Official Luthiers Forum!

Few months ago I bought a 1000/4000 japanese water stone from LV. And after I had sharped a few knife blades and other curly edges tools, the stone' surface seems to be rounded a little bit. I was wondering what was the better way to rectify it?

Thanks!
Francis

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

You can either use 600 grit on a thick glass sheet or granite to flatten it - or buy the LV Norton stone flattener - I use that one , its fine.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks! Could I rectify it with a diamond stone? I know friend of mine have one so..

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Yes, but water stones will always dish with use. Sandpaper on glass, granite (I use a granite tile) works easily. -Howard

Thanks! I'll go with the sandpaper!

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Francis Richer, Montréal
Les Guitares F&M Guitars

Yep... Sandpaper on granite is pretty amazing. Wish I would have known about it sooner.

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Don't confront me with my failures--I have not forgotten them.

I use Shaptons-and have taught woodworker sharpening classes-the classes included natural oil and water stones, profiling and finish honing. I rely upon DMT diamond plates to flatten stones. I use the stones enough that I do flatten my range of Arkansas oil stones too. I would recommend that you consider buying the Coarse/Extra Coarse 4" by 10" DUO and the base-it has a handy handle built in. I use water and a bit of detergent on all of my stones. The big diamond is flat and serves to prepare edges quickly before moving to honing(especially flattening the backs of blades). I Tormek hollow grind most all of my edges and use a secondary bevel that is maintained by stropping on a very hard leather charged with chromium oxide or diamond paste.

The Shaptons are a luxury-I routinely use Norton waterstones in my kitchen and natural oilstones for carving tools. Mike T.( I make and occasionally sell 2" wide by 8 or 10 inch purpleheart wheels-some leather covered, for slow speed use with the same abrasive charge above-bored 1/2" or 5/8th"-I try to make sure I sell to knowledgeable sharpeners because the wheels MUST be USED ROTATING AWAY!!!! Believe it or not, charged plain wood does a great job for some shapes and steels.)

Even an Old Timer like me appreciates validation by Todd. He consistently offers some of the very best tool and tool use information-generally and luthier specific. I still enjoy using my handtools. I have the Wolverine grinding set and could do without the Tormek, but since getting more active with my wood lathes, I sure like the jigs from Tormek. I can also say that if I were not so addicted to hand honing, I could get by with the Big "T" alone. Considering its price, I ought to use it much more, but over on "Woodnet" they call me the "Sharpening Guru;" quite an exaggeration but I sometimes sharpen for the challenge and enjoyment of the process.

I have thinned down my herd of handtools, though if I could figure out the "new" photo attachment process, one might doubt the thinning. I keep them on a "church supper" table with a cover of green felt under the planes, etc; treated to prevent rust and they are covered with a movers' padded blanket. I have more to go, but I so enjoy having the truly perfect chisel or plane for a precise, peaceful task. Since going to mostly electric construction, I covet the quiet. Keeping them all sharp keeps the stones pretty busy. Actually, except for the grinder and Tormek, I tend to do quite a bit of honing in my kitchen-I can get away with that since my home companions are limited to my silly little dogs. I have a few nice Japanese kitchen knives and they require good stones-they are easily ruined. Mike T.

You can strap the PSA sandpaper to your cast iron tablesaw top if you have one to level the stones. Thats if your tablesaw top isn't all warped. .Mike

Yes, I use a large DMT diamond stone (well, chunk of steel, really) for this. Do it under tap water in the sink, clean and rinse your diamond stone when you're done.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I use a thick piece of glass and some 220 dry wall screen. You can use 220 wet dry sandpaper as well. Two reasons : one I don't like to wear out my expensive diamond stone flattening my water stones (I want to save the diamonds for steel) and two I got a lot of 220 dry wall screen free one time and have been using it for the last 10 years. I have been doing it this way ( glass and paper ) for the last 25 years and it works fine.
Make some pencil marks on your stone so you can see how far to go to get it flat. If you look closely you don't need to do that as the stone will be slightly darker and the fresh surface you expose will be lighter. So keep rubbing until it is all the same color. This will become obvious when you do it.
This method will work fine with the stone you have from LV.
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.