Thread: Sharpening 101

Ok confusion over, the last mag I received was the June issue (the one you are referring to Craig). The April issue (which I thought was the last one I received) had been buried in a pile of mag's on the coffee table. I only found it last week totally unread D'oh !!

The June issue is now a well thumbed volume in the reading room (toilet)

Dave

Originally Posted by Ian007

Darren
I just saw that you are only 8 years old
please stop playing with sharp tools at once and go to your room!

stop!! the shed does not constitute your room.

Ian

Awww, but I'm going to be 9 next week. It's not fair, I never get to do anything

While I don't feel the need to flatten my waterstones between each chisel, I would check the stones after 2 or 3. Some stones wear more quickly than others (e.g. 800 vs 6000), and some brands are harder than others (e.g. Shaptons are much harder than King). All these factors influence the time between flattenings, as well as the medium one uses to flatten the stones. All stones are NOT the same.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by davo453

The June issue is now a well thumbed volume in the reading room (toilet)

Dave

Does anyone else get into trouble for reading on the toilet?

Originally Posted by hovo

Does anyone else get into trouble for reading on the toilet?

No trouble unless I keep others waiting too long. I must build a book case in there one day so it looks tidy.

- Wood Borer

He guys,

always an interesting topic.

Over the last 6 months I have upgraded a lot of my hand tools and have had to flatten and sharpen a lot. Tried scary sharp in the early days but graduated to jap waterstones. I am currently using King brand 800/1200/8000 followed by Veritas chromium oxide green stuff on a leather strop - this method is really "scary sharp" as any slip and something gets lopped off in the process.

As far as flattening goes, I have pretty much been using a similar method as outlined in FWW for many months now and find it to work well. I use a sheet of 360/400 grit WD on plate glass to flatten the stones. I tried Rob Cosmans' idea of using each stone to flatten the other but wasn't that happy.

I find if I am flattening the back of a chisel/plane iron, I am flattening the stone regularly - probably no more than 200 strokes on the stone. It is easy to see if this is necessary by using the FWW method of drawing on the stone in pencil and flattening it until it all disappears.

I recently purchased a DMT Duo sharp diamond stone with the coarse/extra fine as I had a bunch of new chisels to do and wanted to get them flat quickly. The DMT worked very fast for the first 1/2 doz chisels then really tapered off. I would not reccomend one of these stones. The extra fine 1200 grit side still seems ok but the 320 grit coarse side actually polishes the steel!

In search of the "holy grail" of quick flattening, I have ordered a 120 and 1000 grit Shapton stones and am looking forward to trying them out.

BTW, last night I was sharpening an old, newly acquired plane. The blade back was very convex and after about 15 minutes on the 800 King stone I thought stuff this and put the plane blade to some 120grit paper on float glass and the back was flat in less than 1 minute. It was eassy to then go back to the king stones and finsh off.

Hey Derek, do you have any shaptons and if so how do you find them?

regards,

Andrew

Hi Andrew

No, I've not used the Shaptons myself. Read a lot of very good things about them though. They come highly rated by Steve Knight (USA-based plane maker) and I'd like to get a set in the future. For now I am hanging in with my King stones (800, 1200, 4000, 6000) and finishing with Veritas green rouge. The more I use the King stones, the better they seem to cut. I guess that it is partly down to technique. This also parallels my increasing preference for sharpening without a jig, which not only seems to produce a sharper edge, but takes a fraction of the time.

Incidentally, use the green crayon on an offcut of MDF. Do not use it on leather since this is more likely to round over edges.

I think diamond stones are over-rated. I do own a few and my observations accord with many others. That is, they cut aggressively in the beginning, but then lose this and, while they may continue to cut for years, they remain best used for polishing only. DMT have written about this too.

In another thread I recently suggested going to SS to remove lots ofsteel quickly, rather than the waterstones. Start at about 80 grit.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek,

I'll give the MDF a go with the veritas green.

When I get the Shaptons, I'll post a comparison between the two. I do like my king stones but I am moving to Tassie and sometimes the inside shop temp is below zero overnight.

I have heard that warestones left in water ( as I leave my 800/1200) in sub zero conditions do this funny expansion thing and become useless. I therefore decided to get the shaptons as even the coarser grits only require water at time of use rather than soaking. (which is why I tried the DMT as well).

regards,

ANdrew

Jeez Andrew, moving from Brisbane to Tasmania in one hit is a bit risky isn't it? Maybe you should move to Sydney first and then to Melbourne. Give all your tools (and yourself) a chance to acclimatise.

I read the FWW article again last night. I've got some of those mesh sanding sheets, so I'll give that a go for flattening the stone.

Derek, when you're sharpening freehand, do you establish the angle first some how, or are you just winging it?

Could someone tell me what the Shaptons are made of?
Ie. are they water stone, natural, man made, ceramic,etc?

Ta'

Ben.

Ceramic apparently: http://www.shaptonstones.com/stones/...nal-Series.php

when you're sharpening freehand, do you establish the angle first some how, or are you just winging it?

Andrew

While freehand sharpening produces a better edge for me, I continue to use a Verital jig (both the angle setter and blade guide) to establish the correct angle and get it all square. It is only once that is done that I go freehand. If I notice that the bevel is getting rounded or off square, then I return to the Veritas to re-establish it all.

Sharpening in an "8", "0", "///" and "\\\" direction helps keep the stones flat for as long as possible, but I always check as it is difficult to get a truly sharp edge otherwise.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Derek. You can call me Darren or SilentC if you like

Originally Posted by bloggs1968

I have heard that warestones left in water ( as I leave my 800/1200) in sub zero conditions do this funny expansion thing and become useless.

I think if a waterstone is left out of the water and allowed to freeze it will crack. Same thing happens to normal rocks in nature.