What are your favorite silicon carbide stones?
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The worst thing is to be reminded that you have stones you have bought, and never used. You reminded me that I bought Gritomatic 120, 600, and 1200 Sic stones, and never used them. Any experiments you'd like me to do with them? I'm now eager to put them into play.
spaceconvoy
Senior Member
I haven't tried many SiC stones, but I like the King Neo 800
Why you interested in silicon carbide?
mojo
New Member
Jovidah
Vocal amateur
That looks like an Arashiyama to me... and to my knowledge neither is a silicon carbide stone.
mojo
New Member
There is silicone carbide in most manufactured stones.. this is made by Imanishi in Japan.. they also are known for their natural stones..
I didn't have any experiments in mind, but I'd be interested in seeing what you do with them if you do run any experiments. What were you planning on sharpening with them when you bought them?
To try something new, and to learn more about stones. From what I understand, all but one of my knives at this time are sharpenable with alumina stones, so this isn't an "I need stronger abrasives" situation so far.
From what I understand so far, the only SiC stone I have is the Sigma Power Select II 1000. It sees pretty much no use at the moment, as my Naniwa 800 can handle most all sharpening (and I haven't yet had to sharpen the one exception, a CPM-S30V knife; from what I read, that steel all but requires cubic boron nitride or else diamonds).
Hmm interested to see what you think. I've never tried any SiC stones from what I've heard SiC is more friable it could be kinda interesting for polishing stones.
At 4% vanadium, S30V resides at the border between ceramics and diamond. It doesn't require CBN or diamond but lots of folks will find those abrasives faster, especially if they aren't used to higher vanadium alloys.
Norton Crystolon and the Baryonyx offerings are excellent. But these are coarse stones.
The Sigma Power Select II 1000 is a dark-blue soaking-stone that definitely releases a lot of abrasive in use (if one uses it for "mundane" steels, one will be flushing a lot of material away). I've heard that it's good for "super-steels" where releasing more abrasive can be useful, but I have yet to try it out for such use at this time.
If you're looking for polishing stones made of SiC, I believe the Suehiro G8 8000 might fit the description of what you seek. However, I have no experience with it (my current 8k is a Naniwa Fuji, which to my knowledge is a resinoid alumina stone).
However, I currently have no way of identifying for myself what stones are made of which abrasives; it's all hearsay to/from me.
The Norton Crystolon Coarse n Fine has got to be top of the pile - it's a superb stone. I also like the SSII 1k a lot (haven't tried others in the range).
As @mojo mentioned above - many but not all Japanese synthetic stones actually mix AlOx and SiC, though it's a bit difficult to find info about what exactly different companies are using.
To be brutally honest, I doubt it matters all that much. SiC seems to be the preferred option for super low grit stones, but after that it probably isn't that noticeable. I haven't done any direct comparisons though, so could be completely wrong.
As @mojo mentioned above - many but not all Japanese synthetic stones actually mix AlOx and SiC, though it's a bit difficult to find info about what exactly different companies are using.
To be brutally honest, I doubt it matters all that much. SiC seems to be the preferred option for super low grit stones, but after that it probably isn't that noticeable. I haven't done any direct comparisons though, so could be completely wrong.
The_Real_Self
Well-Known Member
The part about SiC being in most stones I don't believe is entirely factual. In face, the vast majority of stones from Japan are made using Aluminum Oxide as the abrasive material. Now, I know in the United States that may be the other way around and SiC may be more common here.
Case_D
Member
The King Neo 800 is one of my favorites. For fixing broken stuff, I use the Baryonyx Manticore when I don’t have access to a belt grinder. It's a 60 grit SiC stone. Comes in a few styles. There's also the American Mutt by the same brand. It's a mix of different sizes of AlOx and SiC. Good edge for farm tools
