Woodnet Forums

What is your method to flatten a waterstone? Does sandpaper on a flat plate work well? Any problems with grit getting in stone surface?

Thanks

I use the x-coarse side of a DMT duo sharp plate shown here on Amazon . A couple of swipes is usually all it takes to flatten the my Norton waterstones after a sharpening session.

I use a DMT course plate, works great. An acquaintance uses a concrete block

It's quite expensive, but I use the Shapton Diamond Lapping Plate (around $350). It has grooves that carry away the debris. I only use it for flattening my waterstones. I used to use the DMT Duo Sharp x-coarse/coarse plate, but I found that it didn't take long to lose a lot of its aggressiveness. Sandpaper on a glass plate works just fine. When I flatten, I start with the finest grit stone, and work down to the coarsest grit. That way, I avoid contaminating the finer grit stones with coarse particles. Great things are said about the Atoma diamond plates. You can get them from any one of several sources. Some sharpen their tools with these stones.

I now use a coarse diamond plate but used to use loose grit (90 mesh I recall) on glass. Never noticed any issue with grit embedding in the stone. The only reason I switched is I got the diamond plate for reshaping edges and it is cleaner than the loose grit. The other problem of course with loose grit is as you're making the stone flat you're also making the glass not flat. Plate glass pieces were fairly readily available at my local ReStore but I was never quite sure when I should change it out. I think the sandpaper would work just fine.

I use an Atoma 400 grit diamond plate. It’s awesome.

Here’s a writeup of why I think this is the best option for flattening waterstones: http://giantcypress.net/post/41860013521/atoma-bomb

And here’s a video showing how I use it, and how quick it is to flatten a waterstone with it: http://giantcypress.net/post/668546073/j...pened-with

Like Sir Wibur, I use an Atoma 400.

Like Wilbur and Curt, I also use an Atoma 400 diamond plate.

Only takes a couple of swipes to achieve flatness.

Thanks for the input. Just ordered the Atoma 400 @ Amazon for $68 + free shipping.