What's the difference in results with sharpening wet VS dry?

Are you talking about stones or wet/dry paper?

You will get many opinions with this one; I have tried stones wet and dry. I prefer to oil stones, the oil seems to carry the particulate away, and keeps the pores of the stones from clogging better than dry. Many folks here use water or use their stones dry, it really is a personal preference.

I have not seen any definitive finding regarding the efficiency of wet or dry.

With wet/dry paper, I have only used it dry. I can’t remember anyone posting that they use paper wet.

You might also check the search function, this subject comes once in awhile

Good Luck
 
All abrasives have some tendency to dull (have the surface particles get rounded) and to load (fill up with powdered abrasive and powdered metal). Water and oil help to reduce loading by filling the bottom of pores with water and lubricating the debris so that it comes out of the pores. On artificial stone hones, such as aluminum oxide bench stones, the liquids also reduce dulling effects by causing the surface of the hone to break down faster. This causes the rounded surface particles to fall off faster and expose sharper underlying particles faster. Be aware that an oil impregnated hone will load like crazy if used without excess oil. The surface will break down quickly and the residue will quickly clog the gummy surface of the hone.

I use diamond hones and a belt sander for most of my rough sharpening work. These have a much lesser tendency to load and dull. The diamond's hardness resists the dulling process. Since very little diamond residue is formed during sharpening these hones don't load as much. Often I just wipe the diamond hones with a dry rag occasionally as I hone. For fine work I sometimes hone under a kitchen faucet to totally prevent loading and get a neater edge. A belt sander tends to unload itself as it goes over the drive drums. They do dull, but you just replace them when it becomes a problem.
 
I left the conclusion off my previous post. Wet hones typically cut faster. They also leave more distinct microgrooves in the edge. This makes edges done on a wet hone better at slicing.

PS. The natural stones don't break down as fast when wet. You don't see as much advantage using oil or water on an Arkansas stone.
 
TheMightyGoat :

Does one work better...
Click to expand...

John Juranitch of Razor's Edge compared the two and found that using any lubricant on a stone reduces the quality of the final edge. He took high magnification pictures of the edge as proof. His hones are meant to be used dry, and his final finishing hone is somewhat coarse.

The argument that Juranitch used to explain his results was that debris from the edge would be suspended in the water and contacts from this waste material would degrade the edge. Ref :

http://www.ameritech.net/users/knives/Juranitch1977Feb.htm

Leonard Lee studied sharpening in a similar manner and also took pictures. The edge he produced with wet honing also show similar irregularities that were visible in the pictures took by Juranitch. Lee's final honing state was also dry, the last stage was a CrO buffing compound which produced an edge free of such imperfections.

-Cliff
 
Using a stone wet tends to keep its abrasive grit coarser because it keeps the stone clean.

If you use a stone dry it loads up eventually and cuts slower and possibly less coarse because more of the abrasive tips are buried in the media you are sharpening-the stone behaves less agressively.

None of this applys to diamond stones generally.
 
For me, I've found that there are natural stones that just don't seem to like being used dry, or even with water. Oilstones need oil to keep cutting, or they fill up. There are some natural stones that do okay dry, but so far, I've mostly run into natural stones that like oil.

I use waterstones, like Japanese waterstones and Edge Pro Apex stones, with water. They work best that way, in fact they're designed to work that way. Try using a Japanese waterstone dry and you'll see.

By contrast, I use both diamond hones and artificial hones (like the Spyderco hones) completely dry. Even when the instructions say to use water, I find that these hones cut faster without water, and they're so easy to clean afterwards that you don't have to worry about them clogging. My strong advice is to use these dry, adding water just makes things messier and makes the sharpening slower.

I'll finish up by saying that you shouldn't believe any of us ... takes just a few seconds to sharpen dry, then with water, to see the difference, so you can make you own conclusions for diamond, artificial, and natural stones, and just follow whatever you like best. That doesn't work with oil stones though; once you oil them, you'll want to keep them oiled.


Joe
 
I once asked Ben Dale of Edge-Pro the same question of his waterstones. He said flat out, wet cuts better.

He has a different opinion of diamond stones. He has found that it doesn't seem to matter.
 
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