- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
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- 25,736
Those of you who know me are already well aware that I love scythe stones--not just because I love scythes, but because the shape of scythe stones (sometimes called "canoe" stones or "lawn and garden" stones) is so versatile for sharpening all manner of tools.
However, there's been little variety available of them in the US for a long time now, and while I was able to import a bunch of different models from some European companies, the manufacturers would sometimes switch models for the same product number and supply has something like a two month lag time. Lastly, even though the variety I'd been able to source were all great and I'll continue to import them, the spread of sharpening qualities only covered certain areas and there were a lot of possible configurations that weren't being tapped. Luckily I found a US manufacturer that was able to do up a batch of stones to my specifications regarding grit, abrasive type, and bond strength, and were even able to do them in this nifty ice blue color!
400 grit aluminum oxide with a medium-hard bond, it produces a finer edge than one might expect for its grit rating. Cuts fast, holds water well, resists glazing, is hard enough to bear down to realign rolled edges, and produces a very keen edge that easily dry shaves while retaining the sticky bite of a medium or coarse stone. I've been using one for pretty much all of my general sharpening tasks since they landed a few days ago and I'm absolutely in love with it.
There are very few things one can't sharpen with a scythe stone, as the curved edges and flat faces make for easy sharpening of convex, flat, and even hollow bevels, while the tapered ends allow both for a comfortable hold on the stone and good clearance for detail sharpening.
As the edges come very crisp from the factory, we're also offering a dressing service to add a slight or heavy (according to preference) fillet to reduce edge chipping from accidental impacts and improve contact surface area on forward-curving blades when using the narrow curved faces, such as on kukris, grass hooks, and scythes.
Factory crisp edges:
Filleted edges:
However, there's been little variety available of them in the US for a long time now, and while I was able to import a bunch of different models from some European companies, the manufacturers would sometimes switch models for the same product number and supply has something like a two month lag time. Lastly, even though the variety I'd been able to source were all great and I'll continue to import them, the spread of sharpening qualities only covered certain areas and there were a lot of possible configurations that weren't being tapped. Luckily I found a US manufacturer that was able to do up a batch of stones to my specifications regarding grit, abrasive type, and bond strength, and were even able to do them in this nifty ice blue color!
400 grit aluminum oxide with a medium-hard bond, it produces a finer edge than one might expect for its grit rating. Cuts fast, holds water well, resists glazing, is hard enough to bear down to realign rolled edges, and produces a very keen edge that easily dry shaves while retaining the sticky bite of a medium or coarse stone. I've been using one for pretty much all of my general sharpening tasks since they landed a few days ago and I'm absolutely in love with it.
There are very few things one can't sharpen with a scythe stone, as the curved edges and flat faces make for easy sharpening of convex, flat, and even hollow bevels, while the tapered ends allow both for a comfortable hold on the stone and good clearance for detail sharpening.
As the edges come very crisp from the factory, we're also offering a dressing service to add a slight or heavy (according to preference) fillet to reduce edge chipping from accidental impacts and improve contact surface area on forward-curving blades when using the narrow curved faces, such as on kukris, grass hooks, and scythes.
Factory crisp edges:
Filleted edges:
