Sharpening with sandpaper

[George Farra]

Hi Everyone

I'm not a complete Neanderthal yet, but have added some necessary hand tools to supplement my power tools, namely:

#4 & 5 bench planes
LA Block plane
Bench & Mortise Chisels

All, at some point will need sharpening. After reading alot of posts on the site about sharpening methods, I've decided to go with sandpaper/plate glass...aka "scary sharp" method

What alternatives are there other than plate glass? I'm somewhat of a cluts and all I can imagine is droping the plate on the ground or dropping something on the plate.

Can corian be used? what about quartz? any other options?

TIA

George

[Trevor Walsh]

I use the show surface of Corian countertop, the non-show side is not as flat. I spray mount slips of sandpaper on them to create "sandpaper bench stones".

[John Seiffer]

I found a piece of glass that I'm pretty sure was tempered in the "As Is" section of IKEA near me. I think it was a top for a night stand or something. Nice beveled edges etc.

[Bill Houghton]

I have a piece of marble countertop picked up for free from somewhere. If you found a place that makes kitchen counters, you could probably have your choice of sink cutouts for cheap, maybe even free, in stone, corian, or whatever. These may not be surface-plate flat, but they'll be close to flat.

I also have a piece of granite that my son picked up from a place that does monuments (headstones and like that), which is also pretty flat, but 4" thick and WAY too heavy for portable use. I'm saving it for the day that I have a big enough shop for permanent mounting somewhere.

I sharpen with oilstones, but like the countertop chunk for flattening plane soles and similar purposes.

I found a piece of glass that I'm pretty sure was tempered in the "As Is" section of IKEA near me. I think it was a top for a night stand or something. Nice beveled edges etc.

I'm not sure if it's required for table-top glass, but tempered window glass made in the U.S. has a little mark stamped in one corner, known, at least locally, as a "bug," probably because it looks like that to someone who wants to clean the window.

[Robert Culver]

1/4 tempered glass is pretty tough stuff lee valley has it pretty reasonable thats what im using now. But if you dont want glass I have seen it done with a number off other things right down to mdf. I was looking around for some other things and I see that tools for working wood has a flating plate they sell for there diamond paste that looks like it would work well also. The # 1 thing here is Flat if you dont start out flat you wont get a good edge. thats my 2 cents worth anyway.....

[Don Dorn]

Frank Klausz argues that melamine is flatter than the float glass that he used. Can't back that up as I don't use that method, but found it interesting.

[Jim Koepke]

I have found 12" granite floor tiles for as little as a buck apiece that work well.

I also bought a piece of granite from a monument shop for $25. It is a little over 4' and about 5" wide by about 4" deep. I made a bench just for it to rest on. I mostly use it with 80 grit PSA paper for smoothing rough blades and such.

You can see it in use here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDtmWSkD_fU

jtk

[Mark Baldwin III]

I have a piece of tempered glass and also a granite surface plate. Got the granite from Woodcraft it's about $30.

[Brett Bobo]

+1 on using melamine as Frank suggests as it's flat, lightweight, and comes in various lengths and widths. I'm about to switch from scary sharp to waterstones as I found that although the costs for sandpaper are relatively inexpensive per roll, the replacement of sandpaper is frequent to where over time it becomes costly. There's definitely a place for sandpaper as like others have mentioned, I use it to flatten plane soles and other larger parts. Maybe it's just me but I've found that I get a sharper edge on waterstones than sandpaper, working incrementally between grits up to 2000 grit.

One note on granite or any other natural stone, I've found it very difficult and time consuming to remove self adhesive (PSA) sandpaper, if it's not removed immediately after use. Goo Gone works decently but it takes alot of elbow grease to remove sandpaper that has been left on the granite.

Just my $0.02,
Brett

[Brian Vaughn]

I got a piece of granite from a local place that does countertops...they were just throwing away a bunch of cutoffs and let me pick through and choose the one I wanted. It's about 3'x1.5' and 2 inches thick. And it cost them less to give it to me than to haul it to the dump

[Jim Koepke]

One note on granite or any other natural stone, I've found it very difficult and time consuming to remove self adhesive (PSA) sandpaper, if it's not removed immediately after use. Goo Gone works decently but it takes alot of elbow grease to remove sandpaper that has been left on the granite.

I have a few putty knives that work well to scrape the adhesive after a soaking with mineral spirits. One is actually more like a dry wall taping knife.

I have ground bevels on the putty knives.

Still takes a bit of work, but it is done in a few minutes.

jtk

[Mike Nguyen]

Hi George,
I use sand paper to sharpen as well and have a 10"x30" 3/8 thick 11"x28" glass, and 3/4 MDF 10"x24". I used a steel straight edge along with the feeler gauge .0015 and found that the granite and the glass are both not as flat as the MDF. So what I did was put on a few coat of shellac on the MDF and use it instead of glass or granite.
Mike

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I have a flat granite slab (purchased at WoodCraft) and it does a good job. I use wet/dry sandpaper and I use water to adhere the paper to the stone. Does an OK job, but not great.

[Randy Briggs]

+1 on using melamine as Frank suggests as it's flat, lightweight, and comes in various lengths and widths. I'm about to switch from scary sharp to waterstones as I found that although the costs for sandpaper are relatively inexpensive per roll, the replacement of sandpaper is frequent to where over time it becomes costly. There's definitely a place for sandpaper as like others have mentioned, I use it to flatten plane soles and other larger parts. Maybe it's just me but I've found that I get a sharper edge on waterstones than sandpaper, working incrementally between grits up to 2000 grit.

One note on granite or any other natural stone, I've found it very difficult and time consuming to remove self adhesive (PSA) sandpaper, if it's not removed immediately after use. Goo Gone works decently but it takes alot of elbow grease to remove sandpaper that has been left on the granite.

Just my $0.02,
Brett

Klingspor has a new product from Woodjoy, Woodsmith or something like that is a rectangular piece of mdf with a nice edge to use for lapping/SS. I think its like $15.

[Johnny Kleso]

I just checked ENCo and prices are about double to what they where last year

I think a counter top maker would be my first choice..

My 12"x 18" is a bear to move at 85lbs but it was only $25-$35 plus shipped free with Enco's free shipping codes..
If you join their email list they send you a new code every month.. Maybe It's good time to buy if prices keep rising..

PS: Items must be under 100lbs