What are your go-to sharpening stones?

[john zulu]

Shapton Pro 2k,5k and 8k
Those are my general stones.

[Daniel Rode]

LV makes a cambered roller for their MKII jig.

The cambered roller does the same thing I described doing by hand. What I struggle with is setting a smooth camber on the grinder. The tighter curve, like that on a roughing plane, takes a lot of work to establish on the stones. Ideally, I'd the curve on the grinder and then hone on the stones.

[Daniel Rode]

John,

I often see 1k as the coarse stone. What made you choose 2k?

Shapton Pro 2k,5k and 8k
Those are my general stones.

[David B. Morris]

The cambered roller does the same thing I described doing by hand. What I struggle with is setting a smooth camber on the grinder. The tighter curve, like that on a roughing plane, takes a lot of work to establish on the stones. Ideally, I'd the curve on the grinder and then hone on the stones.

I recently ground a 9" radius camber on a Hock blade for use in an old Stanley #5 as a scrub plane, then finished on my Sigmas. I had never done this before and otherwise have practically no experience using a bench grinder, but it turned out perfectly. Chris Schwarz has an article on this somewhere in the ether which I found very helpful.

[Archie England]

Choseras are my go-to stones now, but I want to be clear that I am a chronic sharpaholic who needs therapy, and this is not what everyone needs in order to get their tools "sharp enough." (that was hard to say, by the way) When asked for advice, I tell people to evaluate how much they are into woodworking. If they are dead serious, then I say go for something higher end- Shapton Glass are a great lower-dollar but higher-end stone. I have a full set and love them. I kind of swap back and forth between those and the Choseras because the Shaptons are more splash and go. (I used to think the Choseras were splash and go, but they do prefer being soaked briefly.) If they are not real serious, or not sure, then I say get some Nortons. They do just fine, except I very much dislike the 220- very slow cutting, and leaves a very inconsistent scratch pattern. If really serious then I say get Shapton Pro's or Choseras. **Not the only good stones, but those are what I have the most experience with.

I have a full set of DMT diamond stones, thanks mostly to an eBay find. I primarily use them to set bevels and reapair really bad edges. I use a Dia-Flat to flatten my waterstones, and I also use a 1500 diamond stone to dress the finer stones like the Chosera 10k and Shapton 15k.

I use a Tormek primarily for sharpening gouges, scissors, and planer (the electronic kind) blades. I do also use it to sharpen knives when friends bring me a lot of them to sharpen, and depending on how good of a friend they are, I will finish on a Chosera 5k and if they are really good friends a 10k. For my own knives I mostly use the Choseras because I enjoy shaprening knives on waterstones.

I want to make a comment about "skipping grits," but this is not for the sake of argument; rather it is for the sake of clarification. Yes, as I believe Prashun said, you can skip grits, like going from 1k to 5k, but there is a small consequence, and that is time spent and wear on the stones. You will be wearing your expensive stone faster, and spending a lot more time to properly remove the scratches from a 1k. I have so many times seen where people go from a 1k to a 5k or 8k and say it works just fine, but when I look at the edge, there are clearly scratches left over from the 1k. Sure, it is a mirror polish, but they did not get all the scratches out. THIS IS NOT A BIG DEAL!!! I want to be clear with that. However, even leaving some of the scratches, I can tell you they took longer overall and used more of their expensive finer stone than if they had gone, for instance, 1k, 3k, 5k, 8k, which is a good progression.

I'm going to say it again- this isn't a huge deal, and if strapped for cash you can do this, but it is not ideal- that's all I'm saying. It is more ideal to progress through the grits.

I have actually been intending to do some videos because I own all the Chosera grits, most of the Shapton Pro, and all the Norton. I want to be clear again here- this is only because I enjoy sharpening and nobody should ever buy all the grits unless they have a problem like me! I don't expect folks to understand it, but like with the Chosera 600 and 800 I wanted to see for myself what the difference was, and I found an insane deal on both, so I bought both. It is a weird fascination that started as a child when my grandfather taught us to sharpen our pocket knives. I just like to sharpen things, and I like to experiment with different methods. Actually the main reason I have not shot a video is I did not want people to think I was gloating over the stones I own. The internet can be like that. I actually would do the video so people can AVOID buying the wrong stone and better choose the grit they need.

If interested, comment and I will get off my butt and do the video, but it will take time because what I want to do is flatten some iron backs with each stone so you can more clearly see the scratch pattern on the metal, and compare each one side by side.

Okay, support group with therapy is what you and I need to get started here....

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Okay, support group with therapy is what you and I need to get started here....

If by "support group" you mean someone else to support my habbit, I am all-in.

[Don Dorn]

I grind at 25 with the Ian Kirby method on an 8" grinder, which nearly doesn't have to be done anymore. As to sharpening, I adopted the Paul Sellers method with a 220, 600 & 1000 diamond stone, then a short but aggressive stropping. At least for me, I've never spent so little time sharpening, and have not ever had irons/chisels as sharp as now. Less than 5 minutes including taking the iron out of the plane.

