OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

234547 Tom Holloway <thholloway@u...> 2012‑11‑20 Re: Re: Flattening Benchstones
I don't want to hear about it all being there in the Archives, because
I don't think it has been said in a while: All this folderol about the
time, hassle, and mess of flattening of stones of various traditions
and provenance is one of the reasons I stick to Scary Sharp. My
granite plate and my chunk of plate glass never go out of flat,
because I renew the surface(s) [i.e., the various grits of paper] as
needed. I have at my disposal about 8 or 10 grits descending course to
fine from 80 to 2000, rather than 2 or 3 degrees of abrasiveness. To
establish the primary bevel in a rehab operation I use a hand-cranked
grinder, or if the bevel as found is shallower than 25 degrees I just
hit with 80 grit to get a surface at that angle and then work on down.
Quickly. In reworking a worn edge I move in higher angle increments
about 2 degrees at a time and start at 150 or 220 grit, and then down.
This gives me about three such renewed edges before I get much past 30
degrees and need to regrind and start over. I do all this dry,
vacuuming off the swarf/dust as needed. Yes, I have the expense of
buying the paper and the agony of slicing it with an errant stroke
before it is used up, and the hassle of replacing it when it gets too
shredded or worn out. But those are prices I will pay to avoid the
alternatives I have been reading about in this thread. Nothing in
sharpening comes free of some expense, hassle, and time, and all
systems have their upsides, downsides, and tradeoffs. This works for
me. Your mileage may vary. Tom Holloway

On Nov 20, 2012, at 4:54 PM, Mark Fortune  wrote:
> I do appreciate the importance of flatness for lapping chisels & plane
> irons, once properly prepared its easy to maintain the lapped face,
> trouble is I collect old "sheffield" chisels and lap maybe one or two
> a week - most are rust pitted wrecks - i start with sand paper stuck
> to a disk on my lathe & gradually get finer and finer then on to
> course/fine/superfine waterstones to mirror shine, (oh how beautifully
> they will cut after that!) I usually flatten each waterstone about 12
> times in one session. Physically & mentally the whole process is
> punishment/abuse, but the worst part is all that horrible slurry from
> the waterstones, that's why I want to see them in "dry dock" and put
> some real stones into action.> I think I might go for a DMT dia flat
> lapping plate to prepare the bench stones. If I don't spend the money
> - the wife will!!
>> On 20 Nov 2012, at 23:03, Ken Shepard  wrote: Rob Cosman
>> uses water stones and seems to spend as much time flattening them as
>> he does in using them to sharpen. This need for incessant flattening
>> is the main reason I no longer use my water stones. IMHO, this
>> obsession with flattening stones is akin to some of the other
>> obsessions that seem to periodically grip woodworkers; obsessions
>> that take time away from actually working wood.
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Recent Bios FAQ