Gary McCarthy
Chumono
For those of you sharpening your own tools, what is a good source for whetstones? What size grits are you using?
Thanks!
Thanks!
THANKS Brian!Sharpening knives and scissors
A friend who has been sharpening tools for a very long time; to near obsession (which is a very good quality), offered to give me a lesson and some pointers on the art of sharpening knives and scis…nebaribonsai.wordpress.com
LOTS of good info. Thanks!I cannot sleep and this is an interesting topic, so I'll offer my opinion. I use dmt diamond stones for any steel (high carbon 1084 etc- martensitic stainless) with a flat edge. They are not insanely expensive, don't need to be trued, and will last forever. I have also used various aluminum oxide stones (oil/water) that served the same purpose yet need to be trued (flattened) from time to time - albeit not anywhere near as often as natural arkansas or Japanese water stones. Use a coarse stone only when reprofiling a truly dull edge or grinding out chips (think of a coarse stone as the hand tool version of a belt sander or bench grinder- you are simply making a bur and stopping when one (chisel edge) or both sides are flat. Use medium - fine -super duper fine stones to polish your flat bevel(s) and working that bur back and forth -making it smaller as you progress through the grit sizes of whatever various stones you get. Once you can barely feel the bur anymore stop. For some cutting tools it is beneficial to leave that tiny bur (shears/scissors most garden and bonsai tools fall into this category, having an extremely fine edge on something that needs to be used often and aggressively means you will need to sharpen more frequently and increases the risk of chipping/dulling and having to reprofile. For grafting knives of anything that you just want to have a hair popping sharp edge: the use of a strop/strops and stropping compounds (ie chromium oxide/green buffing compound, what is inside semi chrome, and micron sizes of diamond paste) is the next step. You can buy premade strops or make them. I have multiple diy strops that are simply lengths of tanned tooling leather glued to a board with the compound smeared on. You can treat strops and the various micron sized compounds that go on them as higher grit stones, making the bur smaller on a microscopic level until you have an edge one atom thick if desired. To maintain: grafing knives -strop through the various micron sizes after every use, for other tools use medium or fine stones after use and leave the bur or strop it down. For anything with a concave or rounded edge you have to buy stones specifically for that purpose or wear the stones down to a rounded shape yourself. Alternatively you can use a round mill file for reprofiling and then use various grits of sand paper or emery cloth wrapped around a small length of pipe. A length of compounded tooling leather can also be wrapped around a length of pipe etc. If stropping is desired.
I have used natural japanese water stones in the past, they work fine on high carbon steel 10xx series however they are very expensive and wear quickly if used properly and frequently. The stropping compounds make all the difference when you are after a mirror polished edge etc.