Man! Bathrooms and sharpening don't mix...
Denis Chénard, Orléans, Ont.
>Last night I was sharpening a bunch of plane blades for an upcoming event. I use sandpaper on granite, with the MK II guide. Works great.
One thing that I've found is that you have to be quite thorough in cleaning everything before moving to a higher grit. Otherwise you work for nothing, as leftover larger grit ruins the one you're using now.
So, being extra careful I thoroughly cleaned the plate, the honing guide and the blades at each grit change, rinsing everything in running water.
Well, at some point I had to use the bathroom, and forgot to wipe the water off the blades before leaving. When I came back five minutes later there was flash rust on the blades! Blew me away!
Subsequent grits took care of the rust spots, so no harm done, except for a few tiny black spots here and there.
Now, is A2 steel more prone to do this than HCS?
In any case, lesson learned, wipe water off blades immediately...
DC