BenchStone Sharpening Stone with Polymer Case - Ultra Fine Grit - 302UF

I have all three Spyderco stones: medium, fine and ultrafine. They are my "go to" stones for sharpening and I would not hesitate suggesting their purchase! Now, should I end this review now, or add details about my recommendation? Add you say? Are you that bored? OK, I started into woodworking in the mid 70's. I served a four year apprenticeship, was a journeyman until I left the trade in 1989. Since that time, I've become an advanced hobyist woodworker. In the beginnng, I used a two sided carborundum stone. I could get edge tools reasonable sharp, but did I fully understand sharp? Fast forward to the late 90's, when I was drifting to only handtool woodworl (ala Roy Underhill). Multiple things were happening: besides woodworking, I began collecting tools, reading books about the trade/profession/hobby. This was the time I experimented with numerous sharpening methods, including waterstones and silicon carbide paper, up to 2500 grit. What a revelation! Sharp tools. But the was a cost, messy waterstones, Sc paper with a cheap entry, but repeated costs & not having a specific grit at the most inopportune time. In my collecting, I had begun to accumulate old sharpening stones (OK-maybe it was more the hand carved boxes that housed the stones). I decided to try the stones inside, which were a variety of oil stones. This led to a half dozen years of a sequence of a washita, hard arkansas and then a charged strop. Worked great and simpler/quicker than other methods. At this time, I was trying some carving, and the web said Spyderco's were the way to go, and I bought all three 2" x 8" stones and they worked! I then tried some straight edge tools, including plane blades & chisels, with satisfactory results, but still not past the oilstone route. Reading similar experiences on the web, it seemed the central theme remaining in the quest for sharp with these stones, was flatness. I purchased an extra-coarse DMT diamond plate and proceeded to work on flattenng. The Spyderco's started coming into their own, at least as good as any other system I tried, plus as fast, if not faster. The final revelation came after reading on a forum, that adding a spritz of water really helps. And that it does! Like any tool, don't expect immediately great results: you got to work at it, to learn the tool! With all sharpening, I free-hand hone (no jigs), which permits me to use all of the stone and also smaller, since you no longer worry about the jig wheels going off the stone surface. Also the Spyderco's do need cleaned occassionally. I use a " Magic Sponge" (any cleaning section at the grocery) with a bit of cleanser. I've got to add that sharp is a relative term, dependent on tool steel being sharpened as well as wood being worked. I work mainly cherry, white oak, some walnut and white pine. The steel is a lot of O1, some A2 and D2 (the Spyderco's handle all three of those steels nicely).

Es una muy buena piedra de pulido, me gusta dedicarle tiempo al acabado de mis navajas con esta piedra. El resultado es muy bueno. Se las recomiendo al 100%. **Actualización: Es una de las mejores compras que he hecho, es una piedra muy dura y de muy buena calidad no ha sido necesario aplanarla después de un año completo de estar usandola. El acabado que deja es muy bueno, en la descripción no aparece pero esta piedra es de 3 micrones, la "Medium" es de 15 micrones, y a mi parecer no es necesario comprar la "Fine" que es de 6 micrones, se puede pasar de Medium a UltraFine y después asentador de cuero, así afilo yo mis navajas y los resultados son buenos, cada día me gusta mas usar esta piedra.

