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I lap the backs to P1000 PSA sandpaper on my surface plate. I don't touch them again until either 1-3 micron or 0.5 micron alumina on the soft Ark. It works beautifully to wipe off the burr, but...

The "Benefit" is that I already own the India and Arkansas stones, and a set of water stones to replace them would be ~$250 vs the $60 I spent on loose abrasive.

Sure, it may wear the stones...

Hey all,

In the oil stone universe, it seems like soft Arkansas stones don't get a lot of love.

Silicon carbide (Crystolon) and Alumina (India) stones can cut pretty darned fast. So does...

Check the local jurisdiction for the specific laws. Specifically, some places strictly require permits for everything and some don't. Further, some locations "Grandfather," unpermitted work after...

I've done over 1/4" thick stock, 6" wide for guitar sides. It's not hard once you get the hang of it.
Tips:
1. Heat is just as important as wet. Wet can result in delamination and...

Remember, broken saw plates make fine scraper stock. Knife makers also like old saw plate material for carbon steel knives. It's not the hardest stuff, but it is generally fine grained and makes a...

Harbor Freight sells stick on tire weights... Just saying. ;)

Another vote for Cypress. I fixed up a wooden slatted cast iron frame outdoor bench with cypress about 10 years ago, and it's been living in swampy low country South Carolina for 10-years now, and...

I'm not much of a fan of non-drying oils, or very slow drying oils for that matter. They tend to pick up dust and stray grit. If it was mine, I'd give it a quick swipe with some Minwax wipe on...

Love it!

Some of their April Fools tools are probably a lot more useful than they think... For example, that spider vise would be handy for guitars.

Well, it could well have failed from the lack of seal. While I haven't dug too deeply into my Rikon, I once got a Grizzly "Belt powered buffer" arbor. It had the grooved sheave on one side and...

One of the most important ideas they teach us in the safety training at work is to trigger at the danger. People recognize that a table saw with it's spinning blade is dangerous. People often do...

Interesting. I'm going to check mine for the wheel bearings, as it has never run like I think it should. Mine absolutely eats the bottom blade guide bearings - which are simply cheap roller skate...

Clear vertical grain douglas fir is one option. Zebrawood and wenge are others.

Yep. Just because we don't like something doesn't mean it's bad. I dislike Aldi chisels, but many people swear they're the best thing ever. Luckily, online auctions exist.

An option is to...

Very nice and awesome generosity from Steve. If nothing had turned up, I was going to suggest a Woodcraft Woodriver brand plane. They come in good out of the box and use a normal, high carbon...

Yep. Whether it's worth it or not is up to you. It costs what it costs, and the fact that it was already sold before you got it says the price was fair.

The thing I see... Truly exceptional...

Horses for courses. I had a laugh when I read the ad copy for one of the premium chisel bits for small jackhammers. They called them "Self-sharpening." Ha! That's a fancy name for they chip...

Remember the pencil grid does not ensure flat. It ensures wear all the way across the stone. If the substrate is not flat, or if the method results in uneven wear, then the pencil lines simply...

Warren Mickley has posted a number of times about intentionally letting a stone slightly dish so that you can sharpen the desired camber into irons. He explains it better than I can, but the...

Step 1: make sure your stones are flat to slightly dished. It sounds like your stones have a slight belly. This is easy to do if you are lapping with grit on a backing or if using a Norton...

A running, profitable business is worth a lot of money. Nowadays, can't even give away a dilapidated building full rusting machinery. With modern remediation laws, you can't just walk away. ...

So... I experimented a bit more. I lapped the India stone again with Shapton coarse silicon carbide grit. This time, though, I left all the black muck on the stone and just sharpened. Wow....

3M PSA seems to come off pretty clean. Dura-Gold, Gator, Klingspor, and Diablo leave a very thick, sticky mess. Of those, Dura Gold is my favorite in terms of performance. A wipe with thinner...

I did take it to heart. That's why I was asking whether I'd be better off with a Medium India, a fine Crystolon, or a waterstone before the Soft Ark. The fine India seems to have settled in too...