Plenty of cheap and very serviceable new ones available for not much money. I should start an online store...:)
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I contend that it's the area you use to sharpen that must be flat, not the entire stone if you don't use it. I'm so cheap that I've never flattened some of my natural stones. Instead I've often used very small flat areas which enlarge themselves as I use them.
Pam
Thanks for the tips on getting a flattening stone.
I bought a set of cheap Trojan diamond sharpening plates (course, fine, super fine) for $32 at Bunnings and it worked very well for flattening my water stone. I initially avoided them because of the cheap price but they worked really well for both sharpening and flattening my water stone.
It turns out my water stone was really quite uneven and it took a while before I got it flat with the diamond plates so it was very well worth it.
Tim.
Take a look at off.co.jp for tools. Thats one of my favorite shops here
Hi Marki,
Thanks for sharing that link to the shop.
It was interesting to see that they sold a lot of western hand tools there.
So far I've only come across only traditional Japanese hand tools in the Japanese stores and only saw the odd western hand tool for sale once in a while.
Tim.