Moldmaster Stones

[Sharp Guy]

I've ordered some 1/2" wide Moldmaster (SiC) stones to strap to my Sharpmaker rods. I wanted something to remove stock a little faster than the CBN rods so I ordered 240, 320, 400, and 600 grit. Sal has said that the diamond and CBN SM rods are 400 mesh so the 400 grit SiC stones are probably redundant. They were cheap enough so I figured I'd buy a set of MMs in 400 grit and compare with the CBN rods I have.

My question is, should I use Windex, water with dish soap, or some other liquid on the SiC stones?

[bh49]

I used them dry or with water. I spent tons of money on congress stones: triangle and flat, moldmaster, flex, ruby and few others; trying to find inexpensive solution to quickly remove stock. Still ended up with WE few years ago. I love my Sport and field.

[Sharp Guy]

I used them dry or with water. I spent tons of money on congress stones: triangle and flat, moldmaster, flex, ruby and few others; trying to find inexpensive solution to quickly remove stock. Still ended up with WE few years ago. I love my Sport and field.

At this point I'm not reprofiling much. The vast majority of the sharpening I do is basically touch ups on the SM at 20 dps.
Recently, I upgraded my SM from an old 203 to a 204 and added a set of CBN rods. Out of curiosity I decided to reprofile my UKPK S110V to 15 dps. The job was taking a little longer than I liked so I clipped some 150 grit sandpaper to a set of rods and it did the job fast enough for me. Then I went to some 320 and ultimately back to CBN and it worked pretty well. I'm sure it's not as fast or easy as a WE or KME but I'm a fairly patient person. 4 sets of MM stones cost me $22. So it's not the end of the world if they don't work as well as I hoped. If they're easier to use and cut S110V a little better than sandpaper then mission accomplished.

[bh49]

I cannot compare moldmasters with CBN rods. I never had them. IMHO moldmasters are the best of what congress tool is offering to use for sharpening. Congress tool for me is a local company. I almost passing them on my way home from work. So I would call them and then stop by to pick-up stones. Most of the stones I gave away, but I keep molsmasters. Why you didn't get 120? They are quite good.
I do not reprofiling often as well, but probably this is why it take me a long time as well. More frequently you do, less time it take. I became lazy. It is so easy to touch-up. Sharpmaker spoiled me.

[Sharp Guy]

Why you didn't get 120?

I thought about getting some 120 or 150s. When I used the 150 grit sandpaper (actually emory cloth) it finished the job fairly quickly but left the edge a mess. Under magnification it looked jagged. It might've been a result of using course emory cloth to cut S110V? As I mentioned, I then went with 320 sandpaper, CBN rods, 600 grit sand paper, and then the SM medium rods and the edge cleaned up nicely. So it seemed to work out ok. Last night I did a little searching on the forum and found a few threads discussing the Moldmasters. One of them was discussing using really course grits and someone (Bloke?) said they didn't like how rough the course MMs left the edge. They said they went to 220s and they worked well for them. So I decided to try those first. I don't mind if I have to work at it a little longer and I can always add 120s or 150s down the road if I need to.

[Bloke]

Hi Sharp,

I'm sure you'll like your new SiG stones and no I don't use anything much lower than 220grit for general sharpening or re-profiling, particularly on any of the high hardness alloys.

We had a pretty good discussion on the pros and cons of coarse abrasives a while back, I think Evil D may have started it (?). Anyhow, what I think you'll find is the coarse abrasives while removing material faster no doubt, also tend towards fracturing the edge as you saw with the emery cloth. So the low grit abrasives become counterproductive. They remove plenty of material pretty fast but then we need to remove even more material not so fast with finer abrasives. :rolleyes:

My slant is, I'm better off removing ONLY the material I need to remove with a not so coarse abrasive slowly, rather than removing more material than I need too (because that's what I'm doing when I fracture the edge) very fast and then have to remove even more material slowly to fix the edge I just smashed for no good reason. :eek:

As for lube, I've used no lube, spit, water, water and detergent, acetone, mineral turps, kerosene, light machine oil, heavy machine oil .... Nothing works (on all abrasives) like Windex and plenty of it! :)

[chuck_roxas45]

Why you didn't get 120?

I thought about getting some 120 or 150s. When I used the 150 grit sandpaper (actually emory cloth) it finished the job fairly quickly but left the edge a mess. Under magnification it looked jagged. It might've been a result of using course emory cloth to cut S110V? As I mentioned, I then went with 320 sandpaper, CBN rods, 600 grit sand paper, and then the SM medium rods and the edge cleaned up nicely. So it seemed to work out ok. Last night I did a little searching on the forum and found a few threads discussing the Moldmasters. One of them was discussing using really course grits and someone (Bloke?) said they didn't like how rough the course MMs left the edge. They said they went to 220s and they worked well for them. So I decided to try those first. I don't mind if I have to work at it a little longer and I can always add 120s or 150s down the road if I need to.

The way to do it(rebeveling) with the 120's is not to get to the edge. Change to a finer grit just before getting to the edge. Use that finer grit, maybe 240, to get to the edge. It will also remove most of the scratches from the 120 by the time you get to the edge.

[Sharp Guy]

Bloke & Chuck, thanks for your input!

Bloke, I'll give Windex a try. I already have some in a small squeeze bottle that I use with other abrasives. So it makes sense that I'd use it with the SiC stones.

Chuck, what you're saying makes perfect sense.

[bh49]

The way to do it(rebeveling) with the 120's is not to get to the edge. Change to a finer grit just before getting to the edge. Use that finer grit, maybe 240, to get to the edge. It will also remove most of the scratches from the 120 by the time you get to the edge.

+1
And if you you get to the edge with 120 and created teeth, go to mediums at 40 settings or even more obtuse angle, do 3-4 strokes to remove teeth and go back to 240 at 30 degrees and continue as planned.
Also sadly 120 from one maker not necessary the same as 120 from another maker. I use WE 100 all the time and they never created this problem. On another hand WE 80 was a total disaster for me.

[Evil D]

I use cheap dollar store Windex with mine.

[chuck_roxas45]

I use diluted dishwashing liquid.

[Donut]

I think the CBN and Diamond sharpmaker rods are approximately the same grit.

I don't think the Diamond and the Moldmaster 400 are the same grit. The 400 Moldmaster feels much smoother to my fingers.

[Sharp Guy]

I think the CBN and Diamond sharpmaker rods are approximately the same grit.

Sal said in this thread that both the diamond and CBN rods are 400

viewtopic.php?p=986858#p986858

I don't think the Diamond and the Moldmaster 400 are the same grit. The 400 Moldmaster feels much smoother to my fingers.

That would be a good thing IMO

[Sharp Guy]

I received the Moldmaster stones a couple days ago. So this morning I gave them a test drive and they worked great! My S110V UKPK has kind of become my sharpening test mule. So I completely reset the back bevel to 15 DPS using the Sharpnaker. I started with the 220 stones, then on to 320, 400, and 600. I could've stopped there but I also used the SM medium, fine, and ultra fine. Then I put a light 20 DPS micro bevel on the edge using the medium and fine rods. I've never gotten S110V so sharp and I never even touched the CBN rods I just bought. Kinda wish now I would've bought the Moldmasters first.

Here's a shot of how I mounted the stones to the SM rods using small binder clips.

[Bloke]

Well done mate, so glad it all worked out! :)