Chinese sharpening stone help!

[happy_c]

So today I got a cheap Chinese double-sided sharpening stone to see if hand sharpening might be something I'd be interested in learning. (I have a sacrificial knife to try it on.)

I took it out of the box and realized that I can't tell which side is supposed to be "coarse" and which "fine!" One side is a lighter gray than the other but they feel exactly the same to me. Anyone know how I can tell?

[billieboy]

Chinese? Are you sure you don't mean Japanese?
In any case, have a look at each side with a magnifying glass. The coarser one will of course (pun not intended) be coarser.
Beyond that, sorry, no help.

[Miss Priss]

I know the kind of sharpening stone happy_c means; it's an inexpensive type that's made in China and distributed widely through restaurant supply shopes. If it's the same as mine, virtually all the text on the box is in Chinese, and I had the same problem as happy_c: the only way to figure out which was the coarse grit and which was the fine one was through visual inspection, and it wasn't easy! Unfortunately mine is unavailable right now, so I can't take a look. I have a vague recollection that the lighter gray was the finer grit.

[dscheidt]

If it's the sort I'm familiar with, it's two different (and pretty coarse) silicon carbide surfaces. The dark side is the coarser one. Most of the ones I've used have been glazed when new, and were improved by rubbing them on a concrete surface. (sidewalk, floor, soemthing like that.)

[happy_c]

Note to self: Rub stone on sidewalk tomorrow before snowstorm forecasted for Sunday. Thanks for the tip.

[scubadoo97]

Sometimes it is hard to tell from the appearance. I have a 2000 grit Shapton glass stone that looks like it has larger particles than the 1000 grit stone but they feel totally different when the blade hits the stone. The coarser stone will be more aggressive and you should be able to feel the difference.

[happy_c]

Thanks all. Yes, it's a very, VERY cheap Chinese stone, both sides of which feel quite coarse, and which came in a box covered in Chinese. I'll see if I can scare up a magnifying glass from somewhere.

I am brand new to sharpening so I'm afraid I won't have the experience to be able to feel the difference between coarse and fine from actually using the stone. I bought the cheap stone to experiment with - I'm flirting with the idea of learning to sharpen freehand, but I don't want to invest a lot of money in good stones and what not if I find from using this one that I just don't have the ability or the patience for it.

[billieboy]

Happy. don't let this stone discourage you from free-hand sharpening. It sounds to me like nobody could get a nice edge on your stone. Would be good to hog out a chip or something, maybe change a bevel angle, but will never be sharp. I shouldn't really say that as I have not seen your stone. Get a crappo knife from the dollar store and experiment. Then get a decent india stone from the hardware store. Not expensive and will put a half decent edge on. If all seems ok and you feel you have the knack, go for the Japanese waterstones.
Just some advice...YMMV
Good luck.

Bill

[happy_c]

Thanks for the encouragement, Bill. From what I've been reading from surfing the Web on the topic, it seems that freehand sharpening takes a good deal of time and practice to learn. That's one reason I want to dip my toe in the water, so to speak.

[dscheidt]

The cheap silicon carbide stones work just fine. They're hard as all get out, and will work on anything used for knives. They have a few downsides. First is that the less coarse side is still pretty coarse. Fine enough for most people, though, and finer than the edge I see on most professionally sharpened knives. Second is that they sometimes have inclusions of a larger grit in them. They're a perfectly good stone to sharpen with, though; sharpening is about technique a whole lot more than equipment.

I wouldn't start with a good knife, unless you know what you're doing. Nor would I start with a crappy knife of unknown material. Some cheap knives are hardened a lot, or have large grains carbide in them. Both make them hard to sharpen, and they're frustrating to learn on. Instead, I'd recommend a cheap knife or three of decent quality. Forschner, Dexter-Russel, Mundial, and others all make fairly cheap knives of good to very good quality. They're moderately soft, but they've got good grain structure, take a wicked sharp edge, and important for the beginner, show a good wire edge. And hundreds of thousands of them are sharpened on silicon carbide stones just like the one you've got every day, in restaurants around the world.

[happy_c]

Thanks, dscheidt. I gave it a whirl with my sacrificial knife (dull as anything, inherited from an old roommate, and not used for 10+ years), and got it to the point where it would actually cut grapes without a whole lot of pressure, which it couldn't do before. At least that's something for a rank beginner.

A related question for those who do this kind of thing regularly. The sharpening process produced a HUGE amount of sludge, which I assume was mostly bits of the stone wearing away, as it had a noticeable dip in the middle afterwards. (To correct this, I went and flattened both sides of the stone on the sidewalk this morning - worked pretty well.)

My question is, will washing that sludge down my kitchen sink clog the drain? I keep imagining all that grit collecting at the bottom of the U-bend until it blocks the entire pipe.

[dscheidt]

The sludge is a combination of the stone and the knife. I wouldn't worry about washing it down any drain you'd wash dirty potatoes at. What are you using as a lubricant for the stone? Oil works okay, but I actually prefer to use silicon carbide stones dry as it's less messy and faster. (I clean them with a brush and soap after use, or run them though a dishwasher. ) It's also possible you're pressing too hard.

[happy_c]

I was using them dry - until I got so much sludge I had to wash the stone off with water. I was pressing fairly hard, so maybe I'll lighten up next time.