Thread: Waterstones arrived!!

The water is no more than a carrier for the swarf. Such fine granularity plugs with rubbish very quickly
without a stream of "juice" to keep the working surface clean.
Working or flatting a surface, always lots of water for flushing.
Then your stone surface can cut cleanly and at a predictable grit size.

Almost all of my working edges have sweeps. They are curved. More straight edges in the kitchen by far.
The principles are exactly the same but the actual sharpening technique is completely reversed = the abrasive moves over a fixed edge.

Thanks guys. Yep I curve the edges of my plane blade a little too. I'm only using one atm.

When you guys mention mould killer and copper in the water does that mean you leave them in the same water all the time?

I've been leaving the coarser stones in water as I said but I have been changing it every couple of days. I guess if the stones stay wet they can get mouldy even with fresh water?

I'm gonna compromise and sit them in a small amount of water so they have some to soak up but aren't covered. Then I can give em a bit more if needed before sharpening but it'll be quick and they'll get air on one surface. Put em back in the other way up the next time. Just thought of that though - I haven't tried it yet.

Watch Rob Cosman demonstrate sharpening a plane iron. It's a true eye-opener and shows why you should do the back of the iron.

Originally Posted by aldav

Back of the blade eh! Never been tempted to do this, and as I'm happy with the results I get without doing it I don't think I'll be tempted. But, in the same vein as your post 'what would I know'. This really is a subject where you ask a question and get 20 different answers, NONE OF WHICH ARE WRONG!

The only problem I've noted with keeping my waterstones in a permanent bath (all King stones) is the algae growth.

Originally Posted by Martin.van.zyl

Watch Rob Cosman demonstrate sharpening a plane iron. It's a true eye-opener and shows why you should do the back of the iron.

Funny you should mention that, it's exactly what I've been doing. I guess you're talking about the ruler trick? I like the fact that Rob Cosman gives the credit for the ruler trick where it is due, David Charlesworth. I'm going to give it a try.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

The water is no more than a carrier for the swarf. Such fine granularity plugs with rubbish very quickly
without a stream of "juice" to keep the working surface clean.

RV - I have a slightly different understanding, but this difference may come from the particular stones we are using. Besides the flushing benefit of water, in the lower grit waterstones like Kings, the binder is a partially fired clay and one of the functions of the water is to help breakdown the binder to allow new and sharper abrasive particles to be exposed. As you move up into the finer grit stones the binders are designed to hold their abrasive particles for longer, but this is not uniformly so across all waterstone brands and styles. So-called ceramic stones tend to behave differently.

Stu, who is an Australian living in Japan and who has done a lot of comparative analysis of the different (man-made) waterstones available (he also sells them), has written a piece on the differences between common waterstones, called Stone the crows! Although quite old now, it is a good article if you are trying to get your head around the differences in waterstones.


PS - natural waterstones are another category altogether and not to be confused with any of the above.

PPS - I have about every make and type of waterstone and my conclusion is that any waterstone is better than none at all.

PPPS - the type (ie any type ) of sharpening system you use magically improves with practise...

However that it's done, I read that we are saying the same things in different words.
I didn't know that water was corrosive to some kinds of grit binder. I don't recall Leonard Lee making any mention of it.

I have no names or numbers but I've convinced myself that a fine stone (eg 4000 grit)
is not just a reduced version of a 1,000 grit stone in both binder and grit chemistries.
Just a couple of decades using them (usually daily) and thinking about the physics.

Now, they have been dry for a few years.
I've switched entirely to sand paper and mandrels for all the bevel edges with sweeps.
Very different movements in the carving techniques.

Kestrel Tool