Shapton Glass 16k - homemade wooden holder OK?

[Doug Dawson]

I suspect the gaps in support on the Shapton, and similar 'universal' holders is to address drainage. When not needing to be wet to do work, a dry stone will be stronger, and last longer. I guess. Also, there's the issue of movement. On my solid wood base, I use lightly wedged end stops to keep the stone immobile. It wants to slide around on the water film between stone and base.

Waterlogging is not an issue in my case because I rotate stones through a single holder. But I see guys who have a series of stones lined up, each with it's own holder. If the stone is *always* on that holder, and never allowed to dry, it may become a problem.

Full support during use aside, I suspect a stone will become too fragile to reliably handle long before the point that it's too thin to use on the holder.

If I were going to add a backer, I'd do it when the stone was newer, and stronger. But for me, that raises a whole host of unknowns. It would be an experiment, which is always fun, increases knowledge in dubiously useful areas, etc, but rarely a good plan just to save a few bucks.

If it breaks it breaks, and I'll deal with that if and when it happens. (I've never broken or fractured a water stone before, of any type, despite gleeful use over a number of decades.) As you well know, it's not a holy relic. :^)

[Joe Vannucci]

If it breaks it breaks, and I'll deal with that if and when it happens. (I've never broken or fractured a water stone before, of any type, despite gleeful use over a number of decades.) As you well know, it's not a holy relic. :^)

Yep, agreed.

[Dennis Droege]

I came to this discussion late, but here goes: I have discovered that the chemical makeup of the steel in my tools has a lot to do with how I sharpen them. I'm thinking of, for example, O1 versus A2 steels--seems like O1 takes a finer edge than A2. A2 gets really sharp, then loses sharpness back to a still-sharp and durable edge. That would seem to dictate how much time I spend on getting a five-figure edge. My older steel tools (chisels, mostly) are easier to get the finer edge, lose it quicker, but respond to a quick resharpening.
Seems to me that a 16,000 grit(?) stone would leave a nice polish.
One more thing while I'm on my soapbox: Most of my working life, going back fifty years or so, we didn't have the abrasives we do now. I suspect that my chisels and plane irons' fine edges were not finer than 400 grit. I'm spoiled now, though.

[Günter VögelBerg]

I keep all my shapton stones (including the 16k) in a crude plywood holder with a big of adhesive sandpaper on the bottom to keep them from sliding around and some small cleats in front of and in back pf the stones.. After a year or so of use the plywood starts to look a little rough and I rummage around for some scraps and spend about 10 making a new one.