ModRQC
Just shutup n' grabbit!
Not that it lacks in general discussions around here, or specific ones, but I thought this would be interesting: a look at my old Atoma 140 and the “new” one.
Indeed the old one is still so usable that I basically bought the new one and took the (first five) pictures below about one year ago (Black Friday 2021) but only started to use it somewhere late June 2022. I had forgotten completely about the pics I had taken last year with a post in mind… until I came around them recently and decided that the post was, after all, a good idea. Or so I would think.
Woven in between the pics is a “succinct” pedigree of the old one – just to give the tone to its unbelievable value. Of course, it can only really be as succinct as paying heed to the fact of all the stuff the Atoma has done.
First Atoma, purchased quite early in my sharpening journey. This would be spring of 2020. So basically it’s been used for about two years, and when I purchased it I was such a total noob. There’s… a LOT to be said about being a noob with a few stones, poor skills, and an Atoma 140 that’s going to get hell…
So let’s delve into usage. What the old Atoma did is flatten a LOT of stones of all kinds of grits in a LOT of all kinds of uses. No surprise there, but the sheer craziness of it all as there was a long, long while when I would basically sharpen, polish and thin 3 times a week at least, sometimes dulling edges just to sharpen again, sometimes redoing a polish to try a new stone…
For instance of endurance, let’s just say that such thinning/polishing bevels/sharpening work AND the faithful Atoma resurfacing/flattening work wore down: most of a Sigma 220, a Pride 220, a Cerax 320, a Shapton Pro 320; and then more than 75% of a Cerax 700 and of the 1.2K side of an Imanishi combo; while bringing a first Ouka into it’s very last millimeter. Now let’s put that into perspective: these are not, by any stretch, all of the stones it was used onto (add about 20 more of them to various degrees), but as a single flattening plate, I guess it worked an average of at least 30% of the way into mostly wearing down 5 stones entirely AND a substantial part of 2 others… most of these rather coarse.
For the rest… to the best of my knowledge by relative order of stones I used the Atoma the most excluding those mentioned above AND those I still own: SP1K, NP800, Rika, SP5K, Imanishi 4K (other side of the combo), NP400, SP1500, Kitayama 8K, NP3K, Arashiyama 6K, King Neo 1200. Then it’s easier with those actually with me, obviously still with some sense of a most used order: SP2K, Arashiyama 1K, SG500, Morihei 4K, a second Cerax 320, Cerax 1K, Nanohone 200, a second Ouka, SG320, SG4K, SG6K… used a bit on the Pink Brick but that was pretty useless so I gave up. Possibly forgetting a couple stones, but that makes about 30 different ones and I think it’s got to be real close to a thorough pedigree of the old Atoma.
Adding to that, a single time used for repairing quite a significant chip into a cheap SS customer knife more than a year ago. Not good for it IMHO. Not good at all… To this day, there’s not a single stone I still own or have had that the old Atoma didn’t meet a few times – more likely dozens of times – that ever made more direct and permanent damage to the Atoma – albeit that damage happened in a much more restricted area. So much so that said damage is still distinguishable from the general wear from stones.
Not much to say but perhaps trying to resume what I learned from the old one, which only became so much more apparent when I started using the new one. Of course, using stones more efficiently is a must to save on not just the Atoma, but also the stones themselves and tight schedule/limited patience frustrations. Nowadays the Atoma is not likely to eat through at least 30% of any stone all by itself with me.
But otherwise, IMHO, a common basis of good use with the Atoma would be:
- Using the lowest pressure where it’s basic efficiency is attained. Varies with stones, but generally easy does it, and quite surely red in the face doesn’t help.
- Rotating the Atoma - and the stone it’s flattening. Of course it’s not needed for a couple passes resurfacing, but whenever there is a stone that needs some more bit of work, it’s a must.
- Avoiding loading: some stones will clog the Atoma much more readily. It’s hard to testify of something like this but I think these stones are the most damaging to it on a regular basis. It does well to recognize these stones and use more water there, even if – especially if, I dare say – the cutting action doesn’t seem to slow.
Not forgetting to add a comment to the effect that I’m sure there are better, lest costly options for grinding cheap steels either for thinning, reprofiling, or damage repairs… or any kind of steel at all for that matter. The Pink Brick that doesn’t work so well with the Atoma is exactly such a stone, and such use the only reason it ever gets out of permasoaking. Otherwise it would “permatrashed”.
From trying to manage the best out of a worn Atoma, and applying the same ideas to a new one for a good while now, I’m positive one will at least get some 20% more use out of a new Atoma (accumulation of less respectful treatments being irreversible) just following these recommendations. Not including grind steel with it.
You might or might not agree, but please whatever your experience is do tell and add to this post a bit of a more layered portrait.
