Re: Thanks for the ideas!
Edward J
>I've actually got Veritas Stone pond, given to me by my Dad. Found it a hassle. What I use is a combination 1200/4000 stone and it sits in a s/s food container. I'm a Chef by trade, and I use a gastro-norm "1/4" size s/s container, the kind you see in food places to keep condiments in. There are flexible plastic snap-tite lids for these as well as a perforated plastic plates that sit on the bottom so that the stone rests on the plate, not the bottom of the container. (of course these plates are used in the food industry to keep tomatoes and the like from sitting in their own juice...)With the platic snap-tite lids, I find there's very little evaporation
To use my stone, I "converteted" the alum. tray from a toaster oven. I screwed and siliconed two wood cleats about 1" wide and the same hieght and width as the stone at each narrow end, and smaller strips on the sides to keep the stone in place. I screwed a cleat at the bottom of the tray so I can anchor the whole thing in my vice. Pop the wet stone in the tray, and your stone magically becomes almost 2"longer, so when you use a sharpening jig for plane irons you can max out the full length of the stone by starting the motion with the jig resting on the wood block and ending on the opposite wood block at the other end.
I don't have a stone finer than 4000, yet... But I glued a piece of leather on a board, charged the leather with LV green honing compound, and give my irons and chisels the once over as my final step.
In the summer, it helps to put a few drops of bleach in the water to keep it from get skanky. Make sure you stones are never in water at cold temps, or they'll freeze and crack.
