Hi Folks -
I've been reading some old sharpening articles in Popular Woodworking by David Charlesworth and I'm fully psyc'd up to embark on the hand tool path, starting with the only plane that I own - a Bailey 5 that was left to me when my dad passed away some years ago. The blade was reasonably sharp when I started tinkering with it, but it's getting dull and so that's what led me off to the articles on sharpening.
I have a question on the flattening of waterstones. Charlesworth mentions that you can use a coarse DMT stone to flatten them - if I have a 800 and a 8000 grit stone, would I need to get a coarse and a fine flattening stone as well? I'm not all that keen on using the sandpaper and float glass plate - I'm suspecting it will be more costly in the end if one plans to flatten frequently. Perhaps I'm off on this thought.
Thanks for any tips people can pass along.
Cheers,
Lewis