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When flattening norton waterstones must they have water on them? I know they do for sharpening, but the stone seems to float rather than flatten when water is on it. I tried flattening without water using just sandpaper and a surface plate and that was much more effective, but I don't want to ruin anything. Is this an OK practice?
I never tried it without, I flatten the 4000/8000 with 220 SiC paper on float glass, and the 250/1000 on concrete steps. Water never provided stick for me in those settings. I find that if your water is drying up or you have a lot of abrasive in the slurry it will start to stick. I'd try adding more water. Maybe I'll flatten a stone today and take a video?
I used to flatten my stones without water with decent results. But this was when I was using sandpaper and I didn't always have the wet paper on hand. Was cheaper for me to just use regular 220grit paper dry. The downside was the nasty dust created and had to go outside for this. Since then I've switched to a dmt duosharp and haven't looked back. Always do this step wet now. But my stones are Shapton Pro's and Sigma Powers so they aren't soakers and absorb very little water. I would think the Nortons would be better at flattening while wet due to the fact they absorb plenty of water and constantly spraying them while flattening shouldn't be neccessary. But Im not 100% about that as I don't have experience with nortons. Whatever method works for you is the way to go. There is no danger in hurting anything (other than your lungs) while doing this dry.
I guess the stones were not completely dry, they just didn't have a slurry between the stone and sandpaper. There wasn't much dust to speak of, so I guess they were just damp and they loaded the sandpaper quickly. Its the slurry I was having a problem with.
So why will sharpening with them dry ruin them, but flattening them dry will not?
I didn't think sharpening dry would ruin them but it won't work very well. You need to build up a slurry in order to remove metal efficiently. Without the slurry, it is easy to catch and dig in, gouging the stone. It wont ruin it but it will give you a big flattening job.
I agree with John's assessment, I also think the water helps remove the steel particles away from the face of the stone rather than rubbing them into the pores of the stone.