Waterstone Question and Gloat

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat

GolfSteve in Calgary

>You won't go wrong with the Norton waterstones. I have two 1000 stones, a 4000 stone, and an 8000 stone. Lie-Nielsen sells these. A bit on the pricey side, but they work very well.

You're a lucky guy to learn sharpening with David Charlesworth.

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat

Hank Knight

>John, I've been using Nortons for a couple of years and I really like them. I have a Tormek too, but I hardly ever use it since I started with the Nortons. Norton makes combibnation stones - one grit per side. You can get four grits (220/1000 and 4000/8000) in two stones a lot cheaper than buying all four stones. These aren't the specific grits recommended for your seminar, but they are the Norton "standards." Garrett Wade has the "combo set" on sale in their March 2004 catalog. Lee Valley also carries combination stones, but I've never used theirs. I'm sure they would be fine though, given the usual high quality of their merchandise.

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat

Jack from Maine

>You can get Bear brand stones pretty reasonably priced at woodcraft,but if you want better quality to start with get Norton.Definitely worth the money and really not that pricey.Either will work for you.---Jack

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat

RichD

>I've recently purchased the Shaptons and have been very happy with them so far. Not Knowlegable enough to comment on sharpening guides. I've been a freehand guy by default.

Richard Kell honing guide *LINK*

Mark Hendriks

>I agree with the others that say Norton is the way to go. I have tried the top mounted honing jigs but they don't keep the blade straight. A friend told me about the Richard Kell honing guide. It is a bit pricey but well worth it! I bought both of mine from Darlene at European Hand Tools. Found them when I was surfing the net. Here is a link for them.


European Hand Tools

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat *LINK*

Wendell @ Murphy, TX

>Joel at the Museum of Woodworking Tools has the Norton Combination stone set for $81.61 which is about $18 cheaper than Garrett Wade's sale price. Standard Disclaimer applies, I am just a satisfied customer.

Wendell


Norton Water Stones

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat

Jim in Burlington

>Did you buy the 15000 stone?

Re: Richard Kell honing guide

John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)

>Price aside, 1" limit makes it a head scratcher for a plane class. I've also never had a problem with the ~$10 alternative failing to hold square. Add a flat washer for a wrench, and you are up to $10.05; the Veritas "pocket screwdriver" version of a flat washer brings it to $10.50.

Getting it square initially is simple if you align the blade/iron to a perpendicular line drawn on a piece of scrap, which can also be marked with projection distances for repeatable angle-setting.




/jvs

Honing guide

Alice Frampton, UK

>John,

I'd go with the Eclipse style one without any hesitation. Don't bother paying for the name though, the copies are fine. In fact that's the sort DC uses (see FWW article #169), so you'd both be working with the same thing, eliminating one possible area for confusion.

BTW, that's a nice gloat wrapped up in questions about waterstones and honing guides :~)

Cheers, Alf

Re: Waterstone Question and Gloat

RichD

>No, I got the 1000 and 5000. Have to wait on finer grit because of cost. Still better than the black arkansas oil stone I was using before.

Re: Honing guide

glh

>I have three of the honing guides mentioned above, the Veritas, Kell, and Eclipse style. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. The Veritas is in some ways the easiest because you can set the bevel for the honing guide with the bevel guide. The disadvantage of it relative to the other two is that it there is more uncertainty about alignment and it doesn't handled small chisels (1/8" and 1/16", especially) well. It does have the lines for alignment but sometimes the lines are difficult to match up (and see) and I have had the clamp slip, especially on narrower tools. I tend to use it for plane blades and wide chisels. A nice feature of the Veritas is the micro-adjuster that allows you to put an easily repeatable micro bevel on your tools. I use a micro-bevel of one click on the Veritas. That's about 1-2 degrees. You can do this with the other guides, but it requires rejigging the tool and, if you're like me, you'll never be certain you that you can repeat that bevel exactly.

Both the Kell and Eclipse take the uncertainty out of alignment and are equipped to deal with narrow tools. I find the referencing of the Eclipse to be easier because you reference from the front of the guide as opposed to the pins (bars) on the Kell. However, the Kell is a nice, well-built, precise guide, although I probably would not have bought in if I had gotten the Eclipse first. A friend who was getting out of woodworking for health reasons gave me the Eclipse and a Stanley. The Stanley guide is especially good on short bladed tools like spokeshaves, although Veritas has come out with something recently designed for short blades, which I haven't tried. The Stanley guide has a built-in referencing scale.

Another thing to note is that FastTrack has recently come out with grinding-honing jig that allows you to move directly from grinding to honing on the same jig. I don't plan to buy because I've got more jigs than tools, but if I were in the market, I'd certainly take a look at it. I've found that FastTrack stuff is usually high quality and designed for easy use.

Thanks Guys....

John Weber - GO BUCKS!

>I ordered the combo Norton stones and a little guide from Joel. Nice to support a fellow WC'er, and he has a heck of a price. This should give me a little time to play and be ready for class. After that I can see what else I might need. I loved that Kell jig, but a since this is a plane class it would be a bit narrow. Thanks again for all the help.

John

Re: Thanks Guys....

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>Be sure to read up on keeping your new waterstones flat. Just search under WATERSTONES and FLATTENING, and you should find plenty of reading. ;-)

HIJACK ALERT!

John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)

>Shame on you, Don--any (and every) mention of flattening waterstones deserves its own thread.




/jvs, from safely behind a 3" granite shield

Why?

Ryan Stagg -- Cincinnati

>No need to start a new thread. Everyone knows that sandpaper and glass is the best way, right?

{ducking}

Re: HIJACK ALERT! -> :-)

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>

actually, i just use my forehead

John Truxell-Svenson (jvs)

>

Richard Kell honing guide...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Was designed for Japanese and thin chisles. It's kind of a pain to use IMHO. It's not ment for plane blades.

You got it...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>That's my favorite also. A great guide at a reasonable price. It can handle wide scraper blades also (i.e. 80's 112's).

Re: Honing guide

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>The greater part of my sharpening is done freehand because it is sooo much faster, but I still turn to a Veritas guide to set or correct the bevel. I have had mixed results with several guides.

By definition, a guide is there to provide repeatable cuts or grindings. In practice, unless you can set it exactly the same way each time, you will be presented with a new surface to (re)grind, which will turn out to be much more work (since it is like starting afresh each time).

The Veritas has no provision for setting the blade square, and you need to use a small square to do so. The Eclipse will automatically square up a blade, but is has a small rear wheel and never feels balanced in use. Pros and Cons.

I have now made my own setting jig for the Veritas jig. It is limited to either 25 or 30 degrees. It will set the correct angle - and set it square - in under 10 seconds (if you are inclined to try for speed records). Nothing original but just my own work.

Picture below.

Regards from Perth

Derek

good idea

Jack from Maine

>I like that. Right now I have lines drawn on a bench. "Wish I would've though of that" is something I say alot here. One of the nice features of Woodcentral.---Jack