# What is the purpose of finger stones?



## NBrewster (Oct 27, 2018)

Been spending a lot more time practicing and reading about knife sharpening and polishing and have seen quite a few demos of people making and using "finger stones."

For whatever reason (maybe my googlefu is just too weak) I'm having trouble finding a really good explanation of why they are used for aside from "polishing" or sometimes accentuating the contrast between different materials in the cladding or blade. 

Are finger stones still used mostly due to tradition or are they better at performing their task than say... a 10k grit slurry?

Do people ever use them to make the grind of a knife slightly more concave?

If anyone knows of a good resource they recommend, I would love to see them!


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## Panamapeet (Oct 27, 2018)

You already know the answer: polishing (bringing out certain details in cladding and core). Fingerstones are not coarse enough to materially change the grind of a knife, and are more useful than a 10k slurry polishing wise if you want to bring a certain contrast between core and cladding (or to bring out a hamon)


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## panda (Oct 27, 2018)

To spend more time polishing than actually using knife or in many cases not used at all.


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## brooksie967 (Oct 27, 2018)

panda said:


> To spend more time polishing than actually using knife or in many cases not used at all.



Awe. Adorable. 

This comment is akin to slamming someone who washes/details/waxes their high end car.


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## RDalman (Oct 27, 2018)

I think they're used to extend knife and stone playtime


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## StonedEdge (Oct 27, 2018)

Y'all crazy


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## MindTone (Oct 27, 2018)

RDalman said:


> I think they're used to extend knife and stone playtime


Sounds like a good purpose


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## Migraine (Oct 27, 2018)

brooksie967 said:


> Awe. Adorable.
> 
> This comment is akin to slamming someone who washes/details/waxes their high end car.



Panda is a hypocrite, he's forever using his finger stones to polish around his "hipster cred" kanji.


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## HRC_64 (Oct 27, 2018)

I alway though it was (a) they are cheaper; and (b) better at dealing with non-dead-flatness 

the cheaper part is more about economics, I think the sword guys have all kinds of stones,
more like a library or a portofolio of aesthitic qualities (think painters pallette) as opposed to
an abrasive progression. the variety is needed because different steels at different hardnesses
respond to each type with a different subtlty.

not everybody needs to be into 'sword polishing for kitchen knives', however


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## btbyrd (Oct 27, 2018)

brooksie967 said:


> Awe. Adorable.
> 
> This comment is akin to slamming someone who washes/details/waxes their high end car.



Their high end car that they never drive.


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## JBroida (Oct 27, 2018)

btbyrd said:


> Their high end car that they never drive.


lol... i cant even tell you the number of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotuses, and McClarens that only get driven on residential streets near our store... its mindblowing


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## panda (Oct 27, 2018)

jon, it's cause they cant drive stick and dont want to be seen in public looking like a dildo.


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## mc2442 (Oct 27, 2018)

I actually think most high end cars don't come in manual anymore, at least I thought I heard that you can no longer get that in Ferraris (paddle shifters). Probably due to the reason you stated Panda. I love the time I saw a couple guys pushing a Lambo, I believe it was out of gas.

I heard the height of this is the Hamptons in season. Lines of super expensive cars slowly going from one stop sign to the next.


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## Panamapeet (Oct 27, 2018)

I love how we are helping OP figure out this whole fingerstone thing... oh wait


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## XooMG (Oct 28, 2018)

Fingerstones are targeted polishing stones. Mud with varying substrates can do some or most of the same work but can be very fiddly to set up and to maintain, and still generally slower and less easy to use than a rock flake that releases fresh grit.

For knives, you can use fingerstones to do some smoothing of streaky polish, working into slight uneven spaces where pressure on the bench stone would be uneven (burnishing some spots and fogging others). Stones of varying hardness can be used to bring out details or enhance contrast around lamination boundaries, hardening lines, etc.

Devotion to fingerstones isn't required for practical knives but they are critical to finish-polishing in some kinds of art blade.


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## Badgertooth (Oct 28, 2018)

XooMG said:


> Fingerstones are targeted polishing stones. Mud with varying substrates can do some or most of the same work but can be very fiddly to set up and to maintain, and still generally slower and less easy to use than a rock flake that releases fresh grit.
> 
> For knives, you can use fingerstones to do some smoothing of streaky polish, working into slight uneven spaces where pressure on the bench stone would be uneven (burnishing some spots and fogging others). Stones of varying hardness can be used to bring out details or enhance contrast around lamination boundaries, hardening lines, etc.
> 
> Devotion to fingerstones isn't required for practical knives but they are critical to finish polishing in some kinds of art blade.



And that, folks, is a wrap.


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## DDPslice (Oct 28, 2018)

I use my finger stones with my high grit sand paper to finish the polish


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## mfishsauce (Oct 29, 2018)

XooMG said:


> Fingerstones are targeted polishing stones. Mud with varying substrates can do some or most of the same work but can be very fiddly to set up and to maintain, and still generally slower and less easy to use than a rock flake that releases fresh grit.
> 
> For knives, you can use fingerstones to do some smoothing of streaky polish, working into slight uneven spaces where pressure on the bench stone would be uneven (burnishing some spots and fogging others). Stones of varying hardness can be used to bring out details or enhance contrast around lamination boundaries, hardening lines, etc.
> 
> Devotion to fingerstones isn't required for practical knives but they are critical to finish-polishing in some kinds of art blade.


Awesome post! Thank you! Now how to detail my hypercar...


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## Chef Doom (Oct 29, 2018)

I know a massage therapist that uses finger stones when The Thing walks into her establishment.


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## Nomsdotcom (Oct 30, 2018)

So can you use fingerstones on your Ferrari?


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## Chef Doom (Oct 30, 2018)

How else are you going to put in those love swirles.


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## panda (Oct 31, 2018)

Nomsdotcom said:


> So can you use fingerstones on your Ferrari?


us normies use clay bar, not cool enough for fingerstones.


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## skiajl6297 (Oct 31, 2018)

When sharpening a used knife (or any knife I suppose) you more often than not will effect the aesthetic finish of a knife in some way. I know I scratched many blade finishes as I learned to sharpen, but perhaps that's just me. 

In other words, if you use a knife, it will look like a used knife at some point. Some people are OK with that, e.g. forum posts about loving patina, looking like a used knife, etc. Some are not OK with that too, e.g. traditional Japanese sushi chefs wiping their blade after a single cut, and that is OK too. 

Regardless of where you fall on the 'aesthetic OCD' scale, everyone who uses a knife MAY at some point want to make it look new again. And this is where polishing comes in. I know I always try to be capable of re-establishing a basic level of aesthetics after thinning, for example, using stones, slurry, and sandpaper. A fingerstone is the final piece of this puzzle for me, largely because after sandpapering and grinding, it is nice to have a simple tool that produces the aesthetic that I am after, e.g. consistent polish and contrast on cladding and on core steel for san mai construction, or just polishing the mono steel, or bringing out a hamon on honyaki steel, etc.

Fingerstones are an excellent tool in ones arsenal for polishing/prettying/contrast between steels - nothing else quite touches them besides bench stones, and they all have limitations as noted above. I can buy an ass ton of fingerstones for pennies to the dollar for benchstones, therefore fingerstones!


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## inferno (Nov 2, 2018)




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