Flaunt your dish

Shop Knives and stones on ebay
Japanese Knives - by Tokushu Knife
Advertise with us
Kitchen Knife Forums

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
henrymeows

henrymeows

Active Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2020
Messages
36
Reaction score
22
Location
Melbourne
Is it a crime to let your stone dish? I didn't know what dishing was until recently, but I just knew it was annoying because the stone rocks left and right when I do my thing. I finally bought a flattening stone and got it back to good shape. I remember seeing a pic on the internet of some restaurant with a heavily dished out stone and I found it entertaining. Do you guys allow your stone to dish?
IMG_20200108_010249.jpg
 
My dish certainly can’t match yours but like you I only recently learned that dishing was an issue. For over thirty years I used only a soft Arkansas stone for sharpening with the occasional use of a hard Arkansas pocket stone for refined edges. It never occurred to me to flatten my Arkansas but then my stone is very hard and dished very slowly. I now use Japanese synthetics and observe that they are much softer and prone to dish. Even at that I don’t find the dishing disconcerting. My hands seem to know how to achieve the edge I seek. Like Carter used to advise I have used the corners to finish the tips of blades for years but again it doesn’t seem to be a big deal. I can see the advisability of using a flat stone when sharpening Japanese single edged blades but there I tend to use my Arkansas stones for sharpening single edged blades.

So while I am equipped to flatten my stones I really don’t think about it very much.
 
valgard said:
:eek:
Click to expand...
:eek::eek::eek:

I guess I'm the only noob here... Hahaha, one step at a time.
That flattening Stone was brand new in the picture. I tried to capture the dish before I fixed it. It was a lot worse previously until I couldn't handle it anymore, so I bought some cheap $2.80 sandpaper from Daiso... Kinda worked, but not really.
 
@henrymeows What I did to flatten my synthetic stones before I got a diamond plate was use some wet/dry sandpaper from Bunnings, this stuff https://www.bunnings.com.au/flexovit-100mm-x-1m-400-grit-wet-and-dry-sandpaper-roll_p1210526 .

Put that on a flat surface with some water (Optionally you can tape it down or hold it down with one hand), and make sure the four corners on the two ends of the stone are the same height on the corners so it stays roughly flat. Then just sand away at it, this is how I did it and in no way the best way. I made sure to also soak the stones as I used water to lubricate the sandpaper and I didnt want the stones just sucking all the water away and getting suck on the sandpaper.

It well for me, and remember to check your stone for dishing everynow and then ;)

Hope this helps! :D
 
Garner Harrison said:
@henrymeows What I did to flatten my synthetic stones before I got a diamond plate was use some wet/dry sandpaper from Bunnings, this stuff https://www.bunnings.com.au/flexovit-100mm-x-1m-400-grit-wet-and-dry-sandpaper-roll_p1210526 .

Put that on a flat surface with some water (Optionally you can tape it down or hold it down with one hand), and make sure the four corners on the two ends of the stone are the same height on the corners so it stays roughly flat. Then just sand away at it, this is how I did it and in no way the best way. I made sure to also soak the stones as I used water to lubricate the sandpaper and I didnt want the stones just sucking all the water away and getting suck on the sandpaper.

It well for me, and remember to check your stone for dishing everynow and then ;)

Hope this helps! :D
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips, Garner!
BTW, how did you make sure that the corners are even height? Now that I've flattening my stone with a flattening Stone, it seems like one side is higher than the other... :oops:
 
Rotate the stone every few passes. Also, I found it better for some reason (I guess slurry gets out of the way in a more efficient manner or something) if I hold the stone that needs flattening on top and not the other way around.
 
@henrymeows If the dishing is bad, I get the ruler out and measure the height of the lowest corner. Then after that mark the same height on the other three, connect the marks so you have lines going down the sides as guides.

Then just start trying to do your best to make it flatter using the guide line, try not to go past the line as then you'd be wasting your stone. You can just sand down the higher side for a couple dozen strokes, check how you are doing relative to the guide line and repeat until the stone is flat.

If you need some more help, I can send pictures and such since some of my stones need flattening. My damned CERAX 320 is a stone that hates to stay flat ;)

Hope this help! :D
 
So, don't y'all find dishing a problem? I think it's harder to get a perfectly even microbevel when sharpening a flat-profiled blade on a dished stone, and after thinning it's important for the stone to be flat in order to get an even finish.

It wouldn't be so much of a problem if the dishing was only the type shown in the photos above, but there's also usually dishing that happens right in the center of my stones, and which does not extend out to the sides. That is, the pictures above don't capture the kind of dishing I usually have, and which is most problematic, since you're only seeing the stone in profile.
 
Agreed Ian and very good point. I have a 6x1” fine diamond stone that I will occasionally use to eliminate the center dish when that becomes a problem. I like to have my stones flat across the stone but don’t worry so much along the stone. There is no doubt that there are many sharpeners out there much more proficient than I. I just find I get satisfactory results without dragging out a flattening stone every session.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ian
These two stones are by far the most dished in my collection. They are also the most used. Most of my stones are pretty flat. Anything that touches straight razors or single bevels or final micro bevels is pretty flat. Other than that..... Those two particular stones remove lots of chips and thin lots of cheap stainless. I try and keep the dishing as uniform as I can, but I don't really fret about it. Some stones, especially my soakers (King 300, Suehiro 1000, Rika 5000), I keep one side dead flat for razors and the other I let be until it bothers me. I generally flatten all my stones whether they need it or not on SiC about once per year. Other than that I get by with rubbing them together. I have some cheap diamond plates and a worn out DMT I've collected over the years but they don't see much action. I've never bought an Atoma or a real flattening stone. It's on the wish list, but something else always seems to take precedence. I'm not saying that flattening isn't necessary and you shouldn't maintain your stones, just that it's more relevant in some use cases than others.

Here's the other end of the spectrum. My Shapton Pro 12k on top of my Glass 8k. These dudes are pretty damn flat. They are used exclusively for razors so it's easier to keep them that way and I pay a lot more attention.

IMG_20200116_165733.jpg
 
Wow, thanks for sharing the knowledge discussions, guys. Definitely a good insight and something to think over!

Brian Weekley said:
meows ... so ... now that your stones are flat are you getting sharper knives for your efforts?
Click to expand...
Hmm... Not so much about seeing sharper knives (I probably am getting sharper knives), but noticed more of getting even sharpening throughout. I used to get uneven bevels lol....
 
I made a dish like that once. Took a bucket of water and took it to concrete
 
Garner Harrison said:
Then just start trying to do your best to make it flatter using the guide line, try not to go past the line as then you'd be wasting your stone. You can just sand down the higher side for a couple dozen strokes, check how you are doing relative to the guide line and repeat until the stone is flat.
Click to expand...

Not bad... but potentially a waste of good material. You only need the surface to be flat - not parallel to the bottom. If it is on an angle it doesnt matter so much. Do you know of the pencil trick? Scribble pencil on the surface of the stone and then lap away. Anything with pencil on it will be a low spot. Scribble pencil again and lap.... continue until there are no low spots!
 
henrymeows said:
Is it a crime to let your stone dish? I
Click to expand...

No

henrymeows said:
Do you guys allow your stone to dish?
Click to expand...

Yes... depending... on my stones, my expectation for flatness increases with grit. My 400 is pretty dished. My 1000 has some dishing. From 3000 onward, they are flat, flatter and flattest.

stringer said:
Anything that touches straight razors or single bevels or final micro bevels is pretty flat
Click to expand...

+1

Basically this! I would add aesthetic polishing to that list. It is easier to get consistent kasumi or scratch patterns when the stone (and blade road) is flat
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top