derekcohen
Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
- Messages
- 962
Of course one cannot take tools in a travel tool box and not have a way of sharpening them.
My preference in my workshop is to freehand sharpen on ceramic waterstones, for example, Shapton or Sigma stones. The issue here is that they are heavy, both individually and collectively. Every oz and gm counts when the tool box is expected to be included in the allowance in a air flight. Fortunately, I only use honing guides for bevel up planes, and the planes I will use are all bevel down. One less item.
Stones need to be at least 7" long and around 3" wide. Starting at 1000/1200 grit (17 micron) and ending at 60 000 grit (0.5 micron).
Choice of sharpening media is also determined by the steel used in the tools, and here all blades are made from HSS (M2). The choice here is reduced to diamond, either diamond paste of diamond plates. I immediately ruled out diamond paste (and diamond spray, which I have) as this requires plates upon which the solutions are used, generally steel or caste iron, and again these will be too heavy.
For the past year I have been researching diamond plates, and it has been an interesting and rewarding journey. My experience over about 25 years has been Eze-Lap, Atoma and DMT. Excellent, but heavy (an Eze-lap plate is 730gm or 24oz). Then I discovered diamond stones on Temu. These are no longer the poorly made diamond stones of even 5 years ago. I have purchased and used a number over several months, and they have all been of excellent quality to my eye, worked consistently well .. and cheap, so cheap (about AUD $7 each)!
175gm (6.2oz) for 170x75mm (6 3/4"x3") plate ...
Thin aluminium plate with a thickish rubber backing ... which makes them Light ...
My advice is to scrape it off (A sharp chisel works nicely). The reason is that the rubber is soft and permits the thin aluminium plate to bend. I replaced this with a thin UHMW cutting board. Eventually, I settled on 5mm thick persex, which is lighter and stiffer ...
What grits are available?
The diamond stones used are a 1200 grit and 3000 grit, which is as high as these go. Added is 1 micron (14000 grit) PSA Diamond Lapping Film, and 0.5 micron (60000 grit), all attached to 5mm perspex .
The last items are these ...
The eraser (also available from Temu) is used to clean the diamond plates. This is the reason that they look new. The liquid in the bottle is glass cleaner, and is used to lubricate the stones.
All-in-all, the total weight for this sharpening system is 510gm (18oz). That is less than a single Eze-lap stone.
At present all is bundled up in a plastic bag. I have not yet worked out where it will go in the box. It does not take up much space.
How does the system work? Phenomenally well! Fast on hollow ground bevels. Hair-splitting sharp.
Regards from Perth
Derek
My preference in my workshop is to freehand sharpen on ceramic waterstones, for example, Shapton or Sigma stones. The issue here is that they are heavy, both individually and collectively. Every oz and gm counts when the tool box is expected to be included in the allowance in a air flight. Fortunately, I only use honing guides for bevel up planes, and the planes I will use are all bevel down. One less item.
Stones need to be at least 7" long and around 3" wide. Starting at 1000/1200 grit (17 micron) and ending at 60 000 grit (0.5 micron).
Choice of sharpening media is also determined by the steel used in the tools, and here all blades are made from HSS (M2). The choice here is reduced to diamond, either diamond paste of diamond plates. I immediately ruled out diamond paste (and diamond spray, which I have) as this requires plates upon which the solutions are used, generally steel or caste iron, and again these will be too heavy.
For the past year I have been researching diamond plates, and it has been an interesting and rewarding journey. My experience over about 25 years has been Eze-Lap, Atoma and DMT. Excellent, but heavy (an Eze-lap plate is 730gm or 24oz). Then I discovered diamond stones on Temu. These are no longer the poorly made diamond stones of even 5 years ago. I have purchased and used a number over several months, and they have all been of excellent quality to my eye, worked consistently well .. and cheap, so cheap (about AUD $7 each)!
175gm (6.2oz) for 170x75mm (6 3/4"x3") plate ...
Thin aluminium plate with a thickish rubber backing ... which makes them Light ...
My advice is to scrape it off (A sharp chisel works nicely). The reason is that the rubber is soft and permits the thin aluminium plate to bend. I replaced this with a thin UHMW cutting board. Eventually, I settled on 5mm thick persex, which is lighter and stiffer ...
What grits are available?
The diamond stones used are a 1200 grit and 3000 grit, which is as high as these go. Added is 1 micron (14000 grit) PSA Diamond Lapping Film, and 0.5 micron (60000 grit), all attached to 5mm perspex .
The last items are these ...
The eraser (also available from Temu) is used to clean the diamond plates. This is the reason that they look new. The liquid in the bottle is glass cleaner, and is used to lubricate the stones.
All-in-all, the total weight for this sharpening system is 510gm (18oz). That is less than a single Eze-lap stone.
At present all is bundled up in a plastic bag. I have not yet worked out where it will go in the box. It does not take up much space.
How does the system work? Phenomenally well! Fast on hollow ground bevels. Hair-splitting sharp.
Regards from Perth
Derek
