Hello ..
I am continuing to learn how to sharpen my chisels and plane blades.. I went to the show in Atlanta and got a hands on lesson at the Lee Valley booth.. After talking to the fella at the booth, I realized that I was not keeping my stones flat..
So I bought a diamond lapping stone and flattened all my stones.. The results where impressive .. Its almost embarrassing to admit that I had ignored this important step..
Anyway .. I decided to sharpen my chisels over again .. I had some nice Japanese paring chisels which i had never formed a bevel on .. Rather I had just put a micro bevel on them, but with dished stones, they where disappointing chisels..
So by hand .. I put a 25 degree bevel on 3 Japanese paring chisels plus a 27 degree micro bevel.. I then did 3 of my Blue spruce bench chisels .. 25 degree primary angle with a 30 degree micro .. ( I am trying this out on the bench chisels ) ..
My rough stone is a 400 grit Sigma ceramic stone and while it did the job .. registering a bevel with a 400 grit stone has been a real work out .. The paring chisels took almost an hour each ..
So I am thinking of getting a 200 grit .. something to speed up that part of the process..
I found that if a chisel took 50 minutes .. I spent 40 minutes on the 400 grit ..
I have a 400, 1000 and 13000 grit sigma ceramic .. plus a 4000/8000 Norton ..
I love the Sigma stones, which makes me really dislike the Norton stones .. I find the Norton really "muddy" .. they are gross.. but they work very well.. The sigma stones, especially the 1000 cuts fast, makes a cool sound, and doesn't look like it was smeared with iron filings ..
Wondering what would be a clean 200 grit ( approx ) stone you guys would recommend ?
I also have a 160# black stone which I hate .. it actually seems to go dull quickly..