Whats the best way of trueing a Waterstone?

[CAL]

I have a combination waterstone that needs some attention on the smooth side. I have uncovered a hard lump that needs sanding off. It looks / feels like a small piece of sharpe girt thats got embedded in the stone and has been uncovered in use. Whats the best way to do this? I have read mixed reviews about purpose made flattening blocks (saw one on the axminster site).

If I can't get it out I was thinking of cutting the stone so I have something small to carry in my ruck sac, whats the best way of doing this, a hacksaw and plenty of elbow grease?

Thats in advance,

Craig.

 

[Bimble]

What you need is a small piece of plate glass. This has been 'float' made and so is perfectly flat. You then need to get some of that sticky back plastic you used to use to cover your school books with when you were a kid. Stick this to the plate glass. You will then need some carbide powder (this is available from people like Axminster Power Tools and the like.)

Wet the stone, place some powder on the plastic and dribble a bit of water on the plastic. Now rub the stone on the plastic sheet in a circular motion. You will see the stones rubbing surface change as you do this. When the whole surface is the same texture all over the stone is perfectly flat.

Most water stones are very soft and do require flattening regularly, a mistake that a lot of users make when they first buy them. If the stone is kept flat your knife blade bevel will be flat and the knife razor sharp.

You can buy carbide stones with grooves that can do this as well, but they are not as flat at the plate glass method.

A good place to get waterstones and tools from is Dick of Germany. Unfortunate name, but they supply lots of quality knife blades. For those how have not seen their Japanese knife blades it’s well worth giving them a look. The Japanese Axes put even GB to shame....

Now they aren’t cheap but imagine having a neck knife with a laminated samurai white paper steel blade.

Check out their catalogue online if you haven’t already done so.
http://www.dick.biz/dick/page/homepage/detail.jsf

 

[jojo]

What you need is a small piece of plate glass. This has been 'float' made and so is perfectly flat. You then need to get some of that sticky back plastic you used to use to cover your school books with when you were a kid. Stick this to the plate glass. You will then need some carbide powder (this is available from people like Axminster Power Tools and the like.)

Wet the stone, place some powder on the plastic and dribble a bit of water on the plastic. Now rub the stone on the plastic sheet in a circular motion. You will see the stones rubbing surface change as you do this. When the whole surface is the same texture all over the stone is perfectly flat.

Most water stones are very soft and do require flattening regularly, a mistake that a lot of users make when they first buy them. If the stone is kept flat your knife blade bevel will be flat and the knife razor sharp.

You can buy carbide stones with grooves that can do this as well, but they are not as flat at the plate glass method.

A good place to get waterstones and tools from is Dick of Germany. Unfortunate name, but they supply lots of quality knife blades. For those how have not seen their Japanese knife blades it’s well worth giving them a look. The Japanese Axes put even GB to shame....

Now they aren’t cheap but imagine having a neck knife with a laminated samurai white paper steel blade.

Check out their catalogue online if you haven’t already done so.
http://www.dick.biz/dick/page/homepage/detail.jsf

What he says!!

I have also used some coarse, wet, wet-and-dry on a piece of glass. The waterstones are quite soft and its easy enough to flatten.

As to making smaller ones, the one efficient way I accidently found was to drop it on a hard surface

 

[CAL]

Thanks for the advice.

I think the grit inclusion will come out when I flatten the stone, it will be interesting to see just how worn the surface is from the sharpening that I have done.

 

[robin wood]

Yep I second all that, when you watch Japanese craftsfolk sharpening they spend as much if not more time flattening the stone as they do sharpening with it, a freind who spent 18 months working with Japanese temple builders told me that in an 8 hour day they spend 1 hour sharpening tools. I am not that up tight about it but the stones are soft and go out of true very quickly, I true mine with a coarse diamond benchstone, if you have two waterstones rubbing the two together regularly is a good idea, if not then wet and dry on glass is good. I remember reading Dave Budd does his on a cast concrete paving slab and he uses waterstones more than most.

 

[Dave Budd]

Most of my sharpening is done with waterstones and of course I teach sharpening with them too, so I spend a lot of time truing up stones.

The wet and dry paper on glass is the best way to ensure absolute flatness (unless you have a surface grinder of course ) but to be honest it gets expensive and time consuming really quickly!

As Robin says, I use a paving slab. Fiver from the builders yard will get a big slab (about 20" across) and go for the flattest and most uniform you can find in there. To start with it will true your stones just fine, bt as it wears down a little dry sand on it makes a world of difference I do find that with the fnie stones I have to clean the surface before i use them or I get coarse particles caught in the faces and then I scratch my almost sharp knife. That's easy enough, just take two flattened stones of the same grit and rub them together for a little bit and the coarse rubbish will all be out

The slab I bought last year has trued up the stones that I use myself and those used by students (ie the ones that take the worst battering) and I've only recently started to add sand. At a guess I would say that it's trued up maybe a thousand stone faces so far. There are parts toward the edges of the stone that are not exactly flat and parts near the middle that are a little smooth, but it works well. Don't forget that the stone is double sided too, in fact the underside is flatter if more aggressive than the top

 

[sxmolloy]

I know this is an old thread but would these sheets attached to plate glass / a paving slab work? http://www.axminster.co.uk/hermes-perdurable-silicon-carbide-sheets-prod19876/

If so what grit would I need for stones that are 800, 1200 and 6000 grit?

Thanks

Stu

 

[robin wood]

Yes they would and the coarser the better. I would happily use the 80 or 100 grit paper to flatten any of those stones. Since the original thread I have spent time in Japan with traditional carpenters and this thread notes how they use waterstones.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61562&highlight=japanese
I now dress with a diamond flattening plate and that may be a good option, cheap diamond sharpeners are available occasionally from Liddle, Aldi etc.

Final thing some folk who have multiple stones flatten them by rubbing 2 stones together, it works OK.

 

[sxmolloy]

Thanks RW . . . . . .

 

[JonathanD]

I just rub my stones together after each use. Keeps them dead flat.

 

[MSkiba]

Did I read the above correctly, I can use 100 grit sandpaper, on a peice of glass, to true my 6000 grit whetstone ?

 

[robin wood]

Did I read the above correctly, I can use 100 grit sandpaper, on a peice of glass, to true my 6000 grit whetstone ?

Yes, what you are trying to create is a flat surface, it matters not if it has microscopic grooves across it. The particle size of the 6000 grit stone and it's flatness is what affects the way it cuts. I flatten my 16000 shapton with a coarse diamond plate, the Japanese use the same for their fine natural stones.