Why Water Stones?

I've finally reached the point where I no longer feel the need to experiment with everything.

A wise man once told me to find something that I was very well satisfied with and stick with it. I found Shapton Glass stones and diamonds. Shapton for regular steel and diamonds for super steels.
I guess that I'm getting stodgy in my old age, but I'm now satisfied with my stones and sticking with them!:D:p:D
 
Ben Dover said:
I've finally reached the point where I no longer feel the need to experiment with everything.

A wise man once told me to find something that I was very well satisfied with and stick with it. I found Shapton Glass stones and diamonds. Shapton for regular steel and diamonds for super steels.
I guess that I'm getting stodgy in my old age, but I'm now satisfied with my stones and sticking with them!:D:p:D
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I have a feeling that once I get these water stones I'll be right there with ya.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Yeah, I'll probably end up with a mountain of water stones. :D

You think I can use my Ultra Sharp 300 for dressing/lapping for a couple months until I get a dedicated plate?
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You can but it will def degrade the plate. I always recommend a lapidary disk because they're cheaper than sharpening plates and have exponentially better bond strength. Literally made for surfacing rocks.
 
I'll be ordering a Shapton Pro 1k this coming Friday even if I have to use sandpaper on the edges to get started. I just need to get started. :)
 
HeavyHanded said:
You can but it will def degrade the plate. I always recommend a lapidary disk because they're cheaper than sharpening plates and have exponentially better bond strength. Literally made for surfacing rocks.
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HH, do you use the disc by hand, or powered??
And what kind of disc do you get good results with??

I googled them and came up with a hundred varieties.

I am definitely interested, please give us more info.

Thank you,
Ben
 
Ben Dover said:
HH, do you use the disc by hand, or powered??
And what kind of disc do you get good results with??

I googled them and came up with a hundred varieties.

I am definitely interested, please give us more info.

Thank you,
Ben
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I use a 170 mesh diamond 8" diameter on a 1/4" aluminum disk, with 1/2" arbor. You can get them with a solid surface that are back mounted as well. Mine is the cheapest brand available at Kingsly North, but there are a number of lapidary supply shops out there. Just use by hand like any other flattening plate, you get a lot of surface area. The finer mesh plates are a bit too tame for resurfacing stones, and the coarser ones tear up the outside edges of your harder ceramic stones.

The 170 is perfect for all the lower grit stones and on the polishing grade stones you just need to go over it with a nagura after use.

The biggest thing is the bond plating is made for grinding stones - it does a poor job on steel but will likely last forever if only used to flatten waterstones - I'm not exaggerating.
 
Eli Chaps said:
Also, I should amend that I will be ordering a Shapton Glass 1k. :)
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Its my least used Glass stone and one I would be least likely to recommend. Good stone, but it just doesn't fit in all that well, IMO.

The US diamond plate is also not a good lapping option, you can try it but I can tell you first hand it will not work well and a Shapton Glass will probably destroy it.

Shapton Glass extra thick 500, 2000 and 16k is the ideal set to start with.
 
HeavyHanded said:
I use a 170 mesh diamond 8" diameter on a 1/4" aluminum disk, with 1/2" arbor. You can get them with a solid surface that are back mounted as well. Mine is the cheapest brand available at Kingsly North, but there are a number of lapidary supply shops out there. Just use by hand like any other flattening plate, you get a lot of surface area. The finer mesh plates are a bit too tame for resurfacing stones, and the coarser ones tear up the outside edges of your harder ceramic stones.

The 170 is perfect for all the lower grit stones and on the polishing grade stones you just need to go over it with a nagura after use.

The biggest thing is the bond plating is made for grinding stones - it does a poor job on steel but will likely last forever if only used to flatten waterstones - I'm not exaggerating.
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How about on oils Arkies, India?
 
Jason B. said:
Its my least used Glass stone and one I would be least likely to recommend. Good stone, but it just doesn't fit in all that well, IMO.

