Flattening Waterstones... I think I like this Norton Thingie

[Doug Dawson]

I'm sad to see that my super quick stone truer-upper is so maligned. I started this thread just after having used it keeping stones true as I lapped and initial sharpened two new plane blades.
The planes are cutting very well. I guess it did a good enough job on the stones.

But now I know I'll probably go back to the heavy DMT plate. I just found the source of the above video from Mr. Schwarz ... https://www.popularwoodworking.com/w...ia-flat-plate/

I am sad.

Be ye of good cheer! Don't be sad.

I've been using my Nordstrand flattening stone for over a year, and it's flatter now than when I bought it. And it was reasonably flat when I bought it. Large scale flat, but with some valleys under 5 thou here and there, which don't seem to make any difference to performance.

I flatten often, like, with every _significant_ use. And I use large circular motions, under running water. And it rarely takes more than ten seconds to flatten a Shapton (i.e. get rid of the pencil marks.) And the Shaptons are flat afterwards. And I know how to measure flatness.

I don't know what is the problem with other people, that they feel it necessary to buy a two hundred dollar diamond stone to do this stuff because this stone doesn't work for them (if it's not flat, you must send it back.) Maybe they're holding it wrong. :^)

[Mike Brady]

Diamond essentially lasts forever...?

Diamond plates unfortuneately do not last forever....and using them to flatten stones wears them even faster. This topic has been discussed many times on this forum.

[Frederick Skelly]

I'm sad to see that my super quick stone truer-upper is so maligned. I started this thread just after having used it keeping stones true as I lapped and initial sharpened two new plane blades.
The planes are cutting very well. I guess it did a good enough job on the stones.

But now I know I'll probably go back to the heavy DMT plate. I just found the source of the above video from Mr. Schwarz ... https://www.popularwoodworking.com/w...ia-flat-plate/

I am sad.

Erich,
You put out there something that you intended to be helpful for all of us. We get that. And we appreciate it. I have eyeballed that same Norton for more than a year, so I was glad to see your review. (I dislike using my diamond stones to flatten my Shaptons, because the stiction is a pain.) But I hadnt researched it, and your post drew in a number of people whose opinion I respect. Unfortunately, as it sometimes happens around here, sometimes other people have a very different experience with a tool someone else loved. It happens. But you cant get better than real life reviews from a wide range of real life users.

Despite some "aggressive" choices of words in a couple posts, please know that nobody meant anything unfriendly or embarrassing. But, as you can probably tell, there are some seriously opinionated folks around here (including me).

Hang with us man.
Fred