Help a Newbie - Planes and Waterstones

[Bill Moser]

Maybe it's just my eyes or the perspective in the pic but the edge does not look like it's curved. The curve you see appears to be more a result of an uneven hollow grind than a cupped stone.

David - that's an interesting thought. I put a straightedge (well ok, a 6" ruler) up to Dave's original pic, and the blade is definitely convex (also, the edge is pretty knicked on the back side). But the curve on the front side is much more pronounced that the convexity of the cutting edge. This is kinda hurting my head, but I think that if the grind was uniform across a convex blade, you'd see more sharpened surface in the middle, and less at the edges. But the pic shows the opposite, which would indicat that the blade has been ground thinner in the middle than at the edges -- ie the result of grinding on a convex stone.

[David DeCristoforo]

I don't know. That edge looks pretty straight to me. I even put a straight edge on my screen as you suggested and the edge still looks pretty straight. It is, as you point out, badly nicked but you can hardly blame a dished stone for that. It's really hard to get a good read on it because of the perspective. Maybe the OP could post another pic with the blade laying flat on a neutral background....

[Tom Henderson2]

I use a DMT diamond stone (or plate). I like the one that has one side extra coarse and one side coarse. It's somewhat expensive, about $100, but for me it's worth it.

Prior to getting the DMT, I used wet-or-dry sandpaper on glass. That works okay also but is just a bit less convenient - and you have to keep buying the sandpaper.

Mike

Thanks Mike!

[Tom Henderson2]

I use a DMT diamond stone (or plate). I like the one that has one side extra coarse and one side coarse. It's somewhat expensive, about $100, but for me it's worth it.

Prior to getting the DMT, I used wet-or-dry sandpaper on glass. That works okay also but is just a bit less convenient - and you have to keep buying the sandpaper.

Mike

D'oh! I just reread your original post and saw that you had already explained your use of the DMT stone. Either I missed that post, or wasn't paying attention... and posted my query after reading the other posts.

Sorry for the firedrill, and thanks for your patience!

-TH

<note to self... read ENTIRE thread carefully before posting in the future....>

[michael osadchuk]

....what has worked well for me in flattening waterstones is any kind of sandpaper, used dry, taped, around the perimeter with Lee Valley's very thin transfer tape, to cut stone granite or marble floor or backsplash tiles.... with the waterstone dry as well, the sanded off waterstone material easily comes off the sandpaper with use of a woodworking crepe eraser stick..... by using both dry, you can also use any sandpaper you have on hand, not just wet n dry ......... the cut stone marble or granite floor/backsplash tiles are absolutely flat (unlike not baked tiles) and can often be gotten as a recycled item at a dollar or two a tile....use the highest grit sandpapers to do the flattening job quickly and taking off only what's necessary...

.... I echo Mike's endorsement of buying an 8000 grit waterstone for handplane irons....

good luck

michael

[Dave Warner]

Just wanted to come back and say thanks to all the helpful suggestions and discussion. You guys called it correctly ... the flattening stone had developed a convex shape and this was transferring to the stones as a concave dish. Turns out that by using a decent engineer's square I could pick this curvature up. I didn't measure it, but it was very slight (maybe 1/64 or less). To flatten the stones I would scribble a quick grid on the water stone face and then work against the flattening stone until all of the pencil marks were gone. This was still enough to transfer the shape.

Moving forward, I've picked up a flat piece of granite floor tile and will try using sandpaper on the tile to flatten the stones.

For those of you holding straightedges up to the monitor to check the edge straightness ... wow that is some awesome wood/tool geekness and I love it ! I went back, checked and the blade edge does have a slight curvature to it. The curve is very slight and does appear to match the curve on the flattening stone. I guess this is not necessarily a bad thing and should correct itself moving forward (yes/no?).

Also, a few mentioned the blade looked 'nicked'. I'm not sure what you are seeing, but I'm pretty sure there are no nicks. The original photo does have a few specks of lint/dust on the blade, including a piece about halfway along the edge. Is that what you are seeing?

So, thanks again. Have to warn you that being so helpful will just encourage me to ask more questions. I have some walnut and cherry practice boards and I'm still figuring out how to best secure the work, avoid tear outs, choose the correct bevel, etc... I'll save this for a future post(s).

Have Fun,
Dave

[Tom Henderson2]

Hi Dave-

I'm a newb also, and learned the hard way about the flattening stone issue. So I feel your pain.

My limited experience has been that stone flatness becomes increasingly critical the wider the blade -- so plane blades tend to be the most demanding. So verify that your granite tile is flat before you start and reflatten the stone frequently.

If the back of your plane blade has been dished by the non-flat stone, you may be in for a lot of work to get it flat...

-TH