What additional grits do I need?

[Randal Cobb]

Hello all,

I have a few new (and a few old) chisels that I need to sharpen. I already have a 1200 and an 8000 grit waterstone. What other grits do I need to properly sharpen these chisels?

Also, will those same grits work for sharpening the blades in the couple of planes I have as well?

Thanks in advance!

[Don Naples]

Your 1200 will do the rougher part of the sharpening.
The 8000 is a polish stone. An Aoto (blue stone) is a handy one for in between the two you have. It is a natural stone, so should not be soaked. It is a good go to stone for resharpening prior to polish. A Nagura stone is good to use with your polish stone.

[Wilbur Pan]

Many people use these grits for sharpening. Many people also use an intermediate grit (4000-5000).

If you feel like after using your 1200 grit stone, you can get the edge that you want with your 8000 grit stone without much effort, then you're good to go. For a point of comparison, I think that it should only take you about 3 minutes or less of working the 8000 grit stone to get a good edge. If it's taking longer, the 4000 stone will help.

Think of it like sanding. You could sand with 80 grit sandpaper, then go straight to 320 grit, but it's easier to use intermediate grits along the way.

You can use your waterstones for plane blades as well.

[Randal Cobb]

Thanks for the input, all...

I went to Woodcraft to pick up the stones I needed and found Ian Kirby's book on sharpening with waterstones. In the vernacular of my teenage daughter... OMG!!! TTRR!! (human translation: "Oh, my goodness!!! This thing really rocks!!)

I bought the stones you all recommended and they coincide pretty much with what Ian says in the book, only, I altered it slightly to try what the store clerk said... he suggested using sandpaper for all grits up to 600, then switch to stones from there.

I took an old Harbor Freight chisel that my wife bought me not knowing any better... (I figured if I was going to ruin something, it should be a cheap chisel and not an expensive one...) and started working on the back polishing as Ian says in his book (again, using the sandpaper). In about 30 minutes, I got as close to a mirror finish as I was going to get on the cheap steel. I couldn't get all the grinding scoring out, but I got a good 1" to 1.5" from the business end pretty close to mirror like. After I finished taking a shower (I'm a bit overweight and out of shape, so I sweat like a proverbial pig) and putting on a dry shirt, I started to follow Ian's "how to make an edge in 60 seconds"... I used a sharpening roller-guide instead of the angled block as Ian suggests, but I kept the 30 deg. angle. In about a minute, I had an edge that I could shave the hairs off my forearm with!!! When I was finished, I could literally hand-push the chisel blade about 1/2" deep into a piece of scrap oak!!! NEVER would I thought I could get an edge like that on such a cheap chisel!!! Granted, I doubt it would hold up for very long, but again, I figured if I would ruin something, it might as well be a really cheap chisel.

Now, on to my good stuff I actually use!

Thanks all!