Originally posted by sagebrush:
I would just start off with the file. Take them down just a hair off of the furule until you have a good burr. Then pull out the KME. It works good after the file. Too slow to start from scratch. I finish with crock sticks. Gary
Well said Gary,(well, except for the crock sticks part LOL) and thanks everyone for the help.
Let me point out that both of our sharpeners are honing tools not grinding tools and many glue-on traditional heads need a lot of stock removal on the inital "out of the pack" sharpening. I haven't found a stone of any kind that's up to the task. Grizzlies, Tuskers, Zwickys, STOS, and a few others will be much easier and faster to sharpen if you take some metal off the shoulder of the bevel with a file before going to either sharpener and a coarse stone.
Our new Super-Tuff aluminum oxide ceramic stones (the ones that come in the kits) are pretty incredible. Not braggin 'em up because they're KME Stones, rather we put the KME name on them because they're that good. The dark brown coarse stone will get the hair flying off but, it will take forever if the heads haven't been filed a bit first.
As for filing, you don't need to be highly skilled. Just knock the shoulder off the bevel so that you're not asking the stone to do more than it's really intended to do. Files for stock removal, stones for honing. Thanks again to all!
Ron