Reply To: Sharpening for luthiers
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My carving teacher told me an interesting bit of history. Carving tools require a high degree of polish. When he was a student in Switzerland, they used a hard Arkansas stone. True hard Arkansas stones were still available then, if you searched, but he said that after the world wars, there was such a high demand for stones in Europe that the supply was depleted. He feels that it is rare to find a new “hard Arkansas” stone that is really on par with the traditional ones and that it is difficult to get a good polish on the new so-called hard Arkansas stones. He thus spent some time looking for alternatives and ultimately ended up working with a manufacturer of “sapphire” stones to obtain something that met his specifications. There are a lot of details and not all sapphire stones are the same in flatness or grit size, according to him. I know it sounds like an advertisement, but I trust him and am inclined to take his word, although I’ve not researched it. I use his stone in my sharpening and my only regret is that it is small, maybe two inches by four inches. It is perfect for knives, especially chip carving, but I use it for chisels and sometimes plane blades (with care), especially to knock the burr off the back. It gives a better polish than I get on the extra extra fine DMT plate.