Thread: Ceramic Flatteners

Termite, I think I saw one of those in either a Timbecon or Carbatec cattledog at around the $40 mark. They are not on their websites but will try and find it tonight, unless someone already has it at hand.

You can also use a surfaced plat for laping. That is what I use. Then again I have a full line machine shed in the back. I hear that alot of people use a thick piece of scrap glass. anything that is hard and flat. If you use glass put in a frame. If you have a large belt sander you can clean up the edges of the glass and make the round. The glass should cost you nothing. You can then relap the stone with differnt grits of emery paper. I have not laped a stone sence I bought my tormak. I sharpend all my carving, wood turning, chisels etc. The only way to go if you do a lot of work. My wife is.... because the kitchen knives are sharpe enough to shave with. Then again any thing I do is nver right. I think I have the only grumpy Aussie wife. My grand kids asked me why I did not sleep with nana. I told them I did not want to get frost bitten. Hope the ideas help and save you a buck.

Lap, lap

Apparently you can use an ordinary carborundum stone to flatten them. Haven't tried it myself but someone here reckoned he got the tip from a tool maker or seller in Japan.

Saw an article in FWW ages ago that suggested flattening the coarsest one on a concrete path, and then flattening the others on the coarser one.

Personally, I use W&D on a piece of laminate on MDF. Works fine for me.

Grab a bit of glass and the Veritas abrasive powder. You'll only need about a teaspoon per stone - very quick.

I don't really want to hear about people's sleeping arrangements in a sharpening thread, or their stereotypical views on Mexicans, for that matter. SA's post seems to illustrate the dangers of excessive turps, or some other psychotropic substance.

Rocker

Now Rocker, we're supposed to be pretending like nothing happened

Thanks for your advice folks. Possibly I should explain a bit further. I already have glass plates from my scary sharp days and have used wet and dry for flattening. I'm looking for an alternative to constantly forking out money for sheets of W&D or grit.

SilentC,

I would have thought that someone who had been responsible for having half of a thread deleted by the Administrator would have had the sense to pull his head in for a time. But it was not to be.

Rocker

He probably doesn't know.

Termite, I can't find the thread but whoever it was said that he asked the vendor in a tool shop in Japan what he uses to flatten waterstones and he was shown a block of carborundum. We used to have one when I was a glazier for removing the sharp edges on glass. It's worth a try and would be much cheaper than a Shapton stone or similar.

Termite, they are $35 in the latest carbatec cattledog. They don't have the fine grooves to carry away the slurry as the US$75 ones on the garrett wade website, they look a fair bit wider, don't know anything about the quality though. The million dollar question is do they have them in stock ...

Hi,
on Leonard (dad of Rob Lee) Lee's Sharpening Video, he flattens his coarse waterstone using Plate glass and the Veritas grinding powder. It must be Plate glass, not ordinary glasse, as this type of glass has a very accurately flat surface. He only used about 1/4 teaspoon of the powder.
He then went on to use the coarse watertone to flatten his fine waterstone.
I went the simple but expensive way where I use a coarse diamond sharpening stone the same size as my waterstones.
Paul

The Perth guys have.

I've just woken up! So thought I'd log on to a two week old thread.

I read this somewhere, and am going to give it a go

Normal concrete blocks are from a steel mould, and autoclaved so should be pretty flat. ($5.00 if you can't steal one). Check for flatness before parting with the hard-earned!

Use the Concrete block to flatten the coursest stone.

Keep the back side of each stone as the "flat" side, and use it to flatten each successively softer stone.

Cheers,

P