What is the recommended grit size for the hone for scouring the cylinder walls to put the crosshatch pattern on them, prior to installing new rings? When reconditioning cylinder walls is it possible to achieve the deglazing process using something other than a proper sized hone, i.e. sanding cloth or some other device?

If you have never done this before, I would stay away from the tradition 3 stone cylinder deglazer/hone because they can be difficult to use and one little slip will leave you with a nice gouge in the cylinder. Personally, I only use these types of hones when I'm boring a cylinder out just to speed up the process.

I would recommend using a flexible cylinder hone to deglaze and put the crosshatch back in the cylinder. I have some that work really nice for this, but I'm not sure what grit they are. If I had to guess, I would say they are probably between 200 and 300 grit. If you want to buy a flexible cylinder hone, you can get them by going to www.mcmaster.com and doing a search for "flexible hone". This will pull up a whole page of hones for you to choose from. I recommend using these types of hones because they are self centering, almost impossible to screw up, and will leave you with a near perfect crosshatch pattern.