bgrella Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 Does anyone know why synthetic waterstones get significantly more expensive with finer grits? They must use a finer material for the stone so the stone will therefore get more dense; requiring more material per square inch of stone. Is this the reason? Or am I missing something obvious? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted January 3, 2012 Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 It's the increased difficulty in making very small particles very consistently. If you have, say, a 1000 grit waterstone, and the grit size tolerance is 5%, then you'll need to make sharpening particles that are 14.2 microns to 15.8 microns, more or less. That's a range of 1.6 microns. If you want to make an 8000 grit waterstone to the same tolerance, on the other hand, now your particle sizes can only range from 1.9 to 2.1 microns, which is a range of 0.2 microns. This is a tougher manufacturing problem to solve, which is reflected in the higher cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgrella Posted January 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2012 It's the increased difficulty in making very small particles very consistently. If you have, say, a 1000 grit waterstone, and the grit size tolerance is 5%, then you'll need to make sharpening particles that are 14.2 microns to 15.8 microns, more or less. That's a range of 1.6 microns. If you want to make an 8000 grit waterstone to the same tolerance, on the other hand, now your particle sizes can only range from 1.9 to 2.1 microns, which is a range of 0.2 microns. This is a tougher manufacturing problem to solve, which is reflected in the higher cost. Ah, that makes sense. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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