How to flatten your waterstone

J

joepa150

Joined
Mar 15, 2010
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350
I am looking to buy some waterstones. Do you really need to dish out more money for a "flattening stone/tool" or are there cheaper ways you can do it at home. Can't I just buy some coarse sandpaper and put it on my concrete garage floor?
 
I use a cheap diamond hone to flatten mine.

Sandpaper on a flat surface would probably do it too.

Dont forget to wash the grit off the stone before you use it though.
 
Sparljo said:
I use a cheap diamond hone to flatten mine.

Sandpaper on a flat surface would probably do it too.

Dont forget to wash the grit off the stone before you use it though.
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What diamond hone do you use and what are it's dimensions?
 
The current one is a norton... maybe 1.5 x 4 or something?

Ive used the really cheap ones from Princess Auto (HF) too.
 
I use 8" DMT's to flatten my 8" waterstones most of the time. If I want to go overboard I get out the extremely flat lapping plate...
 
a piece of glass or mirror with sandpaper. adjust the grit of the sandpaper according to the grit of the stones
 
I would think that you could use 80-120 grit sandpaper on a piece of plate glass. My dedicated flattening stone is at least that rough, if not more, and I use that on 12,000 grit water stones.

Stitchawl
 
zyhano said:
a piece of glass or mirror with sandpaper. adjust the grit of the sandpaper according to the grit of the stones
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Would any flat Glass work? Would I just tape the sandpaper to the glass? I don't have any spare glass around the house but I could use the glass shelf in my entertainment center unless the process could ruin them.
stitchawl said:
I would think that you could use 80-120 grit sandpaper on a piece of plate glass. My dedicated flattening stone is at least that rough, if not more, and I use that on 12,000 grit water stones.

Stitchawl
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Do I have to use wet/dry sandpaper or any sandpaper?
 
joepa150 said:
Would any flat Glass work? Would I just tape the sandpaper to the glass? I don't have any spare glass around the house but I could use the glass shelf in my entertainment center unless the process could ruin them.
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Any flat glass that is strong enough not to break. Don't use window glass unless it's lying on a flat table. A shelf from a medicine cabinet would work well, or as you suggest, your entertainment center.


Do I have to use wet/dry sandpaper or any sandpaper?
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Most people do use wet/dry, but in fact, a lot of people just use ordinary sand sprinkled on a cement block! Some folks just use the cement block without the sand on top! The important part is that it must be flat.

Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
Any flat glass that is strong enough not to break. Don't use window glass unless it's lying on a flat table. A shelf from a medicine cabinet would work well, or as you suggest, your entertainment center.




Most people do use wet/dry, but in fact, a lot of people just use ordinary sand sprinkled on a cement block! Some folks just use the cement block without the sand on top! The important part is that it must be flat.

Stitchawl
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So I could just rub it on a cement cinder block?

If you rub a very fine waterstone on a very coarse cinder block, wouldn't it rough up the surface of the waterstone?
 
joepa150 said:
So I could just rub it on a cement cinder block?

If you rub a very fine waterstone on a very coarse cinder block, wouldn't it rough up the surface of the waterstone?
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Yes, but that doesn't change the grit size of the waterstone, it only changes the appearance of the stone, and after a short bit of sharpening, that smooths out too. Look at a 1000 grit waterstone after it's been flattened on a 220 grit flattener, or as most commonly found, 60-80 grit flatteners. The stone is actually scored quite a bit. But it doesn't affect the sharpening qualities of the stone. Now imagine what a 220 grit flattener does to a 12,000 grit stone... Microscopically, valleys, gouges, and canyons left in the stone, but to a knife blade, it's just fine.

When you sharpen a curved blade, the edge is only contacting a small part of the stone at one time. When a stone is rougher than its grit (as almost ALL stones are after flattening, even on a 220 grit flattener) the blade only contacts the stone in small parts too. Quite bumpy compared to the grit size. But the only thing that results is that it might take one more stroke to achieve the final results. Perhaps two strokes.

Stitchawl
 
stitchawl said:
Yes, but that doesn't change the grit size of the waterstone, it only changes the appearance of the stone, and to a 12,000 grit stone... Microscopically, valleys, gouges, and canyons left in the stone, but to a knife blade, it's just fine.

When you sharpen a curved blade, the edge is only contacting a small part of the stone at one time. When a stone is rougher than its grit (as almost ALL stones are after flattening, even on a 220 grit flattener) the blade only contacts the stone in small parts too. Quite bumpy compared to the grit size. But the only thing that results is that it might take one more stroke to achieve the final results. Perhaps two strokes.

Stitchawl
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great info. thanks
 
Waterstones WILL eat into the nickel plated substrate on diamond hones. Your diamonds will fall out. Use sandpaper, or a Carborundum stone.
 
Coarse sandpaper works but wears out very quickly. In the long run it's messy and expensive. Much better is a DMT 8XXC. They are very flat and have rounded corners just for the purpose of lapping. Maybe what Bill DeShivs says applies to the other DMT stones, but not the XXC. The XXC is pretty much designed for the purpose.
 
Bill DeShivs said:
Waterstones WILL eat into the nickel plated substrate on diamond hones. Your diamonds will fall out. Use sandpaper, or a Carborundum stone.
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I have a DMT XXC plate going on several years now that's lapped a lot of stones, and is still going strong. It works just fine for lapping. I've also used an XC... just not on a stone more coarse than the XC plate. No issues.

cbw
 
The DMT XXC is not a issue its the finer stones to worry about.

Norton sells a large flattening stone for just over $20 or you can find a flat spot on your driveway or garage floor an rub in a figure 8 pattern to flatten. Make sure the floor is clean ;)
 
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