Sharpening stones redux

A Short but Vigorous Defense

Christopher Schwarz

>Some people have had less-than-satisfactory experiences with diamond stones. I am not one of them. In fact, I consider my DMT DuoSharp to be one of the most important and fundamental pieces of equipment I own.

For the record, the DMT shown below was manufactured in 2000 and came into our shop that same year. When it arrived, I checked it with our Starrett straightedge and feeler gauges. It is flat in all directions to .0015", the limit of our gauges. I believe it is, in fact, flatter. I cannot see light under our straightedge. This morning I checked it again. It is still dead flat.

Every tool that has been sharpened in our shop -- every chisel, plane iron, marking knife, pocket knife and carving tool -- passes over this stone. It is the reference surface. It trues my sharpening stones and provides the first secondary bevel on all my tools. It trues the soles of block and shoulder planes (block planes see a lot of wear in our shop).

I cannot even guess how many operations have been performed on it. Hundreds? Easy.

Of course it doesn't cut as aggressively the day we got it. And thank goodness. It was too aggressive and left deep scratches that took a lot of work to remove. This thing is broken in and working perfectly.

Take this for what you will.

Chris

Re: Sharpening stones redux

joel

>MY old DMT stone (20 years old) was used for everything escpeially flattening waterstones - it's pretty smooth now but I think I got my moneys worth. My much newer (1 year or so) starrett diamond stone is used only for doing backs and sometimes bevels on new tools (and do many more than the average person). I use honing oil. (It replaces the crystolon stone in my multistone). It still cuts very very quickly. I don't use it on waterstones.

Re: Sharpening stones redux

GolfSteve in Calgary

>Ah yes it was a typo...The 1000 and 8000 stones seem almost brand new - not much wear to speak of. My 4000 stone is extremely soft and wears exceptionally fast.

The 4000 stone is useful when flattening the backs of plane blades and chisels but I don't use it for day to day sharpening.

To keep the stones flat I first flatten two 1000 stones against each other (there's a bit of technique involved here - it's more than just randomly rubbing the stones together). I then flatten the 4000 or 8000 stone against one of the 1000 stones.

I think this is where the choice comes between the Norton and the Shapton stones. The Norton stones are easy to keep flat, but need flattened more often. The Shaptons I believe are harder to flatten but need less flattened less often. I think the Shaptons are a few more bucks.

Personally I'm happy with the Nortons and won't be pursuing the ever elusive "perfect" sharpening system.

Re: An open invitation

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>Chris...What are the grits on your DMT?JR

Re: An open invitation

Christopher Schwarz

>This one is coarse (blue) on one side and fine (red) on the other. I actually never use the fine. The more useful setup in my book is coarse and x-coarse (blue and black). I think they make them with that combo.

It's important to note that you should use only blue and black to true waterstones. Waterstones will destroy the nickel binder in the red and green stones (this is from David Powell at DMT).

Chris

Re: Sharpening stones redux

Jonathan Peck - N.Y.

>Just to drive the point home...I accidentally got oil on my waterstones and it was a bear to get out. Soaked em in palm olive, scrubbed em with a nylon brush and then lapped them on a diamond stone (there are no concrete driveways in my neighborhood).. Repeated (approx) 10 times before they would cut the way they're supposed to...

Re: An open invitation

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>I was wondering because I purchased the Blue/Black coarse extra coarse to true a hard arkansas from Garrett Wade that was humped . I was noticing the reduced aggressiveness of the stone after some use and am reassured by your much greater experience with the product. It worked spectacularly on the trueing of the hard arkansas tho.JR

Truing oilstones

Christopher Schwarz

>Joe,

I hate truing oilstones that are more than just a bit out. I've used DMTs to do it, but it was faster (for me) to do it on an iron plate with #90-grit lapping powder and kerosene. It was still a monumental chore, however.

Chris

Re: Truing oilstones

William R. Duffield on the Cohansey

>I've also flattened Arkansas stones using a Blue DMT. After working with it on my translucent hard Arkansas, that apparently had been well appreciated as a razor hone, i decided that I had gotten close enough for hand honing of edges as long as I understood its shape, and that it was never intended to be used for flattening chisel and plane blade backs and plane soles. It may have been a Zen Moment :^) when I realized I wouldn't be needing to tune up my gotosmoother any place I found it practical to haul the old Devonian razorclam instead of a heavy sheet of plate glass, a can of 3M77, several grits of SiC, and the rest of the SS� paraphernalia.

BTW, SS is a tongue-in-cheek "trademark", not a process patent. It is all about marketing, and in its original presentaion had nothing to do with any claims of originality.

Woodstock International?

David Charters from Durham NC

>I have been looking at the waterstones by Woodstock International on Amazon.com. I think they are the parent company of Shop Fox. Does anyone have any experience with WI? I too am not thrilled with SS and am looking to get into waterstones or something.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000DD1MH/qid=1096163563/sr=1-5/ref=sr_1_5/002-4396406-7256866?v=glance&s=hi