After attempting to use my black diamond today, I had to re hone it yet again. It was duller than a butter knife so I broke out the stones and did my entire progression:
First I soaked the stones. My Apache Strata works best when it's soaked. Then I started with my Chosera 600 grit water stone. I started with just plain water then used my diamond plate and both sides of my Suehiro 1/3K combo stone as a slurry stone. The I put my slurry stone back in the water to soak some more. It's also a very thirsty stone:
My next stone I've not used in a really long time & I spent a lot of time here. This is my soft Arkansas oil stone & it's very slow:
After that I progressed to my Norton 8K. I also spent some extra time here as well. I started with plain water, followed my diamond plate & my Suehiro slurry stone:
Next I broke out my Shapton M5 12K water stone and did the same thing with it that I did with my Norton 8K stone. This stone right here is a tiny bit tricky to use. If you use too much pressure with it, you will kill your edge but if you don't use enough pressure with it, you are not only wasting your time but you will also kill your edge. Weight of the blade isn't enough with the Shapton M5:
After I finished on the Shapton 12K, I went to my Apache Strata & used only water this time around. This stone is very aggressive and really doesn't need much, which is where I messed up last time. After that I went to my Shoubandini type 100 and just did a diamond plate slurry to finish with. Next up after that I did 10 round trips on my fire hose strop seen below:
Next I went with 10 round trips on the scrub leather to clean the edge up a bit:
After wards I did my usual 10 round trips on the smooth leather. Might do 10 more before my next shave with the black diamond:
I'm still looking at various stones out there & I am considering finishing on a Belgium Coticule. That might be the stone I need to finish on. If don't spend enough time on my Shoubandini, the edge will be gone in no time and/or not be sharp enough. If I spend too much time on there. The edge will be too wicked and uncomfortable to use. Right now I'm looking at Shapton Pro 1.5K & The Shapton Pro 5K stones and I'm also looking at a Naniwa 8K Snow White water stone. I'll be pushing the $250 dollar mark easy on my next stone purchases.
