Diamond Stone for Waterstone Prep

[Griph0n Brown]

I bought a complete set of Norton Waterstones. The 220 and the flattening stone are more trouble than glass and paper.

I'd like to replace them with a diamond stone and avoid the constant paper replacement, my fingers, and everything else around the paper, get covered in spray adhesive. At Lee Valley the only 220 is smaller than my nortons (the 6" diamond stone). It won't fit my larger plane blades either. Is this size appropriate for flatenning a larger stone?

[Mike Henderson]

I use this one. It's lasted me a long time.

Mike

[Tri Hoang]

I think the 10" that Mike points out is just about right. I have the coarse/fine plate but the coarse/extra-coarse is better.

[Fidel Fernandez]

I am using the technique from Rob Cosman and It works great and it is cheaper than the flattening stones or diamond stones.

On his DVD he suggest to have 2 1000 water stones. One of the 1000 will work as a flattening stone, I use mine to flat the the 1000 and 8000 after every use or after 10 minutes of continue use.

I double check my stones with a straight edge and they are flat.

Give it a try, it works.

[Joe Hardesty]

On his DVD he suggest to have 2 1000 water stones. One of the 1000 will work as a flattening stone, I use mine to flat the the 1000 and 8000 after every use or after 10 minutes of continue use.

I would do some serious research before going this route. I have read several articles that state this is not a good practice and can produce two unflat stones. Also, how do you keep the 1000 stone from contaminating the 8000?

I am not an engineer or a sharpening guru, but have read enough to question whether this is good practice.

[Ryan Stagg]

I use this one. It's lasted me a long time.

Mike

+1, with the caveat that you have to watch the rust. I have been less than careful keeping mine dry between flattening, and the substrate has noticeably rusted. This hasn't seemed to affect performance so far (~3 years).

Also, they do flex, so I don't hold mine in my hand, but against a reference surface.

[Mike Henderson]

I am using the technique from Rob Cosman and It works great and it is cheaper than the flattening stones or diamond stones.

On his DVD he suggest to have 2 1000 water stones. One of the 1000 will work as a flattening stone, I use mine to flat the the 1000 and 8000 after every use or after 10 minutes of continue use.

I double check my stones with a straight edge and they are flat.

Give it a try, it works.

This has been discussed ad nauseum in the forums here. If you rub only two stones together, you will generally not get two flat surfaces - you will get two conforming surfaces. And because of the way our waterstones wear, you'll almost always see the working stone become concave while the "flattening" stone becomes convex. That's also why that Norton flattening stone is useless.

You really have to flatten on a known flat surface, such as sandpaper on glass or granite, or on a diamond plate.

Mike

[Fidel Fernandez]

Ok, I am a newbie and I am getting knowledge from all of you guys.

I found a key word in your post Mike "almost" get the water stone concave and the other convex. What if you are careful and check the stones all the time and never use the 1000 "flattening" for anything else. Mines still flat but the caveat is that this is my hobby, so the stones don't see a constant use like a pro will do.
If there is no chance to work I will change my method.

Thanks,

[Mike Henderson]

Ok, I am a newbie and I am getting knowledge from all of you guys.

I found a key word in your post Mike "almost" get the water stone concave and the other convex. What if you are careful and check the stones all the time and never use the 1000 "flattening" for anything else. Mines still flat but the caveat is that this is my hobby, so the stones don't see a constant use like a pro will do.
If there is no chance to work I will change my method.

Thanks,

I bought one of those Norton flattening stones a few years ago. At first, I thought it was the cat's meow. But then I started having sharpening problems. I was with a woodworking friend and described the problem to him. He told me to use his DMT plate to flatten my working stone. I was surprised when I started working the stone on the plate to find that I had a hollow in the center of the stone. Then, I checked the flattening stone and it was convex (slightly, but enough to cause problems).

When I went back to sharpening, the problems had gone away.

Several other people in the forum have reported the same problem.

What you have to do with any flattening stone is keep it flat. That means you need to flatten it occasionally on sandpaper on glass or something flat. And if you have to do that, why not just flatten your working stones on the same thing?

Anyway, I bought the DMT and have been happy with it since. The advantage of the DMT is that it stays flat. The diamonds may eventually wear down, but it'll still be flat - it just won't work well.

I'm not advocating that you spend the big bucks on a DMT diamond plate - you can achieve the same results with a piece of thick glass and sandpaper. Before the flattening stone and the DMT that's what I used to use and it worked well. The glass is a bit expensive but you can pick up a flat piece of tile flooring (maybe a scrap piece of marble from a job) - that will work as well.

Mike

[The reason I qualified my statement is that two flat surfaces are conforming. But the chance of getting two flat surfaces by rubbing two water stones together is pretty small.]
[To get a flat surface, you have to use three stones in sequence.]