Hey Winton - V11 on a Washita Stone Only

[Steve Voigt]

You might be happier with a soft Arkansas stone, Steve. I think you would get about the same action as an abraded Translucent stone without the trouble of having to abrade it. And you could save the translucent stone for special times when you wanted a high polish. If you cut channels into a #4 file, the file might cut like a #1 file, a lot faster, or you could just get a #1 file and save the fine file for its best use.

Warren, I'm not sure the file analogy really works, because you can pretty quickly remove a lot of the "brashness" from a freshly abraded stone, just by working the back of an iron for a few minutes. I wouldn't go downstairs and abrade my hard black just before I was about to take a final pass on something; I would typically do it at the beginning of a project, when there's lots of rough work to do.

It is highly likely, as you and Dave have suggested, that I'm leaving the higher levels of sharpness on the table, so to speak. That's ok with me; I never wanted to win the sharpening competition, but rather to get my tools sharp enough to work with. But there are other factors besides particle size. Abrading the stones regularly makes it a lot easier (for me; ymmv) to keep the back of the tool in good shape. And a fast-cutting stone means fewer strokes, which speeds up sharpening and makes it less likely that I will introduce the sort of geometry errors that can crop up when I have to take too many strokes.

But as I said before, I'm agnostic; people can use their oil stones however they want.

[David Weaver]

Well, I've sharpened it about a half dozen times so far (and actually dulled it that many, too). The washita is still fine. My washita is fully settled in, so that might have something to do with it.

The more I use it, the more I get used to sharpening and I think I can get 3 hones on a grind out of it this time, no jasper crutch, just a little extra work on the wire edge. I remove less of it per hone than I would with carbon steel for the simple fact it's harder to hone....but while I thought it might put the stone to sleep, it hasn't.

I'm going to use it making a try plane to match my jointer.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for carbon steel, of course, it's all I need, but the V11 is an interesting diversion.

Anyway, one quick way to wake up a washita a little is to sharpen something with wrought iron on it. One of my chisel sets has wrought iron backing, and it scours the surface a little bit, but just a little (which is enough).

[Warren Mickley]

I may not have been clear earlier. I really do think you might like the soft Arkansas. I have used this stone side by side with the black Arkansas for the last 35 years. The big difference between the soft Arkansas and the black is that the soft has more crevices. A black stone with lots of scratches is very much like a soft Arkansas. I think there is some evidence that the early 19th century woodworkers preferred the soft Arkansas and the Washita.

[Steve Voigt]

Warren, I have a soft ark and like it very much, but I have owned it for approximately 1/100 of the time you have had yours!

I have never used it as a finishing stone, but perhaps I will let one side settle in all the way and give it a try. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Graham Haydon]

Nice to see the India combo stone getting some love.