[Shawn Pixley]

Sigma power stones 1K, 6K, & 13k. I flat grind (no hollow grind) with micro bevel. If I take something from the shop I bring a 4K / 8K Norton combo stone.

[Jeffrey Martel]

So what would be a good general set? Don't want to spend a ton, but I'd like to cover what I need for sharpening plane blades and chisels. Getting sick of sandpaper, and that's the only thing I have now. I go up to 2000 grit followed by a strop with green compound, use the LV MkII jig.

[Jim Koepke]

So what would be a good general set? Don't want to spend a ton, but I'd like to cover what I need for sharpening plane blades and chisels.

Though all of us love to spend other people's money, it is difficult to determine a good answer to this question without knowing a few things about you and your shop.

There may even be a difference depending on whether you will be maintaining tools you already have or if you will be rehabilitating a lot of tools you hope to find in the coming years.

Have you used anything other than sandpaper in the past?

Do you have a preferred media; diamond stone, paste, oilstones or water stones?

For some of my blades water stones are preferred. Other blades do best on oilstones. For touch up on the kitchen knives there is a small diamond stone in the kitchen.

This hodgepodge not only works for me it works for my shop. In the winter months it gets too cold to use water stones in my unheated shop.

jtk

[Christopher Charles]

Jeffrey,

If you're willing to make an investment (~$250-300) the sigma power set + atoma or similar with shapton pros from Stu will set you up for a long time. Both are similar, i went with the shaptons b/c my understanding was they do a wee bit better without soaking than the sigmas and i work in shop that freezes. But there are other less expensive options--I had norton combos in 220/1000 and 4000/8000 that did just fine (but the 220 was near worthless and they did require soaking).

Good luck,
C

[Jeffrey Martel]

Have used a water stone a long time ago to sharpen the knives in the kitchen when growing up. Other than that, just been sticking with sandpaper.

Most of my tools are older, non-A2 steel. I have 2 plane irons that are PM-VII. Mostly maintaining, but I will be acquiring a few new tools as I fill out the number of hand tools I have. My shop never freezes, but it will get down into the 40's in the winter.

[Alan Lightstone]

Shapton 1K, 4K, 8K and 16K. Use a Dia-Flat as a flattening stone.

Still have issues with blades slipping in the MK-II jig, so the sharpening can be uneven. But when it holds right, the blades are unbelievably sharp and mirrors. Just takes forever.

I saw Rob Cosman go from 1K to 8K repeatedly in seconds. Just doesn't work well for me.

[Matthew N. Masail]

My 2 cents after trying Shaptons, sigmas, beaters, cerax, chosera, diamonds and more: the Shapton 1k and chosera 800 are the best I have used, both work as splash and go and both seem to have a short breakin period. After that I prefer a medium grit to remove scratches completely and quickly, it seems many stones are a little slow with this, but the chosera 3k is fast and leaves a very sharp edge too, it also work with a heavy splash no soaking needed. After that pick your final stone, I'm still looking for mine. It's also great to have an oil stone setup for curved tools or when your just in the mood, a fine India, hard ark and strop is all that's needed really. And you could skip the hard ark and just have another India stone which you never refresh, the other should be lapped with diamonds once in a while to keep it cutting fast.

Diamonds are great too (I use eze lap plates), if you use the paul sellers method, but they get finer in use so eventually you'll need a new coarse stone.

[Kees Heiden]

I used to sharpen on waterstones. First setup was a Naniwa superstone 800 and 8000. They are very soft stones. The 800 was gone in no time, it dished so quickly that I had to flatten it very often. Within a year or so just a nubbin was left. The 8000 is still in use. It polishes very nice, I think it is somewhat finer then the 8000 number would suggest. To replace the 800 I got a 400 Bester, a 1000 Sigma and a 4000 Bester. The 400 is fast, very usefull at times, but also dissapears quickly through the drain. The 1000 Sigma is a great stone. And I don't use the 4000 very much. It is a bit sticky and quickly fills up with black smudge.

Now I use oilstones more often. I have a noname India like stone, used very occasionally when I want things to go fast. It really drinks oil in huge quantities, and then likes to dump it all over the place again. Next up is a vintage Washita and a translucent Arkansas. These are teriffic. The natural stones aren't very thirsty at all, so just a little bit of babyoil is neccessary. A strop with some Autosol finishes the process. The oil stones are great for round tools, like molding planes and gouges. Doing these on soft waterstones is a lesson in frustration. Just when I think I'm ready I tend to dig deeply into the stone which kind of messes with the edge and the stone's surface.

The grinder with a Norton blue 46 grit wheel is the basis for all my sharpening. Sharpening is not really my hobby, and this speeds things up considerably.

I've tried diamond plates too, but just can't get enthousiastic about them.