Oil Stones

[Jim Koepke]

I have used both and mostly use water stones.

The water stones also get down to a much finer finish.

I find a bit of water is easier to clean off a bench than a bit of oil.

jim

[dan sherman]

I just got my first set of waterstones, after about 6 months of using the scary sharp method, so take my advice with a grain of salt. If you decide to go with waterstones get yourself some Naniwa super stones or Shapton professional or glass stones, as neither requires you to soak the course grits before use. You can pick up 1k, 5k, & 8k Naniwas stones for about $130 delivered to your door if you know where to look.

[John Almberg]

I'm a newbie boat builder and have just gone through the whole oil stone vs water stone vs scary sharp debate, myself.

For me, the deciding factor was cost. I just couldn't justify the expense of a water stone system, or even the 15 grades of sandpaper needed for the scary sharp system. I'd rather put my limited budget into boat lumber.

I ended up with 3 old oil stones (coarse, med, fine) that I picked up at a garage sale for $5. They are old, but well cared for and flat. They work fast enough for me. I use an old leather belt (free) for a final honing.

For a honing guide, I borrowed an idea from a Brazilian woodworker, Diego de Assis. There's a picture of his home-built honing guide on my blog:

http://www.unlikelyboatbuilder.com/2...nventions.html

I made a version with two bolts for chisels, too.

The one thing I need is a grinder. Still looking for a bargain!

Re: flattening stones, my wife had an old oil stone that she inherited from her grandmother that must have been used to sharpen knives for 50 years. It had a deep curve in the fine side. After getting some good stones, I realized how bad this stone was and decided to flatten it for her.



Basically, I just took it outside and rubbed it on concrete for awhile. Actually, I rubbed it in figure 8's and turned it around a lot, so it would grind down evenly.

You can see the results after 1/2hr of work... there is still a small dip in it. It took another 1/2hr to finish the job. But this was a deeeeep dip.

Kinda dumb, actually, since I could have gone to Home Depot and bought a new stone for $5, but I wanted to see how the flattening worked. It worked fine and that stone is now as flat as a new one (only thinner!)

-- John