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New water stone

The place to talk about tools 'without tails', so come here with all your plane and chisel, burnisher and bradawl chatter.

Re: New water stone

Postby Cabinetman » 08 Jan 2022, 10:51

"I'd agree with chisels. As long as I can slice the end grain, I'm happy. As then I can clean up parts of my joinery with little pressure and mostly without the need for a mallet. I prefer doing it without a mallet as it gives me more control."
I have for the sake of everyone else deliberately not commented on this thread up to now but this is a different tack.
Interesting, I find I can get much better control by using a mallet, very small taps if that’s all it needs, without the mallet there is a good chance that just pushing will push the chisel too far sometimes. Easy enough to push not so easy to stop. What does anybody else think? Ian
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Re: New water stone

Postby droogs » 08 Jan 2022, 13:28

I use Ultex double sided diamond plates "stones", a 300/600; 1k/1200 and then follow up with a bit of rouge on a leather strop for 90% of the edge tools I use. This includes planes, knives, router bits and almost all my chisels. There are 2 types of tool exceptions to this and they are finished off using a 3k/8k waterstone, my 2 pairing chisels (yes I only have 2) 1 straight edge and 1 at a 30 Deg skew are the first and the 2nd are my craving chisels. For me these are the only tools I have ever found that need to be taken higher than 1200 grit.

I'm not looking to start a hyperactive rigorous debate about methods, this is purely from my experience over the last 30 years (off and on). I used to do all my sharpening with holders and jigs etc and now do most of my sharpening freehand. After all, I got into woodworking in the 80s when all the sharpening "discussions" really began. I've found over this time-frame that, it really does depend on the method and type of material you are using to sharpen with. Certain combinations work very well together and others suck. for me it is diamonds upto 1200 freehand with no double bevel just a gentle convex curve from top of the bevel to the edge with the edge being a little steeper than the majority of the bevel.

If you want to get a lovely polished finish then you really should be anal in your sharpening and go through each and every grit to do the job properly using the same type of material all the way to the end and then strop. However, if like me you are using mixed media then you will notice that when you switch from one to the other something happens; that nice shinny finish disappears after a couple of stokes on the new medium. This is due to the fact that each material cuts the metal differently and therefore each of the faces refracts light at different angles and gives this cloudy appearance.

I have found that for the last couple of grits it doesn't matter. Just give the edge a good 10 - 12 strokes and move up a grit once you have created a small wire burr on the back of the edge. Finish of with a strop and you are good to go. If you are looking to get a highly polished surface from you water stone, you will find the shininess is very dependent on how vigorous your stokes are during sharpening. IE they need to be done as if you were Vinn Diesel - fast and furious and held at the exact same angle consistently throughout in order to create the slurry needed to get that highly polished finish.

Be happy with the polished face from you diamond stones and concentrate on creating that wire burr at the edge of the tool using your waterstones, that is where the magic happens.
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Re: New water stone

Postby Ayreon » 08 Jan 2022, 15:56

Thank you. I shall continue to experiement.
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