Another sharpening thread

[Casey Carr]

I need a coarser stone than I currently use to redefine an edge on my chisels. I have an 800 or 1000 grit king stone I believe. The last time I redid the face on my mortise chisel my fingertip was numb for three weeks. I need to place an order with Lee valley and was looking at the sigma power select II 240x grit.

My my question is how do I flatten this? Usually I just use a granite plate and sandpaper. Will this work on the ceramics? Or do I need a diamond plate? Thanks for any help.

[Jim Koepke]

Stones below 1000 grit seem to be a waste of time to me.

My efficiency has been better using adhesive backed abrasive sheets on a flat surface for removing nicks or establishing a new bevel.

jtk

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Stones below 1000 grit seem to be a waste of time to me.

My efficiency has been better using adhesive backed abrasive sheets on a flat surface for removing nicks or establishing a new bevel.

jtk

I own some stones courser than 1000 grit, and, I am still inclined to resort to sandpaper for rough finishing. Understand that when I reshape, I am likely to use something powered, but for flattening, I usually use sandpaper, at least to start. I have not used the stones you mention, but I have considered buying a few.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I can't comment on the Sigma 240x, but I can echo the other comments about coarse stones being unsatisfactory. I've tried a norton 220 waterstone and DMT XC (220 grit), both are fairly slow for serious work, and the Norton goes out of flat very easily.

A roll of PSA sandpaper and a granite plate are very tough to beat.

Recently I purchased a Norton Crystolon coarse oil stone. This is a semi-friable oil stone in 120 grit. I have been happy with its speed so far, but I have not used it enough to see how it wears in...oil stones tend to get finer with use. I need to use it more to see if it is friable enough to maintain its aggression without losing flat too easily, but it seems promising. They are not expensive, either.

[David Wong]

I have the Sigma Power Select II 240 grit from Lee Valley. For my use with Japanese carbon steel laminated blades, I do not recommend it. The stone seems to glaze over easily and behaves no better than a 1000 grit stone. My Sigma 400 and Beston 500 are much better than the 240 for the blades I use. I want to try different Crystolon stones, but for now I use 3M PSA Gold 80 grit on a granite surface plate.

[Jeff Heath]

I've been demo'ing this for years at WW events.

https://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/ST-MAF.XX/3M_Micro_Abrasive_Film__for_Scary_Sharpening_-_PSA

$14 and a piece of granite waste from your local countertop shop and you're in business. The 40 micron silicon carbide sheets cut extremely fast with a little WD40 for lubricant. The higher polishing sheets, 1 and .3 mics, last forever.

If you have a really botched up vintage chisel that needs serious work, you can go to 60 grit sticky sand paper to get yourself a flat back or bevel before moving on to the PSA paper.

I haven't used water stones in 15 years, and don't miss the mess at all. Just for the record, (not trying to beat my chest or anything, but to simply state that I am not sharpening once a month) I make my living in the workshop 60 hours a week, and sharpen every single plane iron and chisel this way every day. The steel doesn't care. You just need to create two highly polished surfaces that intersect at the correct angle. All these discussions regarding all these expensive water and oil stones, sharpening systems, etc....are all for the benefit of the retailers and metallurgical engineer-types. Not the woodworker.

[Casey Carr]

All right, sounds like sandpaper is the way to go for re-facing. I just thought with it being so coarse, it would be hard to keep the face of it flat on the paper. I can see 220 being used, anything less is just really rough. I'll try it out, already have the granite. Thanks guys!

[John C Cox]

Another trick is to use your dremel to very gently create a slight hollow grind on the face. Don't get the wheel near the edge - leave at least 1/32" between the hollows and your bevel.. But it's a lot less steel for the stones to remove.. Goes a LOT faster.

[bridger berdel]

Bench grinder 2 stones and a strop.

[Jim Koepke]

All right, sounds like sandpaper is the way to go for re-facing. I just thought with it being so coarse, it would be hard to keep the face of it flat on the paper. I can see 220 being used, anything less is just really rough. I'll try it out, already have the granite. Thanks guys!

My granite slab has a 320 strip adhered to it. Not much work is required to get a chisel back in shape and warmed up to boot. My slab is a bit more than 4' long.

The courser grits of abrasive leave deep scratches requiring more work to remove.

jtk

[Pat Barry]

Another trick is to use your dremel to very gently create a slight hollow grind on the face. Don't get the wheel near the edge - leave at least 1/32" between the hollows and your bevel.. But it's a lot less steel for the stones to remove.. Goes a LOT faster.

Hi John, never thought of using a dremel tool to put a hollow in the bevel. This doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Maybe I don't understand what you are driving at.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi John, never thought of using a dremel tool to put a hollow in the bevel. This doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Maybe I don't understand what you are driving at.

Not John, but a dremel is an easy way to produce a hollow grind on a blade without having a grinder.

When freehand sharpening a hollow grind is easier to register on a stone than a flat bevel.

jtk

[andy bessette]

One of these inexpensive diamond sharpeners is very useful, in the field, for making quick repairs to cutting edges. And reshapes a blade fast.

356833

[Doug Hepler]

Casey,

I just want to agree with Jeff Heath. I stopped using my waterstones because I got tired of the mess, flattening them, storing them in a bath, etc. Sandpaper is cheaper and cleaner to use, and does as good a job all the way to 1 micron or even .3 micron grit.

There was a time that I would not consider regrinding an edge tool on a HS grinder, but I learned how to do it without burning the edge and now that's the way I would repair a chipped edge, etc. Same reason you gave, too tedious to regrind by hand. If you have a soft (blue or white) HS stone, get a cheap chisel from HD and use it to learn how to re-grind.

Doug

[Brian Holcombe]

For western tools use a bench grinder and keep it cool. Low grit stones are a heap of aggravation and not necessary outside of repairing chips or fixing bevels.

[David Eisenhauer]

Lowest grit stone I use is a 1,000#. Would rather use sand paper and diamond plates if I need to go lower than that, but usually a 6" grinder with "white" Norton wheel for chips, edge truing, bad-bad dull sharpening startup before going to 1,000# water stone. .

[bridger berdel]

I have a couple of 'very coarse' diamond stones that I use to clean up after the bench grinder or occasionally in place of the grinder. Otherwise, 600 grit is the coarsest 'sharpening' stone I use.