Message #13203

[goldsbar]

Files shape, stones (diamond, stone, composite, whatever) sharpen.  They're made for two differnt uses.  If you muck up your edges and start to get some rounding, there's no way a stone is going to sharpen anything.  You can run a 100 grit diamond stone back and forth 500 times and you're not going to notice any material flying off your edges.  Run a file once and you'll see the metal coming off.  I generally stick to stones only on my slalom skis as they're generally not seeing any rock damage.  For skis I take through the woods, filing followed by stones becomes a necessity.