Flattening waterstones

[Dave Sharbaugh]

I'm new to this, but have a set of Norton combination waterstones. The 220 grot is hard to keep flat. What do you recommend? Diamond stone? Sandpaper on glass? The 220 grit really gets messed up.

Dave

[Tony Sade]

Dave-Here's a current thread going on over at Woodnet on this very subject. Check it out. You might also want to do a search there and on other ww forums, as I've seen this subject come up before. (Moderator-I can post this link, right?)

http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1391369&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Dave,

I flatten my water stones on my diamond stone.

[Herb Blair]

I'm new to this, but have a set of Norton combination waterstones. The 220 grot is hard to keep flat. What do you recommend? Diamond stone? Sandpaper on glass? The 220 grit really gets messed up.

Dave

Dave,
I have the same problem with Norton 220 grit. I bought a second one, and use it to flatten, I alternate use between the two stones.

[Steve Evans]

Dave

I keep a couple of small pieces of Corian countertop around for sharpening on. For flattening I throw a piece of drywall sanding screen and some water down on the flat piece of corian, and it's flat in a few seconds, with little expense.

Steve

[Michael Perata]

Dave

I also have a set of Norton's. I bought a flattening plate from The Japan Woodworker and it does a great job of flattening. I keep it wet in the same trays as the stones and use every couple of minutes when sharpening. It is a bit pricey but it does the job.

http://japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=01.090&dept_id=12338

[Dave Sharbaugh]

Thanks for all the leads/advice! I'll check them out. I have a small diamond stone, but it's probably too small to be effective. Drywall screen on glass sounds interesting.

Dave

[Rick Hoppe]

Dave, I briefly used the Norton 220 grit. It made a ton of mud and couldn’t be flattened often enough.
I use a coarse DMT duo-sharp diamond stone to flatten my waterstones.

It’s the coarsest stone that does the flattening and the finer stones polish out the scratches caused by the coarse stone.
So, it made more sense to me to do the initial flattening with a true surface that doesn’t need flattening itself.

I dumped the Norton 220 and started using the coarse DMT diamond stone (which is 220 grit anyway!) to do my initial flattening, following up with finer grit waterstones.

[Michael Stadulis]

Hi Dave,

What I do may sound scary but it works. The issue that complicates stone flattening or plane sole flattening is the amount of debris that builds up between the plane sole and abrading surface or, in your case, the 220 stone and the surface of whatever you are using to flatten it. You can not truly flatten a stone unless you have another surface with a coarser material to do the flattening. I ended up using floor sander sheets from the rental department of HD. They are really coarse, but try them. I've even tried the 36 grit.
As much as I try to use the entire stone surface, the stone still dishes a bit. I came to the conclusion that the coarse paper has the spaces between the grit particles into which the dust from the flattened stone can fall.
When I flattened the soles of my planes, I came to that reallization. Use a coarse paper at the start, and vacuum the iron dust away every few strokes. It's a pain, but a small irondust "pile" will build up under the center of your plane and cause it to "rock" ever so slightly if you don't.
Try it and you'll see what I mean. Hope I've helped.

Mike

[Dave Sharbaugh]

Rick,

Makes sense, I like it. I'm going to do it!

Thanks,

Dave



Dave, I briefly used the Norton 220 grit. It made a ton of mud and couldn’t be flattened often enough.
I use a coarse DMT duo-sharp diamond stone to flatten my waterstones.

It’s the coarsest stone that does the flattening and the finer stones polish out the scratches caused by the coarse stone.
So, it made more sense to me to do the initial flattening with a true surface that doesn’t need flattening itself.

I dumped the Norton 220 and started using the coarse DMT diamond stone (which is 220 grit anyway!) to do my initial flattening, following up with finer grit waterstones.

[Gene Collison]

I'm new to this, but have a set of Norton combination waterstones. The 220 grot is hard to keep flat. What do you recommend? Diamond stone? Sandpaper on glass? The 220 grit really gets messed up.

Dave

Dave,

I normally use a Blue DMT diamond stone to flatten all of my stones with the exception of the 220. This may sound like a little harsh but I just don't think that Norton 220 is a very good product. I have one and it wears so fast I can't possibly think of any use for it. It almost distintegrates while using it. If you want a coarse stone that cuts very fast and stays flat, buy a cheaper but much better Norton medium india oil stone for less than 20$ depending on where you buy it. Use it with water and simple green, forget the oil. It will do a much better job than the 220 and stay flat.

Gene