waterstones

[Fred]

Does anyone have much experience sharpening with Japanese water stones? I recently read about them and they sound interesting, but are apparently very expensive.

-Fred

 

[Crayola]

I spent 2 summers in a pig plant and we used a medium grit (I don't know exactly what grit) to sharpen. Yes, the do work great! Especially the finer stones, as they put a nice polish on the bevels. Yes, they do wear out relatively fast. If you are curious about them, get one of those inexpensive combo stones and have at 'er. If you like them, then you can spend the extra $$ and get a dedicated set of stones/

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"Come What May..."

 

[C_Claycomb]

I just bought a Japanese water stone, never tried one before but had heard, and read, good things about them. The one that I bought was not all that expensive, £13 (under $20), that was a whole lot cheaper than the diamond bench stones that I have seen, or the ceramics. So far I have been very impressed with it, it cuts very fast compared to the other stones that I have tried and it was easy to get a consistent bevel. I know that I can expect it to wear down fairly quickly but that is the trade off for the fast cutting. I much prefer using water instead of oil but it is a bit of a pain having to keep the stone soaking even when it is not in use, definitely not a sharpener to hit the trail with but I already wouldn’t be without it on my workbench. How much did you see them for, what sort of grits, mine was medium(ish) 800 grit I think.

 

[Nikk]

Water stones are good but you have to flatten them often if you sharpen chisels or plane irons otherwise the tool edges take on the curved shape of the worn down stone. Just as good and a whole lot cheaper are abrasive papers on plate glass. Stays true flat and many grits are readily available down to 1/2 micron. That's about as good as it gets! Way better than any commercial razor.