The US diamond plate is also not a good lapping option, you can try it but I can tell you first hand it will not work well and a Shapton Glass will probably destroy it.

Shapton Glass extra thick 500, 2000 and 16k is the ideal set to start with.
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Thank you Jason. Do you by chance have a preference of the Shapton Glass 1k to the Naniwa Super 1k? The Shapton 2k is out of stock.

EDIT: I misread the original comment. I see now Jason was saying the grit doesn't fit his recommended progression.
 
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Lemme start by saying I’d love to buy a bunch of natural Japanese water stones.

They’re beautiful and I’m sure work extremely well, however I can say for sure they’re not necessary.

Sadly my knife budget is limited and I prefer spending that budget on knives rather than sharpening implements. (Although I’ve certainly spent/wasted a good chunk of change on those as well).

The primary thing that’s saved me from the cost of Japanese water stones was the realization that I’m surrounded by stones in the wild.

This is the last batch I pulled off the beach.

10DFF029-966D-4495-ADE6-D0B5E996EBDE.jpeg

Gritty sandstones are great for coarse grinding and there are many stones that naturally have a very fine/consistent grit, you just have to cut them open to find out.

I’ll be picking up some of the above mentioned lapidary disks (!!!!), but for now I just use a diamond cup grinding wheel on my angle grinder (~$40) to start, then some Silicon Carbide sand in a few grits on a paving stone to complete the flattening and resurface clogged stones. Now I have ALL the grits. ;)

(Even do my Japanese straight razor on natural/found stones. I clearly have more time than money...)
 
I dearly love and use Japanese knives but I do not own a single water stone. The Japanese used them because for many years that was all they had and I would imagine everyone in Asia still uses them. I can get a scary sharp edge with just a couple of Arkansas stones and a little oil and the Arkansas stones rarely need to be flattened. Bonzai! or 'Murica!. You choose. (just kidding here)
 
scdub said:
Lemme start by saying I’d love to buy a bunch of natural Japanese water stones.

They’re beautiful and I’m sure work extremely well, however I can say for sure they’re not necessary.

Sadly my knife budget is limited and I prefer spending that budget on knives rather than sharpening implements. (Although I’ve certainly spent/wasted a good chunk of change on those as well).

The primary thing that’s saved me from the cost of Japanese water stones was the realization that I’m surrounded by stones in the wild.

This is the last batch I pulled off the beach.

View attachment 1448068

Gritty sandstones are great for coarse grinding and there are many stones that naturally have a very fine/consistent grit, you just have to cut them open to find out.

I’ll be picking up some of the above mentioned lapidary disks (!!!!), but for now I just use a diamond cup grinding wheel on my angle grinder (~$40) to start, then some Silicon Carbide sand in a few grits on a paving stone to complete the flattening and resurface clogged stones. Now I have ALL the grits. ;)

(Even do my Japanese straight razor on natural/found stones. I clearly have more time than money...)
Click to expand...
I've been playing with some jaspers and petrified wood lately. I guess you could call them post finishers for razors. Seems I do it every few years or so and after lots of failures I am starting to get some very nice results, keen and comfortable. Dirt cheap and I would put the edges up against any hone I own and I have the usual suspects.
 
drail said:
I dearly love and use Japanese knives but I do not own a single water stone. The Japanese used them because for many years that was all they had and I would imagine everyone in Asia still uses them. I can get a scary sharp edge with just a couple of Arkansas stones and a little oil and the Arkansas stones rarely need to be flattened. Bonzai! or 'Murica!. You choose. (just kidding here)
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You can't sharpen a Japanese knife on an ark. I know this to be fact because I read it. :confused:

I do have a knife in Aogami Super that doesn't respond well to the arks and I have come across some other steels that didn't respond well also but I suspect hard steel on hard slower stones tears a lot of sharpeners up. ;)
 
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