Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Wet Stone
Andrew Frank
>Hi all. I have an old wet stone that has been used to much that it has a big dip, and my 3/4, 1'' chisels are not getting honed all the way. Any ideas as to how i can flatten it? The previous owner didnt go in circles / figure 8's when honing. I do that, it is a used stone. Thanks!
Re: Wet Stone
Jack Guzman from Maine
>Some people simply use a cement block. Woodcraft sells flattening stones or you could use sandpaper on a flat surface.---Jack
Re: Wet Stone
Neal (San Jose)
>I've had really bad luck with the commercial flattening stones. Admitedly, I've only tried two, but they were both way out of flat and caused more problems than they solved. I use very coarse sandpaper on glass ala scary sharp with good results. I've used this method on both waterstones and oil stones. It does use up sandpaper at an impressive rate, tho!
Re: Wet Stone
Bruce, a MN galoot
>a bunch of years ago, I happened across a cheap whetstone that my dad had bought a long time before that. It was very soft, and consequently it never got used for tools. But I thought, what the heck, and used that stone to flatten my other whetstones, both waterstones and oilstones. It worked extremely well on everything from the 12" long Nortons to 800 grit King brand waterstones.
Bruce
Re: Wet Stone
William R. Duffield on the Cohansey
>I use a used-up coarse (blue) DMT diamond stone. It even works on my hard Arkansas whetstone.
The cheapest way is to pick up several old whetstones, and flatten them on each other. If you start with Stone A and Stone B and rub them while rotating a few degrees after every few strokes, you will end up with two spherical surfaces with the same radius, one concave and one convex. If you do the same with Stone A and Stone C you will again get one concave and one convex. Now repeat the process with Stone B and Stone C. You will now have two stones with very large radii of curvature, one slightly concave and one slightly convex. Just keep swapping stones, A&B, B&C, C&A, rubbing and turning, until you are satisfied that all flat enough for your purposes.
Re: Wet Stone
Jerome Laux
>One way that works for me is to use some coarse (90-120) grit silicon carbide on a piece of glass or a flat piece of steel. After you have soaked the water stone, place a pinch of grit with a little water on the glass or steel and gently rub in a circular motion. It will flatten any stone rather nicely. I prefer using steel to glass as the silicon carbide "bites" into the steel just enough. Highland Hardware sells some silicon carbide grit.
Re: Wet Stone
Charles
>By the time you buy a piece of glass and abrasives you'd be on your way to buying a new stone.
There's no shame in calling something ruined and throwing it out. You need a reliable sharpening method in your shop. If the dip is *big* like you say it is, it may essentially be beyond reclamation except by somebody hell-bent on flattening it.
Decide how much your time is worth.