Sharpening

[Trevor Wentzel]

I just finished a wooden plate to hold three diamond stones in the vise at the bench. I used a chisel and router plane to get the stones into the plate. I took inspiration from Paul Sellers, but made mine a bit bigger so I could mark the 30 degree lines for chisels and plane irons right on it.
I think I'll use a magnet to help secure them into their spots, instead of silicone.
I'd like to be able to take them out as needed.
For those that use diamond stones, what liquid are you using?

[Jim Ritter]

Caution on using a magnet to hold the ‘stones’ it will also attract all that swarf that you sharpen away.
Jim

[Charles Guest]

Sharp is pretty easy. It's polish that drives people to insane lengths and expenditures of money.

[Reed Gray]

As for fluids, I use the Trend Lapping fluid some times, and an automotive glass cleaner other times. If you use a glass cleaner, then you want ammonia free cleaner because the ammonia can bother the plating on diamond lapping plates. Water also works. I also put a little of the Trend fluid on the bevels of my turning tools when I sharpen to help keep the CBN wheels clean.

robo hippy

[Russell Nugent]

I made mine removable with just a finger hole at the end of each plate, I do like to be able to take them out, I don't flip mine upside down or anything that would cause the plate to fall out.

[Trevor Wentzel]

Caution on using a magnet to hold the ‘stones’ it will also attract all that swarf that you sharpen away.
Jim

I had not thought of that, thanks.

[Trevor Wentzel]

I made mine removable with just a finger hole at the end of each plate, I do like to be able to take them out, I don't flip mine upside down or anything that would cause the plate to fall out.

Genius. Thanks, that's perfect.

[David Carroll]

For those that use diamond stones, what liquid are you using?

I use diamond stones, I have a fancy name brand set and then I made a board like Paul Sellers made using the $12 thin (2mm) plates he featured. They work great and have lasted 2+years of pretty heavy use. I bought a spare set of diamond plates, but haven't ended up needing them so far.

As for liquid, if I have some really heavy lapping to do with the coarse 'stones' I will use a little windex. But what I like about the diamond stones is you don't have to use any liquid. I so vacuum the surfaces at the end of the day, but that's it. Sometimes I'll use a bit of WD-40 if I notice the plates turning reddish with rust. But mostly I use them dry.

DC

[Derek Cohen]

Caution on using a magnet to hold the ‘stones’ it will also attract all that swarf that you sharpen away.
Jim

Hi Jim

Good to see you here again.

I built drawers for chisels 12 months ago, and used rare earth magnets to secure each. No signs of the blades becoming magnets as yet.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Thomas McCurnin]

I just finished a wooden plate to hold three diamond stones in the vise at the bench. I used a chisel and router plane to get the stones into the plate. I took inspiration from Paul Sellers, but made mine a bit bigger so I could mark the 30 degree lines for chisels and plane irons right on it.
I think I'll use a magnet to help secure them into their spots, instead of silicone.
I'd like to be able to take them out as needed.
For those that use diamond stones, what liquid are you using?

I just frame a 1/2" piece of stock around the diamond stone to capture it and include a half round cutout to enable me to remove the diamond stone. I like Paul Sellers method.

[Jim Ritter]

Thanks Derek, still here just not posting much. Just recently getting my shop up and running after the move to Maine.
i was more thinking the magnet would hold the swarf to the stone while in use. A magnet to hold a tool in place is fine just don’t slide the tool along the magnet. I have a nice pair of shears that got stuck to a rare earth magnet I have on the sewing machine and I made the mistake of sliding the the shears free. Now if they get anywhere near steel they go right to it.
Jim

[Joel Gelman]

I just came across this video. I thought sure, the Kangaroo strop sounded interesting and I saw a link for purchase. Sold out! No option to buy. Guess Kangaroo is popular!

[Reed Gray]

I got some from, I think it was Maverick Leather in Bend Oregon. Can't remember the cost, but it isn't cheap. I don't think you can get it in California or New York. Used to make hacky sacks out of the softer hides because it was so strong. Horse butt is another common stropping leather. For me, I use planed off poplar or alder. No problem getting it loaded up, and it isn't too hard, and isn't too soft. The thing with the kangaroo leather is that the tooling type leather, and I think the hides I got were 2 oz. is that it doesn't compress as you strop. I asked the question maybe a year ago about what do you strop on. Got a lot of answers, including balsa wood, which I can see as being excellent for carving chisels since you can compress it to the perfect fit.

robo hippy

[Jimmy Harris]

Thanks Derek, still here just not posting much. Just recently getting my shop up and running after the move to Maine.
i was more thinking the magnet would hold the swarf to the stone while in use. A magnet to hold a tool in place is fine just don’t slide the tool along the magnet. I have a nice pair of shears that got stuck to a rare earth magnet I have on the sewing machine and I made the mistake of sliding the the shears free. Now if they get anywhere near steel they go right to it.
Jim

You can demagnetize it, or just about anything else, if you want. There are a bunch of ways to demagnetize metal, and if it's not a permanent magnet to begin with, it's usually not too difficult to do. For instance, you might be able to demagnetize it by just hitting it with a hammer. Shock or heat can destabilize the magnetism in metals. Or you can take or build and electromagnet and feed it AC current (you can usually find AC to AC power bricks at thrift stores) and move the scissors close and slowly pull them away from your AC powered electromagnet. Or, you can mimic the same idea by spinning a permanent magnet near the scissors and slowly pulling them away. Like you could take a magnet, attach it to a stick and put that in the chuck of a drill to spin it. Or even dangle it from a twisted string. You're just subjecting it to a rotating electromagnetic field and slowly reducing the strength of the field until it reaches zero.

I do a lot of electronics work and built an AC electromagnetic demagnetizer because I have some specialty screwdrivers that I'm always needing to magnetize or demagnetize depending on what I'm doing. It comes in hand with drill bits as well, as they tend to get magnetized when drilling steel.

[Jim Ritter]

Thanks Jimmy, I was more sharing what can happen if the magnet was slid along a diamond plate. These are really nice shears and there is no way I would hit them with a hammer or subject then to the heat needed to demagnetize. I do have a demagnatizing (is that a word?) coil so I’m all set.
Jim