Dressing, Flattening Bonded Diamond Stones

[cudgee]

I just got a couple of venev stones and was going to grab a nagura stone as suggested. I found a king nagura on Amazon that says it's 8000 grit. Is that the one? Or is that too high of a grit?

Sometimes we overcomplicate things and overspend in the pursuit of perfection. Old timers made do with what was at their disposal. An 8000 grit will be fine for your needs, you are using it as a cleaning and refreshing medium. Run the venev stone under warm water cleaning and refreshing with your new purchase and you'll be fine.

 

[DeadboxHero]

The rougher grit is to dress the stone by cutting down the resin, high grit will clean the chips out but will smooth out the bond and won't help expose the diamond/cBN, the stone will cut better if dressed not just cleaned.

 

[Baron Mind]

This thread was a bit of a trainwreck at first, but got on track eventually. Bonded stones WILL need to be flattened eventually. Powder abrasive on glass is preferable, but I use a 600 grit naniwa AlOx dressing stone, and a higher grit nagura stone at times. For clearing the loaded dwarf, nothing works better and removes less material than a Magic Eraser.

 

[777 Edge]

I just got a couple of venev stones and was going to grab a nagura stone as suggested. I found a king nagura on Amazon that says it's 8000 grit. Is that the one? Or is that too high of a grit?

Yes, that's the one. The grit rating on the King Nagura is not accurate, but regardless of that it does not really matter. What makes it a good cleaning and conditioning stone, is the fact that it is soft and releases its grit rapidly. This makes for great cleaning and conditioning on a harder stone, such as the Venev stones (and many other stones).

 

[Colby L.]

Thanks all! I think I understand what I'm after now.

 

[chalby]

This thread was a bit of a trainwreck at first, but got on track eventually. Bonded stones WILL need to be flattened eventually. Powder abrasive on glass is preferable, but I use a 600 grit naniwa AlOx dressing stone, and a higher grit nagura stone at times. For clearing the loaded dwarf, nothing works better and removes less material than a Magic Eraser.

+1 for the magic eraser. It works fine for me, although I get what Shawn is saying about a lower grit exposing more diamond.

So far, the magic eraser refreshes my Venev stones and it feels like new after a quick scrub

 

[Bolstermanic]

For clearing the loaded dwarf, nothing works better and removes less material than a Magic Eraser.

+1 for the magic eraser. It works fine for me, although I get what Shawn is saying about a lower grit exposing more diamond.

So far, the magic eraser refreshes my Venev stones and it feels like new after a quick scrub

Wait...Magic Eraser, as in Mr. Clean's white sponge?
And...aww crap, now I have to clean my dwarfs, too. They're so hard to catch. (Easier when they're loaded, though.)

 

[wade7575]

You use your bonded diamond sharpening stones for awhile and they begin to very slightly cup. I assume it’s important to flatten them occasionally, but I have questions about how to do that correctly:

1) How often? It seems like flattening too frequently would wear these expensive stones prematurely? Is a little dishing of the stone acceptable, or should the stones always be as flat as my first girlfriend?

2) I use Venev Orion bonded diamond stones in a Hapstone sharpener. Can I flatten those like other (aluminum oxide or silicone carbide) stones? By which I mean: rub them on a piece of glass with a sprinkle of 120-grit Silicon Carbide abrasive?

Do you have any tips or tricks on keeping stones dressed and flat that you’d care to share?

I like to use 60 grit silicon carbide powder and then 120 and 400 aluminum oxide powder on a peace of glass to flatten my Venev stones when they are not flat anymore.

I only use silicon carbide for the 60 grit as you can't get 60 grit in aluminum oxide,silicon carbide breaks down faster then aluminum oxide because it's more friable.

https://www.gritomatic.com/products/silicon-carbide-powder?_pos=2&_sid=1078b885b&_ss=r

https://www.gritomatic.com/products/aluminum-oxide-powder?_pos=1&_sid=1078b885b&_ss=r

 

[chalby]

Wait...Magic Eraser, as in Mr. Clean's white sponge?
And...aww crap, now I have to clean my dwarfs, too. They're so hard to catch. (Easier when they're loaded, though.)

Yeah, that looks like what I use. It won't do anything if you are trying to flatten the stones, but work great to take care of pesky loaded dwarves

 

[Baron Mind]

Yeah, that looks like what I use. It won't do anything if you are trying to flatten the stones, but work great to take care of pesky loaded dwarves

Drunken dwarves are notoriously hard to sharpen.

 

[3D Anvil]

I've always found that a Rust Eraser (not Magic Eraser) works best for whetstones, but for my Venevs the Nagura stone that came with a cheap King 1000/6000 stone works much better.

This is the rust eraser that I and a lot of other folks use: https://smile.amazon.com/Rust-Erase...ywords=rust+eraser&qid=1639540530&sr=8-5&th=1

 

[chalby]

I've always found that a Rust Eraser (not Magic Eraser) works best for whetstones, but for my Venevs the Nagura stone that came with a cheap King 1000/6000 stone works much better.

This is the rust eraser that I and a lot of other folks use: https://smile.amazon.com/Rust-Eraser-Sabitoru-Medium-2-piece/dp/B00FS0BFJC/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=rust+eraser&qid=1639540530&sr=8-5&th=1

I've looked at them and I'm sure they work well. They have the additional benefit of lasting far longer as well. A medium grit nagura would be ideal for flattening bonded diamond, but at least to my logic would be overkill in some aspects because it would wear the stone faster for general swarf removal.

The magic erasers at least where I am are dirt cheap and effective, although there could be an argument for false economy because of how quickly they wear away. I guess it would depend more on how much you sharpen etc.