Waterstone Advice (yes again!)

[Sam]

Looking to move on from scary sharp, it's a good system but the time has come.

I've got my eye on either a Norton 1000/4000 or a 1000/8000 combo from Lee Valley as they seem economical ($60-70US) and are wide enough for #7 plane blades. I'll be hollow grinding titan/cheap stanley chisels and falcon-pope/old stanley plane blades (read - no idea what type of steel !!!!) then honing freehand.

Is a 1000/8000 combo stone too big a jump between grits after hollow grinding?
Is 4000/8000 more appropriate after hollow grinding? ie is 1000 too low if I've already established a primary bevel ?

Cheers,

Sam

[rsser]

Doing a hollow grind right to the tip takes a deal of time and care to avoid bluing so I'd suggest you look at the first grit to take out remaining nicks and form the coplanar bevels. If the Norton is an ANSI rating, the 1000 might be a bit fine but I've not used one to comment from experience. 1000 JIS IME is good but that's about 700 ANSI.

[Kari Hultman]

I've used 1,000 and 8,000 grit waterstones for years and they work great. I believe that's the combination that Deneb Pulchalski (Lie-Nielsen) uses. I may have seen that in the latest issue of FWW.

[Mr Brush]

Ditto.....

Particularly when applied to ceramic stones, like the Shaptons. 1000 and 8000 Shaptons seems to be the preferred LN sharpening regime these days.

I have an assortment of waterstones accumulated over the years, plus a set of the larger diamond plates. I've found that the Extra Fine diamond plate (green) is roughly equivalent to a 1000 grit waterstone for the primary bevel (I don't hollow grind), then form the microbevel on an 8000 grit Norton stone. My 800 and 1200 waterstones hardly get used since getting the diamond plates.

I have the combo Norton 4000/8000, but these days the 4000 hardly gets used at all except as a stage in flattening the backs of tools. When working with a larger area than just a cutting edge, I think you'll find it difficult to get 1000 grit scratches out going straight to an 8000 stone.

So..........if you're looking at all applications, I'd say one way or another waterstones in 1000, 4000 and 8000 grit are useful. For all applications requiring substantial material removal (like flattening the blade from an Aldi Premium Plane...) diamond plates are the go. Forget about coarse waterstones - I have a 220 grit Norton, but it wears so fast as to be useless for flattening purposes.

[Sam]

Thanks for the replies.

If I'm reading this chart correctly Abrasive Conversion Chart | The Sandpaper Man P1200 is close to 16 microns which is a 1000 grit waterstone according to the LV dogolouge.....Next time I sharpen I'll come straight off the grinder to P1200 and see how I go.

Thanks again.