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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
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    Melbourne
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    166

    Default Float glass/granite + sandpaper vs. Diamond stone for lapping/fast coarse sharpening

    Hi all,
    The title pretty much says it all - I'm trying to decide which to go with for lapping plane blades and plane soles, establishing bevels quickly, and flattening my Japanese waterstones.

    Which would you suggest? Pros/cons of each?

    Where can you get a bit of float glass if that's the way to go, and how much could I expect to spend?

    Cheers
    Will

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Melbourne
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    Default

    Or how about something like this?
    Veritas® Steel Honing Plate - Lee Valley Tools

    To small to lap plane soles?

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    3,095

    Default

    I used float glass and then granite and sandpaper for lapping and now have moved to diamond stones.
    Granite offcuts from the tombstone makers is a good source.

    I consider the diamond stones superior as you will always get some kind of rounding with the sandpaper moving, and its slower as you need to be sure not to tear the paper.

    A diamond stone is ideal for flattening waterstones and for lapping, and the good ones come on a very flat steel plate.

    tools from japan
    is a good place to both purchase from and to get info from... Stu is a great guy. (i have no commercial interest in recommending Stu's shop.)

    I took the long way and played around with different methods.
    Dual surface Diamond plate (I got the i-wood 300 and 1000 combo double sided one) and waterstones are my 'expensive in the short term/cheap in the long term' way of getting things flat and sharp.

    IMO
    Cheers,
    Clinton

    "Use your third eye" - Watson

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/clinton_findlay/

  5. #4
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    2,357

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    I wont go into too much detail about the pro's and cons of either system other to say I highly recommend diamond stones because they will always crucially always remain flat after every use. 1 each of Coarse, Medium, and Fine grit. I also recommend using Dans Honing with the diamond stones. Hone with a leather strop or preferably mdf board that's coated with a green honing compound. The results are always consistently high.

    Stewie;

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    166

    Default

    Thanks for the tips guys - I was already leaning towards diamond.
    I only need something coarse - I've got a 300, 1200, 6000 (I think) and a Natural Polishing Japanese waterstones. The 300 however seems completely clogged, as it is exceptionally slow at removing material (to the point of being currently useless), so I just need a coarse stone to get that up and running again, and do the real heavy work on blades etc.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Brisbane (western suburbs)
    Age
    77
    Posts
    12,079

    Default

    wsal, whatever method of abrasive lapping you use, you will get some rounding of the edge on the face moving into the grit - this is inevitable, as the slurry building up ahead of the moving metal is forced under the edge. Without doubt, the worst effect occurs with any type of substrate that is compressible or stretchable, since a wave of substrate also builds ahead of the moving edge. Abrasive papers have both faults, & are to be avoided at all costs, imo.

    Methods which involve loose cutting particles in a slurry on a hard medium are a step better. Examples are abrasive pastes (carborundum or diamond) on substrates like particle-board (compressible, but not as bad as paper!) or iron, or granite, or glass. The latter two, being harder, don't hold the abrasive particles as well, so you get less-rapid cutting than on particle board or iron, all else being equal.

    In 50-odd years of lapping tools, I've tried each method mentioned, & my vote goes to diamond plates, too. Good quality plates are flat (watch out for the cheapies, which often ain't!), and remain flat for the life of the plate (sometimes!). The cutting particles are held firmly in place, so you don't have particles harder than the metal you are lapping, in the slurry. You will still get some rounding of the edges, caused by the bits of metal torn off by the cutting medium (and also a slight convexity caused by rocking as you move the tool, if you are not very careful!). You can clearly see this as you move from coarser to finer grits. It isn't as severe as you get with the previously-mentioned methods of lapping, but is still a factor to be contended with, so don't spend any more time on each grit than necessary.

    Getting the backs of wide chisels or plane blades truly flat by lapping is a tedious business. There are no short-cuts, and as someone on the forum said, it's a 99/1 process - 99% of the effort goes into the last 1% of flattening. A 1" or larger chisel that some clown has put on a linisher or a badly-rounded stone can easily occupy you for an afternoon or longer! Personally, the only surface I think needs to be absolutely flat to the max is the business end of a chisel back. You can compensate on plane blades by using back bevels, but back-bevels on a chisel can make it unuseable for many tasks. I prefer not to have to use back bevels on anything, except in the few instances where I want to increase cutting angles, but they are a get-out-of-jail card if you have a pitted or seriously un-flat blade, & just want to get it working.
    IW

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