Replies

1. 
   jako17 | Feb 13, 2004 06:20am | #1

   I use the flat face of a concrete building block then glass and wet and dry to finish, its not rocket science but it sure works.Water stones are such a pain to keep flat I really question their worth over other sharpening systems

2. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 13, 2004 06:21am | #2

   Or on the sidewalk. Or on a concrete block. Or on another waterstone with a coarser grit.

3. 
   SCFrankland | Feb 13, 2004 08:11am | #3

   I take two 1000 grit stones and rub the faces together everytime I use them. I then take one of the 1000 grit stones and rub it over each finer stone. I do this often during the sharpening process. This keeps all my stone dead flat all the time.

   Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website

   "He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

1. 
   kolson | Feb 13, 2004 09:14am | #5

   Scott,

     Greetings from B.C.,  about 4400 miles to the west.  Anyway,  my point is that water stones may not be flat, so one has to be very careful to ensure that they are.

   Reguards, 

   Ken

1. 
   AlanTurner | Feb 13, 2004 07:38pm | #6

   I use SC abrasive powder, some sort of med. grit, on a granite floor tile that I have ck'd with a starrett straight edge.  Takes me about 5 mins, or less, to do all 3 of my waterstones.  I find no different scratch patterns after flattening.

   AlanAlan

   http://www.alanturnerfurnituremaker.com

1. 
   kolson | Feb 14, 2004 07:47am | #7

   s4s,

   That sounds like an awfully good method.

   Ken

1. 
   Ricky_Yu | Feb 14, 2004 02:01pm | #14

   I just flattened two stones today on my piece of granite, but I didn't use any silicon carbide powder, just water. It took a little more than 5 minutes, but you can consider it if you don't have any abrasive powder on hand.

2. 
   SCFrankland | Feb 14, 2004 08:02am | #8

   By rubbing two stones of the same grit you will knock off any high spots making a flat surface. Then taking the courser grit stone and going over the finer grit stones will flatten them all. Never could figure out why so many people tried so many different ways to flatten stones when they all ready have what they need most of the time. I flatten mine every time I sharpen a blade.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

1. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 14, 2004 08:10am | #9

   >> By rubbing two stones of the same grit you will knock off any high spots making a flat surface.

   Not necessarily. It's quite possible to end up with two matching curved surfaces, one concave and one convex. You have to have three flat surface to rub together to be sure they're flat.

1. 
   SCFrankland | Feb 14, 2004 08:25am | #10

   I rub my stones in a figure 8 pattern and flip them end to end each time I wet the surface, which is about 4 times each time I flatten them. The same thing can be said about cast iron tops, tiles, glass, brick, machine stone, and the likes none of these surfaces are truly flat and if you are going to get down to 0.0001" then you are not talking about woodworking but metalworking. My blades are dead straight with a slight radius on the edges for my smoothers. I have used my Starrett squares to ensure that I am getting a good edge. Also if you take your second stone and always keep the surface flat then you never have to worry about a curve in the stone. This only takes a second or two to do and nets excellent results.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

2. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 14, 2004 08:53am | #11

   Well, if you had shared all that good technique in the first place, I wouldn't have felt the need to argue with you.

3. 
   SCFrankland | Feb 14, 2004 08:57am | #12

   Eveyone needs to have a good argue from time to time.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

4. 
   kolson | Feb 14, 2004 09:10am | #13

   Uncle Dunc,

      Yeah, Thanks for getting my point and  putting  better than I.

   Ken

2. 
   kolson | Feb 14, 2004 07:48pm | #15

   Scott,

     The question JohnD asked was what is the best way to flatten a waterstone.

           Evidently I should have either not  posted at all or directly answered by pointing out the obvious that  any opinion will be controversial.

         I  started using waterstones a few months ago, and tried to do as I was shown.  2 1000 grit Norton stones, 1 4000 and 1 8000 were sold as a "kit", with instructions to use one of the 1000 stones to flatten all the others  with just a simple back and forth motion.  No turning or flipping or figure eights.   To assume that the stones were flat to begin with proved to be false in my case and I say again it caused the other stones to have the same curve, however slight.  

       You  or least I cannot flatten something with something which is not flat and nothing was said about  .0001 tolerances.  Although whatever the deviation acceptable it must be some tiny.

        I was new to using waterstones, it seemed that the origial poster was too, so my intention was to keep him or others from wasting a lot of time as I did

   Ken

1. 
   SCFrankland | Feb 14, 2004 08:00pm | #16

   Let me guess you have 4 Norton stones and you got your advice from Rob Cosman. I also have Norton but I added two 220 grit stones to the mix and find them good for heavy work. The two stone trick is good but you need to rotate the stones and keep a even pressure over all of the stone. Also make sure you keep checking the stones for progress.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

2. 
   kolson | Feb 14, 2004 10:20pm | #17

   Scott,

     Yeah, you guessed right.  Rather pricey, but I get stuff sharper than I did with other methods.

        It is interesting to  see  that you bought 220's.  I found it necessary to keep using  "scary sharp for the beginning stages.

         Thankyou for the comments on using the waterstones.

   Regards

   Ken

3. 
   SCFrankland | Feb 14, 2004 10:28pm | #18

   I am not a fan of sand paper sharpening but I do use it for flattening soles of planes. I prefer to use a fine wheel in the grinder and 220 grit stone to get me to a good starting point for the 1000 grit. I find this works for me but then again I learned to do it that way so why change now. As for the Rob that is his preferred method also and I have watched him flatten his stones using the method you described.Scott C. Frankland

   Scott's WOODWORKING Website"He who has the most tools may not win the race of life but he will sure make his wife look like a good catch when she goes to move on."

4. 
   kolson | Feb 13, 2004 09:07am | #4

         JohnD,

        My experience:  Wasted hours trying to flatten the back of a Lie-Nielsen plane iron with a waterstone that had been "flattened" with another water stone which was not flat.

       When changing 'grits' from 1000 to 4000 to 8000 the pattern changed.

      Did  a lot of searching for answers.  I cannot remember the source, but someone suggested using 120 silicon carbide on glass to flatten water stones.

   So I did and my troubles were over.

   Ken

5. 
   hitai | Feb 15, 2004 07:24am | #19

   Hi John!

   Don't any of you just grab a sheet of SC wet or dry , wet it, slap it on a wet piece of glass, and flatten the stone?  This takes about no time at all and doesn't involve any special trips to the abrasive compound store.  After reading all the other solutions, i'm thinking I may be simple minded,,,,,  but hey....  i'm flat and back to work in no time.    too easy...

     

1. 
   UncleDunc | Feb 15, 2004 09:07am | #20

   >> ... SC wet or dry , wet it, slap it on a wet piece of glass ...

   Never thought to try it for flattening a stone. Last time I tried it for sharpening, the paper curled up, wouldn't stick to the glass.

2. 
   kolson | Feb 15, 2004 08:45pm | #23

   HITAI,

     Yes, that is exactly what I do. It wasn't my idea to start with, but it works very well.

           Once one of the coarse stones is flattened that way then it can be used to flatten the other stones, but I just use 120 SC paper, wet , on glass like you said.

     It takes very little time and effort to keep  them flat.

   Ken

6. 
   StorzInVail | Feb 15, 2004 09:55am | #21

   piece of glass and that screen matierial they use for sanding sheetrock texture.

1. 
   hitai | Feb 15, 2004 11:30am | #22

   yup... that works too.....  actually,, that's so fast it's scary.....