My communications advisor (lovely spouse) has suggested to divide my blog post about whetstones into two parts. Never turn down solid advice, so here it goes!
Have you missed my previous post on whetstones? Click here for a some background information.
So... grit then?
Yes... but there is something to choose from in terms of composition of the stones.
Roughly speaking (I have to stop punning guys), there are two categories:
Synthetic whetstones
Most synthetic whetstones are made of ground up grit, pressed together into a composite using a binding agent of some sort. The advantage being that you can make the stone very evenly coarse over the entire surface. When grinding the grit and binding agent soaks off and remains (mostly) on top of the stone. The "slurry" as it's called helps me with grinding and is a welcome guest in this house.
Such stones are often soaked in water for about 5 minutes, so they will saturated before use. They are therefore called "soaking stones".
A variant to the synthetic stone is the diamond plate, where very fine diamond grit (or dust, almost) is stuck to a flat metal plate. Practically imperishable and therefore very popular with some sharpening-enthusiasts.
Natural whetstones
Natural stones are mined. Many of these stones come from quarries in Japan and America, but some come from Europe as well. Amongst others, the Belgian (Coticule) and Slovakian (Rozsutec) stones a well known. The finer (polishing-type) stones are often very hard and will not wear down easily.
Natural stones, usually don't have to be soaked (yes, wetted though) and are often referred to as "splash-and-go".
Maintenance
You may be able to imagine that the center of the stone sees a lot more action than the very edges of it.
Depending on the type of stone, a hollow will start appearing because you've sharpened on that particular part a lot. This is called dishing, I guess because before long you can start slurping soup from your stone if you don't take proper precautions.
Whetstone maintenance is done by...
Yes excellent, by using another whetstone! (or a diamond plate). There exist special stone (very course, very hard) that can "fix" your whetstone.
A fixer (like the one by Naniwa) flattens your whetstone and can remove built up slurry from the pores of the stone, making it more effective.
Slurry good, too much slurry bad.
Stropping
Besides one or more whetstones and a fixer/diamond plate a phrenetic sharpener will have a leather strop in it's quiver. This slab of leather is treated with a very fine compound (an abrasive with particles even as small as 0,5 micron) and serves to remove the last of the micro-burrs that may still cling to your cutting edge.
Treating your knife with a strop is often the difference between sharp and bloody sharp.
Also, it smells nice such a piece of leather.
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