| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 1, 2022 |
Contact: Sharpening Supplies 8376 Murphy Dr. Middleton, WI 53562 |
Extra Extra Medium Stone
The Most Medium Stone Available
One of our loyal customers recently pointed out a gap in the variety of stones we carry. We offer extremes at each end of the sharpening stone world, he noted. Extra Extra Fine stones exist and Extra Extra Coarse stones have been around a long time.
But, he asked, what about an extremely middle stone? A stone that is not just medium but REALLY REALLY medium.
We couldn't ignore a glaring need in the sharpening stone market. We had medium stones, but nothing that was the ultimate middle option, something that was extremely moderate. We wanted a stone with even more medium-ness. So it was with an extremely modest excitement that we set out to create the Extra Extra Medium Stone.
The Most Medium Stone
In the past, we have worked hard to innovate by creating the most extra stones available. First we created the Ultra-Super-Extra-Fine-Final-Polishing 1,000,000 Grit Sharpening Stone. Then we developed the Extremely Extra Extra Coarse 1 Grit Stone. And we believe we have the most medium stone you will ever use.
We have stones at every extreme. The most coarse, the most fine, and now the most medium.
Extremely Middling Ingredients
Only the most moderate of ingredients would do for the Extra Extra Medium Stone. The choice of grit was difficult. It had to be of moderate abrasiveness, not too coarse and not too fine. After trying countless oxides, carbides, and diamonds, we made a chance discovery. The sand that collects at the end of the driveway after a Wisconsin winter does an amazingly OK job of sharpening snow shovels that rub against it. Fortunately, it is easily sourced. We had found our abrasive.
To hold the stone together, we needed the binder with the most medium properties. We tried the traditional stone binders: ceramics, resins, and avocado paste but none were quite right. Then, while appreciating my daughter's latest art project, inspiration struck. Children's white school paste.
Voila! It bound the abrasive together, but not so tightly that the stone would not be friable. It demonstrated the right amount of holding together just long enough to create a stone that would wear with the most medium of them.
Color Popping Gray
An Extra Extra Medium Stone shouldn't really stand out so much as it should make other stones stand out. We searched for the ultimate color from which more colorful stones would pop. A neutral color that would truly stand out in how it emphasized the stones around it.
A gray came to mind, but which exact shade? We had to find the most extremely neutral grey in existence. After trying for hours with no success, our photographer, David, stepped outside for a break and looked up at the overcast sky of Wisconsin in March. Eureka! We had the signature color for the Extra Extra Medium.
Testing for the Middle
We would settle only for medium. Nothing more. Nothing less. So we tested the Extra Extra Medium stone on some medium quality chisels, and to our moderate excitement, it did an especially OK job. The finish left on the metal was neither really rough nor really polished. The cutting speed was neither very slow nor extremely fast, The wear rate too, was right down the middle. The feedback in use was neither too rough nor too smooth. And most importantly, the resulting edge was neither extremely sharp nor extremely dull. Truly, this was an extraordinarily medium stone.
Our Guarantee
You will neither love nor hate this stone, but will find it to be the best medium stone in every sense of the word. We guarantee that you too will feel completely ambivalent about the Extra Extra Medium Stone.
This April 1st joke was posted April 1, 2022. For serious sharpening products, please visit our main sharpening page.