New L-N/BS chisels and Shapton: Starting grit?

[Jim Neeley]

I just bought Shapton... er, bought some of their glass stones (1,000, 2,000, 4,000, 8,000, 16,000 and 30,000) and accessories and am trying to get a feel for the different grits before using them. If I had a new chisel that was well-prepared, such as a Lie-Nielsen or Blue Spruce, which stone would you start out with?

I don't want to take the tool 3 steps backwards by starting too coarse yet 30,000 sounds too fine...

If you own Shaptons and were going to sharpen a new L-N or BS, where would you start?

Jim

[Jim Koepke]

For me, it would depend on how the surface of the chisels look.

If the bevel surface appears:

Matt - 4,000
Satin - 8,000
Almost Mirror - 16,000
Mirror - 30,000

If one of my chisels has been honed a lot of times on the 8,000 stone, it may get a quick honing on a 1,000 or 4,000 stone just to take it back to matt to make sure the bevel is flat all the way to the edge.

jtk

[Sam Babbage]

I've no experience with Blue-Spruce, but with Lie-Nielsens I start at 1000, while they are well ground (flat) they aren't at all polished (smooth). I have a little voice in my head saying that LNs ship at around 240g or so... But I could be going crazy. :p

[Russell Sansom]

Shapton 1000. Chisels: the LN's ship with a CNC surface grinder texture. I've seen new Barr, Blue Spruce, Iles and LN's and they all have approximately the same texture. Once in a while there's a deep enough grinder pattern that the 1000 grit takes a couple extra minutes to take one of these to a mirror surface ( no more surface grinder scratches ), but I haven't been tempted to go lower. It wouldn't be ridiculous to start with the 2000, but I can't come up with a good reason for doing that.

Plane irons: Lee Valley and LN, as far as I can tell, are shipping lapped blades. They take about half the time to turn in to mirrors that the chisels do. I use 1000 on these as well.

We all work differently, but I'm pretty comfortable putting any of this steel on the 1000 and working it up through either 2000 or 4000 and finally 8000 ( and possibly beyond). If you're just starting out with this ( excellent ) set of stones, it's good to become practiced at this progression so the variation from new chisel to new chisel will be due to the the tool itself and not your ignorance or lack of confidence.

[Jim Neeley]

Thanks for the feedback, my friends... I'll give it a try!

[George Beck]

I am always looking to start sharpening on the finest stone to get the job done. On a chisel that is flat and has been sharpened, I often start with 2000 or even 3000. I am looking to use the finest grit that gets me where I want to be. That being said, I am rather impatient and if I am not achieving the results I want (creation of a burr) I step down in grit. After all at that point I am only trying to remove unwanted metal. If after 20 strokes or so I am not achieving a burr I will go to a coarser stone. The Shapton 500 glass and the naniwa Chorsea 600 and 400 stones are excellent and fast cutting without leaving deep scratches that require further attention. These and the 2000 grit stone are very under utilized stones in my opinion. I have found that the 1000 grit stone often gets too much use. Why take 100 strokes and risk rocking the blade (if freehand sharpening) or dishing and wearing the stone. I have found that about 20 strokes or in the case of plane blades where I use a variant of the side sharpening method that about 3 trips around the stone should be all that is needed to raise a burr.
I would also mention that I think the 15,000 and 30,000 stones are important. I realize there is much discussion on that point. I find that edges sharpened on a 30,000 stone stay sharper much longer than say one only sharpened to 8,000. I don't notice a better shaving or keener edge but the edge stays sharp considerably longer. I have no idea why this so just my observation.
I would also mention, that when I bought Lie-Nielsen chisels, they were the only tools I ever purchased that the backs and edges only required starting on 2000 to remove light scratches. They do not take the best edge (compared to high end japanesse chisels), but are great for day to day work. I think lie-nielsen is the best value out there.

My 2 cents

George

[Bryce Adams]

I just finished sharpening a few new LN chisels last night. The backs are, indeed, flat, but not particularly finely ground. I started on a 1000 grit stone to remove the grinding scratches, then 4000 and polished at 8000 grit. With all my sharpening I'm careful not to go too fine too quickly. It's much faster to get the work (raising a burr, cambering a plane blade, etc) done at a coarser grit and then simply refine that edge (or back) with a progression of finer stones.

[David Weaver]

I think I recall reading before that LNs chisels are/were a 400 grit finish.

A good flat 1000 stone is always a good place to start with a new tool, unless it's been lapped by something as precise and as fine as LV's rotary lapper - which you can go straight to a medium polish stone (4-8000) out of the box.

[Andrew Gibson]

I just went through flatten and sharpening a new set of LN chisels a few weeks ago... OK maybe almost 2 months now. I picked up a set of Shapton pro in 1k 5k 15k. Also picked up a dmt duo sharp.

I found that about 30 strokes on the back of the chisel at 1k gave me a uniform surface. Some took more some less. Moved on the the 5k, and 30 or so strokes was all that was needed. Again moved to the 15k and simply worked till I had no scratches up at the edge... maybe 40 strokes.

As for the bevel, I micro bevel so every 3 or 4 sharpening I have to reestablish the main bevel. Now I do this on the dmt. As soon as I pull the burr I move to the 1k give it 10 strokes maybe a few more, then to the 15k to wipe the burr, then hone the micro bevel. 30 strokes or so, then back and forth a couple times to get the rest of the burr. Wipe it on my leather apron and back to chopping and pairing.