All three Benchstones 302 made by Spyderco (M, F, UF) have the dimension 8‘‘ x 2‘‘. This is the typical dimension of US-made benchstones (some are available in 8‘‘ x 3‘‘, too) what makes them much smaller than Japanese Waterstones . The Ultrafine Stone is the only one of the three ceramic stones you can buy in 8‘‘ x 3‘‘ (306 UF). So you must be aware that these 302 stones are quite narrrow. Broader stones are much more comfortable to use because they offer more contact face. Chef knives with a blade length of 8‘‘ or more can be sharpened much easier. Keep that in mind when thinking about buying a nice stone setup. To be fair: With some experience and a good technique it is no problem to sharpen large knives on 8‘‘ x 2‘‘ stones. You can even sharpen a Chef Knife with a pocket stone like Fallkniven DC4. Spyderco stones are special because they are vitrified ceramics. They have an ultra hard surface what means they don’t need to be lapped or trued regularly because they stay flat. The Medium Stone can wear over time. Both the Fine and the Ultra Fine won’t. You need to check that the stones come flat to your house because truing them is very painstaking (because of their hardness). My experience with the 302 stones is, that none of them was 100% flat. For me it was ok, they were just slightly off flat. That’s no big deal. Being not flat seems to be a result of the manufacturing process. If you think about lapping or truing a stone: You will need diamonds for that. Otherwise you will just burnish or glaze the surface. I would not recommend the 302 UF for a beginner. As the stone is so hard and smooth the tactile feedback is not the best. You need some experience to feel if your angle is correct. The stone feels more like sharpening on a glazed tile. You need to get used to this before sharpening on this stone becomes fun. Lubricating the stone with a spritz of water might help. You will feel the correct angle better because the edge of your blade will kind of stuck to the stones surface then. I have read a lot about all three stones. Some users (as well as Spyderco founder Sal Glesser) say that the UF will last virtually forever. Others claim that the surface will become finer and finer with use and need to be resurfaced after a while. Vitrified ceramics don’t shed fresh grit particles (as bonded stones will do). It’s just the surface finish which can be manipulated. So vitrified ceramics can’t be rated with an exact grit number. For a compariosn one would have to check the scratch pattern. Fine and UF are the same stone. Fine is left as it comes out of the kiln. Whereas the UF’s surface is refined with diamond tools to make it smoother and therefore finer. You can see marks of this process on the stones surface (swirl marks). These don’t seem to affect the usability. This is even mentioned in the booklet coming with the stone. Does one need an UF? I would say no. The level of sharpness achived with the Medium stone (the term „medium“ is confusing because this stone is much finer than the common „medium stone“) seems to be more than enough for most tasks. I was able to shave armhair without effort. Fine and UF refine the scratch pattern and will make the edge more polished and less toothy. After the UF a blade is virtually hair popping. The UF is a great stone. But your blade needs to be very sharp when going on to the UF. This stone is so fine, it won’t grind away much metal. It will simply polish your edge (well, it abrades some metal, but not much and at a slow rate). Done right (a good grit progression is needed) one can achive (nearly) a mirror polish. The level of sharpness is much higher than the average factory edge. The Ultrafine stone is not a stand-alone stone. Don’t think about just buying this stone. It is the last step in your progression. Spyderco recommends to use their stones dry. No oil, no water. I agree, it is possible to use them dry. In my experience they work better with any form of lubrication. I use soapy water or water with a spritz of dish liquid. The stones clog less then and the edge will get finer. Cleaning is easy. A scouring agent and a Scotch-Brite pad to wipe away the metal residue. A toothbrush and toothpaste will work, too. As well as a pencil eraser, a Magic Eraser or a Rust Eraser (for example made by Lansky, A. G. Russell or Sabitoru). This should be done regularly because when the stones clog they work much slower until the don’t abrade any more. I ordered the stone over Amazon Global. The delivery took more time than expected but I did not have any trouble with customs or so. The wonderful thing was it was delivered right to my door. The stone – and not only the 302 UF – is quite pricey but hopefully it is a once in a lifetime purchase which would make this beautiful stone worth the costs. As I mentioned before the stone itself is good quality. The package itself (cardboard and transparent plastic) was a damaged and torn. The stone comes with a polymer case which is not flawless itself. There is a spot on the lid that looks like melted. The inside doesn’t look that good, too. I don’t know this from my other Spyderco stones. This is the first time that the case is not immaculate. It is possible to use the case a stone holder. There are rubber feet on the underside. For me the case is not the best stone holder because the stone protudes only a little bit out of the case what makes it difficult to use sometimes (depending on the knife). Other than that the stone is great. It will make any edge scary sharp. Any edge because the ultra-hard alumina ceramic material is almost as hard as diamonds and will cut any metal known to mankind. I don’t want to miss it.

Although I am still convinced the best types of sharpening stones are Japanese waterstones and diamond electroplated products like DMT and Atoma, the Spyderco ceramic do fill an important enough niche to warrant purchase. I do not like the Medium stone as its microstructure is far too open and therefore loads up very readily. This combined with it's intended use as moderate to minor stock removal produces a poor result: the stone loads quickly therefore ceases to cut well, thus I find I am constantly cleaning the thing. Neither water nor oil provided a worthwhile result when used to help float away the swarf; the stone still loaded rapidly. The fine and ultrafine, however, perform their functions with aplomb. The fine is an excellent maintenance stone if used for daily touch-ups and its microstructure is closed, allowing for the use of water or oil (I much prefer water) to lubricate the stone and combat surface loading. The ultrafine converts the fine scratch pattern to a clean mirror if you performly your strokes properly. The resulting edge is incredibly crisp, impressively sharp. I usually sharpen my edges on waterstones but I almost ALWAYS finish the edge on the ultrafine. It is a non-friable, extremely hard, and mirror-fine stone that performs the duty of finishing stone/microbeveller with near no equal

This is a great stone it leaves an edge that is very close to a mirror polish, it Is very abrasive and cuts very quickly for an ultra fine stone and has no problems with super steels such as cpm m4. Only problem with this stone is that when you start sharpening you can see saw marks in the stone. This WILL affect your edge, I fixed this problem with wet dry sand paper. I began at 1000 grit then progressed with 1500 2000 2500 and 3000 and now the surface feels like glass and leaves amazing edges.