Spyderco: What do I need

I've got a few straights now (a suprising number of Wade & Butcher lately, plus others) that range from being "usable, but rough" to "Butter Knife" in terms of sharpness and usability.

All I have on hand (that I can ID) are a Pike "Wireless" barber hone (seems decent) and a couple Swaty knock-offs.

Then a couple of unidentifiable Whetstones and an Ark stone or two.

With those on hand, what would I get from Spyderco (or other similary priced alternatives) to clean work with the blades I have on hand. (Setting a bevel up to usable).

Thanks!

None of the stones you have will do what you want. There are several things I would recommend though.

First you could get a Norton 4/8k stone and that would take care of most of your requirements. There will be a time, however, when the 4 k will not be fast enough to produce the bevel because of a nick or two. Then you will want to get a smller grit to take care of that.

The other thing you could do is get yourself a Coticule/bbw. That would take care of all of your needs. It is more of a challenge to learn how to use these, but you won't need to get any more stones to take care of you razors again. You can find out everything you need to know at Coticule.be a really good coticule is not much more expensive than a norton as well.

These are just two options you have.

Good Luck,

Ray

Ray-man said:

None of the stones you have will do what you want.

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I know, that's why I'm asking but the Pike is a good "clean-up" hone for me.

The other thing you could do is get yourself a Coticule/bbw. That would take care of all of your needs. It is more of a challenge to learn how to use these, but you won't need to get any more stones to take care of you razors again. You can find out everything you need to know at Coticule.be a really good coticule is not much more expensive than a norton as well.

These are just two options you have.

Good Luck,

Ray

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I'm gonna have to read up on the Coticule options. Previously, I'd always thought they were typically just used as a finishing stone, but if they are that flexible it may be a viable option.

My big reason at looking at Spyderco (and DMT's, but they're a bit pricer) is the fact that they don't seem to need lapped. Which is my aversion to the Norton.

lapping isn't that hard, No, really, it isn't. all you need is a glass plate, and a decent 300-400 grit paper, usually a decent brand (I tend to stick to Bear brand, as it's easilly available at the local hardware store, and provides good results) And you can flatten any hone to the nth degree.

A lot of people here seem to be very anal about their hones needing to be _superflat_ at all times, I kinda disagree with that view, but eh, people have their opinions and I have mine.

oh, and apparently the spyderco hones come in three 'grits' 1000, 8000 and 12000 (give or take) I tend to hover between my spyderco fine and ultra fine for use, as they seem to give decent performance,, but if you already have a barber's hone, *shrug* should be that you don't need the ultrafine.

Your Pike and the Swaty knock offs (barber hones) are around 8K so will do for finishing.
Coticule is a bit finer so could be used after the barber hones.

Your Arkansas stones could be anywhere grit wise up to about 8-10K if you have surgical black or translucent.

If you want to set a bevel you can use a coarser Arkansas but they are terribly slow.

For setting bevels you want something around 1K and 5k, if the bevel is reallu bad even lower. But with some elbow grease you can set almost any bevel on an ebay special with the 1K, but it may take time.

I'm no expert on Spydercos but I guess they will be rated grit wise by the manufacturer.

LaughingAtFate said:

lapping isn't that hard, No, really, it isn't. all you need is a glass plate, and a decent 300-400 grit paper, usually a decent brand (I tend to stick to Bear brand, as it's easilly available at the local hardware store, and provides good results) And you can flatten any hone to the nth degree.

A lot of people here seem to be very anal about their hones needing to be _superflat_ at all times, I kinda disagree with that view, but eh, people have their opinions and I have mine.

oh, and apparently the spyderco hones come in three 'grits' 1000, 8000 and 12000 (give or take) I tend to hover between my spyderco fine and ultra fine for use, as they seem to give decent performance,, but if you already have a barber's hone, *shrug* should be that you don't need the ultrafine.

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You may never have tried lapping a Spyderco!

Spydercos are incredibly difficult to lap. The tradeoff being that I would imagine that you don't have to re-lap them for quite some time afterwards.

There is absolutely no reason to lap a Spyderco if you buy it new. I've been using Spyderco for years, though I've never set a bevel, I've brought dull blades back to life and with a killer edge. Never used Japanese stones or coticules before but I like the shave I get from blades from vendors who use them. Like anything else YMMV.

I recommend using it dry rather than wet. Seems like a wet stone makes it cut slower IMO.

One down fall is that it is a heavy hone.

azmark said:

There is absolutely no reason to lap a Spyderco if you buy it new. I've been using Spyderco for years, though I've never set a bevel, I've brought dull blades back to life and with a killer edge. Never used Japanese stones or coticules before but I like the shave I get from blades from vendors who use them. Like anything else YMMV.

I recommend using it dry rather than wet. Seems like a wet stone makes it cut slower IMO.

One down fall is that it is a heavy hone.

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I certainly needed to lap mine, it was quite uneven.

Seraphim said:

I certainly needed to lap mine, it was quite uneven.

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Oh man, I would have sent that back to Spyderco to get another one. Sorry you had to sit through lapping that thing

Seraphim said:

You may never have tried lapping a Spyderco!

Spydercos are incredibly difficult to lap. The tradeoff being that I would imagine that you don't have to re-lap them for quite some time afterwards.

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Oh I don't disagree with you on that point, I Have lapped mine, Sure, it took a while, using the wet'n'dry on glass technique, but I got there, in time

But then, it was time I had to spare, so There ya go *grins*

LaughingAtFate said:

Oh I don't disagree with you on that point, I Have lapped mine, Sure, it took a while, using the wet'n'dry on glass technique, but I got there, in time

But then, it was time I had to spare, so There ya go *grins*

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Fair 'nough!

A member is selling a perfect spyderco set up in the classifieds right now. The med, fine and UF all with one side lapped and one side not. You get two different grits on each stone with this set up, and you can progress from damaged edge (with some work) to bevel to shave-ready.

As far as lapping the UF, I did it the first time with sic grit and a marble plate. I don't know if the marble was less effective then glass (prolly was), but it took pretty much all of season 1, and I think maybe a quarter of season 2 of 24 to get it flat. I got a DMT extra coarse recently, and lapped the other side. It took like 2-3 hours or so. It really chewed through the UF.