wife, but I wish I'd have bought one of the used units like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NORTON-MULTI-OI ... SwKoRZYmEA