Reply To: Budget Sharpening Stones
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Budget Sharpening Stones / Reply To: Budget Sharpening Stones
Simon, I think here are lots of good advises already been given by many people in this forum. As you have seen sharpening systems are a very subjective matter and as many say there is a thousand options that will get your edges sharp – it’s up to your preference and what you are convenient with.
My own experiences have been very frustrating in the beginning and in the end it was expensive, too. I think it is an excellent idea to ask folks in forums and I should have done so as well. The problem though is you are getting lots of different opinions and to make it even more divers here is mine:
First you need to determine what do you want to sharpen: Chisels (what is the max width?), plane irons, knifes??? This will determine the width of the sharpening device (e.g the widest plane iron of a #8 is 2 5/8 inches so a 2″ stone is a little slim especially if you intend working with a honing guide)
Second do you already have some systems available or do you start from scratch? I would not recommend switching between lubrication regimes or in other words: If your currently sharpening on a oil based system do not go for a water based addition to that (e.g you already have a a 220 grit oil stone then do not add 1000 grit water stone)
Third what is the condition of the tool you are going to sharpen? Is it mostly brand new quality tools that just needs to be touched up or do you intend to sharpen older used tools that may require a lot of grinding?
If it is new tools you are going to sharpen assuming you currently have NO sharpening equipment and you want to be able to sharpen all widths I would recommend going for scary sharpening. Sure it is going to be expensive in the long run but initial investments are not too huge. Go with those micro abrasives as they hold up much longer (3M products work great) and produce nice edges!
If you are planning to restore old/vintage tools get a decent coarse diamond stone (220 grit) for grinding the initial bevel and flattening. For honing I still would recommend micro abrasives though having another 600 to 1000 grit diamond stone is preferable before hitting the micro abrasives. One trick will do here: If you have ground an initial bevel with the 220 grit start working on a micro bevel with the micro abrasives and do not care about the main bevel any longer.
In your case I would nor recommend water stones. Not that I do not like them or they are not working as good but they require you to have the grinding / honing stones and a flattening stone in place. That means adding to your expenses for the stones you are facing additional cost for a flattening device that costs you as much as an additional grit in your sharpening regime. A great but expensive system…
All of these suggestions are based on a tight budget. Overall I agree with many people that scary sharp / micro abrasives will not save any money in the long run but I understand that it makes a tremendous difference in getting started. With this in mind the above ideas will get you started working with sharp tools and investing in an additional nice stone from time to time will be a good idea whenever your budget allows…
A good idea is start creating a strategy how your sharpening system should evolve over the time and how you can cope with the expenses.