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Untitled Document
Using Japanese Waterstones - by Jan Schilling
I am often asked at woodworking
shows, “which are the best sharpening stones to use - Japanese, diamond
or oilstones? ” There are lots of ways to sharpen a blade, but my preference
is Japanese waterstones because they cut quickly and are easy to maintain.
I was also taught with waterstones and a lot of cabinetmakers when asked,
will tell you they also prefer to use Japanese waterstones.
Oilstones don’t generally have the cutting speed of Japanese waterstones
as the abrasive particles round over rather than breaking off and exposing
a fresh cutting surface, oilstones also clog with oil residue and metal
particles.
Most Japanese stones these days are man-made with either aluminium oxide
in clay (King) or ceramic matrix (Shapton).
Natural waterstones
are highly prized and can be expensive for top grade stones. Most natural
stones today are around the 6000-8000 grit range and can be used for finishing
your blade.
Waterstones are available in three broad grades. Rough grits for fast removal
of metal, medium grits for refining the edge and removing the burr and finishing
stones for the final honing and polishing. These grades range from 300 to
10,000. There is a fourth type of stone which is used, but not directly.
It is the Nagura stone
which is used to form a cutting slurry on finishing stones that are often
too hard to create the necessary slurry.
Choosing the correct stone is a relatively simple affair. If you need to
repair a nick in your blade, change the bevel angle or remove a lot of metal
fast - you will want to use the 300 stone. For general purpose sharpening,
and heavily used edges, either an 800
or 1200
grit stone will be the one to go for. To achieve a mirror polish and an
edge that just slices through end grain effortlessly, choose either a 4000
or 6000
grit stone and use it with the nagura stone.
In principle, one needs at least three stones if one has to do significant
amounts of sharpening. One to grind, one to sharpen and one to hone.
There is a method to the madness of having three different grades of stone
and it is a very simple one – you are removing the scratches on the metal
left by the previous stone. It’s very much like sanding. You start with
a coarse sandpaper and move up in the grits, removing the scratches left
by the previous paper.
The good thing about Japanese water stones is that they are relatively cheap
to buy. Three stones and a nagura stone will cost under $150.00 and will
last a considerable time with care. The downside of waterstones is that
they are soft and need regular maintenance. After repeated use, you may
notice a small valley forming in it or that it isn’t as flat as it once
was.
The easiest way to flatten a stone is to rub it against a piece of wet &
dry sandpaper. Place the 180-240 grit paper on a flat surface such as a
granite surface plate and wet it. Start with the highest grade of stone
as you do not want the grains of the coarser water stone to rub into the
finer stones. Use a figure 8 motion and check with a straight edge that
the whole surface is flat. To prevent the edges from chipping, bevel them
off on the sandpaper. If this procedure is done regularly, your stones will
be flat and last for ages.
I keep my 300-1200 waterstones in a plastic
container filled with water so that they are ready to be used at any
time. The 6000 grit stone only needs to soak for 2-3 minutes and I keep
a little spray bottle handy to lubricate the surface when the slurry created
by the nagura stone gets a little dry.
A tip to using a honing guide
with the 6000 water stone is to draw the blade back towards you rather than
push it. I have found in the past that by pushing the honing guide and blade,
you are more likely to gouge the waterstone and then have to spend considerable
time flattening and removing the gouge mark.
Sharpening your blades can seem like a chore, but if it is done regularly
– before your blades get too blunt and with the right equipment - you will
find using a sharp blade or chisel is a joy and you will wonder why you
put up with blunt blades when it is so easy to get them sharp. |
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Click here for more information on Japanese
Waterstones and Accessories
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