Thread: Difficulty sharpening A2 plane blades with waterstones

Hi Acolyte. I sharpen our A2 Lie Nielsen blades on 800 and 6000 waterstones very regullarly. I find no need to strop after the 6000 but do anyway. I was finding exactly the same problem so thought I'd try a $10 Nagura stone to clean and prep the 6000 before and during use. I was rather sceptical until I found that the blades are sharp in no time after briefly rubbing the surface of the 6000 stone. I used to be lucky enough to have a great big water grinding wheel at the school I used to work at. Of course it was very very course but would alsmost completely loose its ability to grind HSS plane blades after a while. A quick dress with a diamond dressing tip and the stone would re grind a blade in seconds. Could be that the Nagura stone has a similar effect.

Acolyte,

I sharpen my LN blades using waterstones and get them quite sharp.

Perhaps the key to what I do is sharpen them often before they get within a bulls roar of becoming blunt. I do this so they perform to my satisfaction rather than because of any sharpening problems.

From what I've heard diamond stones are the go for A2. A2's getting too hard for waterstones.

Hi there,

I only have a couple of A2 blades, but haven't had much trouble on the waterstones yet.

What stage are you letting them get to before "sharpening" them? For example, are we talking about re-honing the blade (basically just a touch up) or are we talking about a real going over from go to woe?

If it's the latter, I wonder if perhaps the 1000 grit is a little too fine for the initial bevel stage, and if an 800 grit might do you in better stead for that stage, followed by a 1000 or 1200, then ending with the 6000.

Oh - as mentioned above, for the higher grit stones (above 4000) I believe that the nagura stone is almost mandatory to build a "slurry" prior to use - this is because the higher grit stones are not stored in water and need a bit of assistance after spraying them to work properly.

Hope that helps.

sCORCH

Gents,

Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated. The blades would get to the stage where they were not cutting that well but weren't totally blunt, maybe I should have stopped to sharpen/hone them sooner. Some extra info, I'm using a 1000x/4000x combo Norton waterstone (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...072,43071&ap=1) which is kept in a water bath (Tupperware meat container with a few drops of bleach added to the water) and a generic 6000x grit waterstone ($39 from CarbaTec) which I place in the water before I start sharpening. I've never used a Nagura stone to clean/create a slurry on the 6000x stone so I'll give that a go. I've also got a 600x/800x DiaSharp diamond stone so I could give the 800x side a go for the initial micro-bevel as well if it will speed things up.

cheers

Acolyte

Hmm,

There shouldn't be too much trouble with the stones you are using - the Norton stones (by all accounts - I haven't used them) should be OK for A2 steel.

Just a couple of fundamental questions, then (none of which are supposed to be patronising, just trying to understand what the issue is):

1) are the backs of the blades definitely flat?
2) are you definitely honing on your 1000 grit Norton until you have a "wire edge"? on the harder steel it can be tempting to give up a little sooner...

re: the 6000 grit water stone.

1) don't place it in the water - just spray it once or twice;
2) then rub it in a circular motion with a Nagura stone ($10 or so, and a worthwhile purchase) until a "slurry" is formed - you can tell when it's ready cause there will be a really annoying vacuum effect on the stone making it hard to move the nagura around

Try the above for the 6000 grit - however it sounds like the problem (if there is one) may be starting earlier in the piece...

sCORCH

sCORCH,

Thanks for the reply, sounds like the problems lies not with my equipment but my (lack of) technique. I've got no problems with your questions, responses:

1. My plane blades are all from LV and are supposedly lapped flat - to quote their web site, "We now lap our Veritas A2 and O1 plane blades* on the face (non-bevel side) to a flatness tolerance of ±0.0002" or better over the working surface, and with an average roughness surface finish of 5 microinches (0.000005") or better". I still give them a minor run over the stones and they appear flat to me.

2. Maybe not, I do occasionally lose patience , however I'm making some improvements to my "sharpening area" which will hopefully increase the general amenity and encourage more thorough sharpening.

Your points on the 6000 grit stone are gratefully received and I'll give it a go and report back.

cheers

Acolyte

Originally Posted by Acolyte

sCORCH,

Thanks for the reply, sounds like the problems lies not with my equipment but my (lack of) technique. I've got no problems with your questions, responses:

1. My plane blades are all from LV and are supposedly lapped flat - to quote their web site, "We now lap our Veritas A2 and O1 plane blades* on the face (non-bevel side) to a flatness tolerance of ±0.0002" or better over the working surface, and with an average roughness surface finish of 5 microinches (0.000005") or better". I still give them a minor run over the stones and they appear flat to me.

2. Maybe not, I do occasionally lose patience , however I'm making some improvements to my "sharpening area" which will hopefully increase the general amenity and encourage more thorough sharpening.

Your points on the 6000 grit stone are gratefully received and I'll give it a go and report back.

cheers

Acolyte

Best of luck.

The LV blades are pretty darn flat. I'm sure there are people out there who might be able to get them flatter, but I'm not one of them...

Don't forget, though, that for a really sharp blade you will still need to "polish" up the back of the blade to the same level grit as you are to the bevel (it's worth just running it through the same series of stones right up to the green rouge - won't take long since they're already flat).

Best of luck - we'll all wait for your report on how things went.

sCORCH