Hey guys I was just wondering if any of you have used congress stones before? In some of my reading I noticed that Phil Wilson recommends them for sharpening his customs so I looked them up and they are available in sizes that could be easy to modify for use on the WE and they are very affordable. Just curious about what kind of results you guys may have got from them.

Thanks
Alex

I've got a drawer full of different types I've tried (pre Wicked Edge)... most are decent and have their pros & cons, but I can't think of any real advantage over the diamond/ceramics WE offers, and when using stones like the Congress ones on the WE, you have to start accounting for stone wear. If you're thinking of something specific, maybe it would jog my memory a little more.

I would definitely avoid the softer stones... the ones I tried wore too quick to work very well for sharpening, regardless of method.

We purchased a batch of stones from Congress a couple of years ago when we couldn't get them in time from our regular supplier. They were okay but we didn't love them so we didn't repeat.

I was specifically looking at the moldmaster stones they seem to be preferred for a coarse yet refined rope cutting edge or a toothy edc edge. I was hoping for something like the 400/600 grit chosera stones on the cheap. In some of the tests they were used in the coarser stones seem to provide a longer lasting edge. I don't know this from my own testing but I would like to try. The 400/600 WE diamonds are great but I thought the silicon carbide stones might have a shallower scratch pattern and thus a little more refined edge at that grit. I also wonder how a polished edge taken back to 15 micron cbn on nano cloth would cut. It seems like that would be the ultimate in refined with teeth. Mostly I just like to play with new things but I like to hear what others results are too.

Thanks
Alex

I only tried the coarser MoldMaster... in 120g, it breaks down very slow and smooths out... in fact I dug it out this a.m., and just feeling the stone, it feels like a fine finish. In my notes I have "cuts very slowly" which supports how smooth it feels, so that may actually be what you're looking for (Conversely, the 80g stone wore so fast, it would only last for a couple of knives.) So, you may want to try a variety of grits, to find the finish you're looking for, the coarser stone might give you a better result.

The "Regular" SiC stones seemed to cut closer to their corresponding grit rating, but they break down a little quicker. Between the 2 the MoldMaster might be the better choice, since they wear slower.

Thanks I ordered the 320,400,&600 grit stones just to give them a try. The 1/8 x 1 x 6 inch stones are only about 3 to 4 bucks so I thought I'd give them a go just to see how they do.