New way to lap plane soles?

[James Taglienti]

I have a large piece of 100 grit sandpaper glued to a piece of mdf in my shop. it came from a wide belt sander in a cabinet shop and i took it after it wore out. i used to lap plane soles on it, etc, but the grit is almost nil now. Earlier this week I was using it to flatten my coarse waterstone, which just packed the grit with slurry. then it dawned on me- i could use this to lap my planes! so i let it dry and finished flattening the stone with no water. it really caked the stone particles in there. then i got an old block plane out and gave it a shot. i spritzed the board down and went to work. boy, it worked fast and that plane came up FLAT. i was thrilled! It was like having a 2' x 4' coarse waterstone at my disposal! :D has anyone else tried this before?

[jerry nazard]

Not exactly. I flatten my stones on 220 wet and dry that has previously been used to clean up primary bevels. After getting imbued with slurry, I use it to touch up chisel backs, scrapers, etc. I'll give it a shot with a plane. I suppose that giving it a dusting with pumice and a spritz of water would keep it going for some time.

Since you now have a 2 x 4' lapping plate, can I send you a few #8's to flatten for me...? :D

[Jon Toebbe]

Since you now have a 2 x 4' lapping plate, can I send you a few #8's to flatten for me...? :D
Ooh! Ooh! Me next! I'll pay shipping both ways and spring for some liquid lubrication for the operator... pick your favorite beer, chum! :p

In all seriousness: that's quite a clever idea. It's always seemed to me that coarse, fast wearing abrasives, whether it be sandpaper or waterstones probably wear a good bit faster than the actual cutting ability of the particles degrades. Recapturing the 220 grit slurry on worn sandpaper gives you the most use from each.

I guess that makes your 220 stone the world's largest (and coarsest) nagura for the world's cheapest "waterstone." :D