Official Luthiers Forum!

The sharpening article got me thinking.

Someone once gave me a used japanese 8000 grit water stone. It is all gouged up on both sides from blades digging in. Does anyone have a resource or a methodology for fixing these and truing them up? Both sides have the same problem but the stone is virtually new I can still see the writing on it.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

From bottom up: glass, water, 220 wet dry sandpaper, water, stone.

The water on top of the glass will help the paper adhere and lay flat. The
water on top of the paper acts as a lubricant. Cheap any easy - albeit messy.

You can also use a diamond stone if you have one - expensive, easy, and
messy.

Cheers,
-Dave

I use 600 grit wet/dry on a flat surface. Flood the paper with water and scrub away.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

Don't make so much work for youself- use 80 grit wet or dry and a thick
(3/8" or so) piece of glass. You're not sharpening the stone, you're flattening
it.
I'll rub the stones on each other for touch up. The high areas around the
edges grind on each other and put it back to flat.
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Nice stone, lucky you. If one of mine is in bad shape, I start with my 6 x 48 belt sander to get close, then switch over to a flat surface as suggested above.

Hi Brock

There is a special stone they produce for refacing waterstones, its called a Nagura stone I would use an abrasive to level and then redress with a Nagura stone, this will ensure there is no traces of your abrasive left behind and removes any glaze from the stone.

I like the idea of starting on the belt sander if the stone is really in rough shape. I do mine on sandpaper (as Chas said, fairly coarse sandpaper is fine - is that an oxymoron?) on glass, since I'm already set up for that. I stick several 1/2 sheets of wet/dry sandpaper of various grits to a large piece of thick plate glass (which is on a dedicated table next to my sink) with spray adhesive. They come off pretty easily with alcohol and a little razor blade scraper. I don't use the nagura stone, but that may be foolish on my part. If you aren't set up with the glass, you could use another dead flat surface, such as table saw or whatever. You might want to check with a straight edge to see if it's really dead flat.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

or just run it over your jointer

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Todd

The reason I said about using the Nagura Stone on this one is because it is an 8000 Grit Stone on a coarser stone not neccasary as long as the abrasive used is a finer grit than the stone, otherwise you risk particle contamination, effectively making the stone coarser than you want it to be.

Brock the way I do it is to put some 90x Lapping grit on a Lee Valley lapping glass plate. it is perfectly flat. you add a little water and start rubbing. When the tone changes the stone is flat so flat that you can pick the plate up with the stone stuck to it. since there is no hollow or other imperfection the stone will not release the plate. Takes about 30 -60 seconds. all supplies from Lee Valley.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

[QUOTE=Todd Rose] or just run it over your jointer [/QUOTE]

That is, believe it or not, in the older Powermatic jointer manuals as a way
for honing knives!

Stop block on the infeed, lap from the outfeed side, back and forth, with the
jointer RUNNING! No thanks, not for this chickens**t!!!

I'm with Mr. Bland, the Lee Valley grit and glass. Except, because I sharpen at 90 degrees off of what most others do, that is the long edge of the chisel paralell with the long edge of the stone, an unflat stone is not really an issue to me so I seldom true them up until they get really bad. That is the down side of water stones, they are very soft and do gouge easily.

Shane

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Canada

a nagura stone is not for leveling, but rather for getting the messy slurry started on fine finish stones before you put a blade to it.

Michael it has two applications the one you mention, and it is also good for lifting contaminates and glaze after you have levelled your stone.

Thanks guys. Great info.

This seems easier than I thought.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I know an old time wood worker here that runs them through his thickness sander when they need leveling.

Brock, A granite surface plate is a really good investment for this purpose. Mine is 12"X18". (I believe Grizzly carries them). I think it is as important as having a good reference straight edge. For use, a piece of PSA sandpaper of your favorite grit adhered to the plate provides a flat surface to lap the DRY stone over. You can see your progress easily. I originally got mine to true up my planes, but it is perfect for the water stones as well. Not as effective on ceramic stones though.
You'll find other uses for the plate once you have one.

[QUOTE=dgalas] [QUOTE=Todd Rose] or just run it over your jointer [/QUOTE]

That is, believe it or not, in the older Powermatic jointer manuals as a way for honing knives!

Stop block on the infeed, lap from the outfeed side, back and forth, with the jointer RUNNING! No thanks, not for this chickens**t!!![/QUOTE]

We saw a demonstration of this technique a few months ago at an NEL meeting. It was scary as heck to see it being done, but it worked fabulously for sharpening the jointer knives, as well as getting them all at the same height. It was quite astonishing. But still, not this guy either!

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."