Today’s pics – almost a year later and over 4 months into the new one.
Indeed the old one is still so usable that I basically bought the new one and took the (first five) pictures below about one year ago (Black Friday 2021) but only started to use it somewhere late June 2022. I had forgotten completely about the pics I had taken last year with a post in mind… until I came around them recently and decided that the post was, after all, a good idea. Or so I would think.
Woven in between the pics is a “succinct” pedigree of the old one – just to give the tone to its unbelievable value. Of course, it can only really be as succinct as paying heed to the fact of all the stuff the Atoma has done.
First Atoma, purchased quite early in my sharpening journey. This would be spring of 2020. So basically it’s been used for about two years, and when I purchased it I was such a total noob. There’s… a LOT to be said about being a noob with a few stones, poor skills, and an Atoma 140 that’s going to get hell…
So let’s delve into usage. What the old Atoma did is flatten a LOT of stones of all kinds of grits in a LOT of all kinds of uses. No surprise there, but the sheer craziness of it all as there was a long, long while when I would basically sharpen, polish and thin 3 times a week at least, sometimes dulling edges just to sharpen again, sometimes redoing a polish to try a new stone…
For instance of endurance, let’s just say that such thinning/polishing bevels/sharpening work AND the faithful Atoma resurfacing/flattening work wore down: most of a Sigma 220, a Pride 220, a Cerax 320, a Shapton Pro 320; and then more than 75% of a Cerax 700 and of the 1.2K side of an Imanishi combo; while bringing a first Ouka into it’s very last millimeter. Now let’s put that into perspective: these are not, by any stretch, all of the stones it was used onto (add about 20 more of them to various degrees), but as a single flattening plate, I guess it worked an average of at least 30% of the way into mostly wearing down 5 stones entirely AND a substantial part of 2 others… most of these rather coarse.
For the rest… to the best of my knowledge by relative order of stones I used the Atoma the most excluding those mentioned above AND those I still own: SP1K, NP800, Rika, SP5K, Imanishi 4K (other side of the combo), NP400, SP1500, Kitayama 8K, NP3K, Arashiyama 6K, King Neo 1200. Then it’s easier with those actually with me, obviously still with some sense of a most used order: SP2K, Arashiyama 1K, SG500, Morihei 4K, a second Cerax 320, Cerax 1K, Nanohone 200, a second Ouka, SG320, SG4K, SG6K… used a bit on the Pink Brick but that was pretty useless so I gave up. Possibly forgetting a couple stones, but that makes about 30 different ones and I think it’s got to be real close to a thorough pedigree of the old Atoma.
Adding to that, a single time used for repairing quite a significant chip into a cheap SS customer knife more than a year ago. Not good for it IMHO. Not good at all… To this day, there’s not a single stone I still own or have had that the old Atoma didn’t meet a few times – more likely dozens of times – that ever made more direct and permanent damage to the Atoma – albeit that damage happened in a much more restricted area. So much so that said damage is still distinguishable from the general wear from stones.
Not much to say but perhaps trying to resume what I learned from the old one, which only became so much more apparent when I started using the new one. Of course, using stones more efficiently is a must to save on not just the Atoma, but also the stones themselves and tight schedule/limited patience frustrations. Nowadays the Atoma is not likely to eat through at least 30% of any stone all by itself with me.
But otherwise, IMHO, a common basis of good use with the Atoma would be:
- Using the lowest pressure where it’s basic efficiency is attained. Varies with stones, but generally easy does it, and quite surely red in the face doesn’t help.
- Rotating the Atoma - and the stone it’s flattening. Of course it’s not needed for a couple passes resurfacing, but whenever there is a stone that needs some more bit of work, it’s a must.
- Avoiding loading: some stones will clog the Atoma much more readily. It’s hard to testify of something like this but I think these stones are the most damaging to it on a regular basis. It does well to recognize these stones and use more water there, even if – especially if, I dare say – the cutting action doesn’t seem to slow.
Not forgetting to add a comment to the effect that I’m sure there are better, lest costly options for grinding cheap steels either for thinning, reprofiling, or damage repairs… or any kind of steel at all for that matter. The Pink Brick that doesn’t work so well with the Atoma is exactly such a stone, and such use the only reason it ever gets out of permasoaking. Otherwise it would “permatrashed”.
From trying to manage the best out of a worn Atoma, and applying the same ideas to a new one for a good while now, I’m positive one will at least get some 20% more use out of a new Atoma (accumulation of less respectful treatments being irreversible) just following these recommendations. Not including grind steel with it.
You might or might not agree, but please whatever your experience is do tell and add to this post a bit of a more layered portrait.
Today’s pics – almost a year later and over 4 months into the new one.
