Reply To: Indian Stones for grinding and smoothing

[arutha]

Peggy,
I am probably the last person who should answer this question as I have a bit of a stone fetish, if I ever see a good stone at a boot sale etc I cant help but buy it. For re-grinding tools and screwdrivers just a plain oil stone will work well. Arkansas stone is used to give you that nice final polish and a keen edge on your graver/tool bit. As a rule of thumb, if the stone is coarse it will cut faster but obviously not give such a good finish, if it is a smooth stone (hard Arkansas almost looks like glass) it will hardly cut but give you a polished finish. They do have a new ceramic stone out that is supposed to be as good as Arkansas. Diamond stones are for cutting/finishing carbide gravers etc as oil stone won’t touch them. I have some small diamond plates which are great for preparing my pivot burnishers. Enough waffle from me but hope that helps a little.
Paul.