Sharpening Stone Recommendations

R

rfdes

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I'm sure that this topic has been beat to a pulp but I'm confused and need some recommendations.
Presently, I own no sharpening stone (other than my bench grinder) and am looking for a best choice for a beginner. I'm simply looking for something for sharpening hand tools and honing lathe tool bits, etc. I've searched Ebay and there are so many types (or so it seems) that I wouldn't know a good stone from something I would see in my backyard garden. Your insite would be most appreciated.

Thanks
Jim
Largo, Fl.
 
I assume you are talking about hand stones. Hard and soft Arkansas stones are the old standbys. For carbide, you can't beat a diamond hone.
The thing to remember about sharpening is the finer the grit, the sharper the edge. A carborundum stone traditionally used by woodworkers is rather coarse but cuts most steels fairly fast. Hard Arkansas stones were traditionally used to sharpen surgical scalpels and have an extremely fine grit. It takes forever to remove and metal though and only used to put a micro edge on the tool.
I do my rough profiling on the bench grinder and the final honing with an Arkansas stone for tool steel. For carbide, I use a diamond wheel for rough profiling and a diamond hone for the final hone.
I am not an expert at this and I am sure that some of the knife makers in the group can offer better advice. This just works for me.
 
RJSakowski said:
I assume you are talking about hand stones. Hard and soft Arkansas stones are the old standbys. For carbide, you can't beat a diamond hone.
The thing to remember about sharpening is the finer the grit, the sharper the edge. A carborundum stone traditionally used by woodworkers is rather coarse but cuts most steels fairly fast. Hard Arkansas stones were traditionally used to sharpen surgical scalpels and have an extremely fine grit. It takes forever to remove and metal though and only used to put a micro edge on the tool.
I do my rough profiling on the bench grinder and the final honing with an Arkansas stone for tool steel. For carbide, I use a diamond wheel for rough profiling and a diamond hone for the final hone.
I am not an expert at this and I am sure that some of the knife makers in the group can offer better advice. This just works for me.
Click to expand...
There seem to be millions of Arkansas stones available, though, labeled "hard", "soft", "black", "translucent", etc, all rather expensive but with no hint as to what the grit size is or how hard they are.
 
I have not been able to figure out how to use Arkansas stones. Some are from garage sales, and there are a lot of people who really like them. For sharpening tools, a good synthetic carborundum stone is just great. A couple of tips can be helpful. Select a good stone, like a Norton. Don't load it up else it will not cut; the best way to avoid that is to use a honing fluid. Keep the stone flat unless you want a junk stone that is only good for removing random metal. Use a magnifier to verify a sharpened edge; using a finger is fiddly and unreliable. A good stone can be used to sharpen knives, lathe tools, and even small drills. The small drills will goof up a good flat stone pretty quickly, so use the junk garage sale stones purchased for less than a dollar for that.
 
That is certainly true, John. I have two sets; one I bought locally and the other was given to me by a friend who visited the Arkansas quarry. The former set works but is definitely not the quality of the latter. The latter hard stone has a surface that is almost reflective. Years ago, when I was on a sharpen binge, I used to look at my edges with a 50X microscope and sharpen so no defects were noticeable on my fish fillet knives. I'm off that kick now, thankfully. But the hard stone would definitely give that edge.

There is also a significant difference amongst the various diamond hones offered. Both in uniformity of grit and quantity of diamond chips used. I would suggest as a starting point, checking into some of the companies selling quality woodworking tools. Keen edges are the pot-o-gold that woodworkers strive for. Try www.rockler.com or leevalley.com. Grizzly also offers a fairly good selection of sharpening systems although I am somewhat leery of taking everything they say with a grain of salt.

I have also seen some promising things regarding some of the Japanese sharpening systems although I have no personal experience with them.
 
ericc said:
I have not been able to figure out how to use Arkansas stones. Some are from garage sales, and there are a lot of people who really like them. For sharpening tools, a good synthetic carborundum stone is just great. A couple of tips can be helpful. Select a good stone, like a Norton. Don't load it up else it will not cut; the best way to avoid that is to use a honing fluid. Keep the stone flat unless you want a junk stone that is only good for removing random metal. Use a magnifier to verify a sharpened edge; using a finger is fiddly and unreliable. A good stone can be used to sharpen knives, lathe tools, and even small drills. The small drills will goof up a good flat stone pretty quickly, so use the junk garage sale stones purchased for less than a dollar for that.
Click to expand...
I use the edge of the stone for small items like drill bits to avoid the grooving. I have also used a silicon carbide stone to resurface worn stones, both to flatten and renew the cutting capability. I use a coarser grit than the stone I am resurfacing.
 
One other thing that works great for Chisels, Knives, Plane Blades and the like but not so good for Lathe Tools bits is a cutout of Granite and various grades of Wet/Dry Sandpaper.

Spritz the granite with a light spray of water which will hold the Wet/Dry paper in place then hone away. You can change grits by simply swapping out the Wet/Dry paper. Use the same spritz of water to lube the Wet/Dry Paper. Razor sharp edges are easy.
The granite surface provides a surface that will be flatter than any misc old garage sale stone and will stay that way forever since you never actually wear the surface.

For Lathe Tools the embedded Diamond Plates made by DMT are awesome.
Here's a link to a set of pocket size, that is easy to use to add the final hone to an HSS Tool bit.
http://www.zoro.com/i/G2314873/?utm...hopping_Feed&gclid=CI-m5sjeqsQCFYc6aQodcgoAIA
 
I would suggest a selection of stones and hones. there are echos of others sentiments here,
The reason being that every metal and edge will require a couple different stones or diamond grits to make it sharp.
if you are doing mainly steel and no carbide, you can get away with carborundum stones for the heavy removal and finish off with Hard Arkansas stones.
if you're going to sharpen carbide, you'll need diamond sharpeners.
i'm partial also to the ceramic sharpening stones for steels.
 
Ulma Doctor said:
I would suggest a selection of stones and hones. there are echos of others sentiments here,
The reason being that every metal and edge will require a couple different stones or diamond grits to make it sharp.
if you are doing mainly steel and no carbide, you can get away with carborundum stones for the heavy removal and finish off with Hard Arkansas stones.
if you're going to sharpen carbide, you'll need diamond sharpeners.
i'm partial also to the ceramic sharpening stones for steels.
Click to expand...
Could you tell us more about the ceramic stones?
 
yendor said:
One other thing that works great for Chisels, Knives, Plane Blades and the like but not so good for Lathe Tools bits is a cutout of Granite and various grades of Wet/Dry Sandpaper.

Spritz the granite with a light spray of water which will hold the Wet/Dry paper in place then hone away. You can change grits by simply swapping out the Wet/Dry paper. Use the same spritz of water to lube the Wet/Dry Paper. Razor sharp edges are easy.
The granite surface provides a surface that will be flatter than any misc old garage sale stone and will stay that way forever since you never actually wear the surface.

For Lathe Tools the embedded Diamond Plates made by DMT are awesome.
Here's a link to a set of pocket size, that is easy to use to add the final hone to an HSS Tool bit.
http://www.zoro.com/i/G2314873/?utm...hopping_Feed&gclid=CI-m5sjeqsQCFYc6aQodcgoAIA
Click to expand...
I've used paper but I found that I got a rounded edge.
 
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