quality waterstones on a budget?

[Wilbur Pan]

This is a bit out of the box, but for a high grit waterstone, Lee Valley still has some closeout natural Japanese waterstones for $35-45. I have the $45 one, and it is at least as high a grit as a 8000 grit stone, and you can't get a 8000 grit waterstone for $45. In many ways, I actually like it more than my 8000 grit waterstone.

[Eddie Darby]

If you want to reduce the overall cost, then use your abrasive wisely.
King stones should do the trick, or skip the jig and go with Norton, which is a way better stone, IMHO.

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworki....aspx?id=30993

[Matt Wilson]

Once I did figure out that the Norton flattening stone needed to be flattened--I was able to fix it with coarse grit sand paper on a granite surface plate.

I had really good luck flattening mine on the sidewalk. It took about 2 minutes. 8 minutes if you include the questions I had to answer from interested pedestrians...

[Doug Littlejohn]

thanks for the tip. I was thinking about getting one of those flattening stones. where can I get the glass suitable for this job?

Well, my experience was completely different. My flattening stone was (and still is) flat and it works very well. From my experience, I would reccomend it without hessitation.

Depending on where you buy them (I almost always use Lee Valley) if there were some problem, the vendor should stand behind the product (LV would without question and they even pay the shipping, they send you a new item with the return packaging & shipping label).

I have the glass and grit methode as well but it does not work nearly as easy as the flattening stone does. Note however, you will need to periodically re-flatten the flattening stone as well.

Either way should server you well.