Flattening waterstones

[Elijah A.]

Hey, I am trying to come up with a flattening solution for my new 1000/6000 water stones. I have never used water stones before and I am excited to give them a try. I love the dia-flat plate but at $200 I'm gonna have to wait on that. So I have a piece of granite and some 120 grit wet/dry sand paper. Is this the best option for a low budget solution? I also came across this lapping plate on Amazon and I'm curious if any of you have used it?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BW52DZ...op?ie=UTF8

Wondering if this would be better than buying so much sand paper... Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Eli

[Howard Pollack]

Hey, I am trying to come up with a flattening solution for my new 1000/6000 water stones. I have never used water stones before and I am excited to give them a try. I love the dia-flat plate but at $200 I'm gonna have to wait on that. So I have a piece of granite and some 120 grit wet/dry sand paper. Is this the best option for a low budget solution? I also came across this lapping plate on Amazon and I'm curious if any of you have used it?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BW52DZ...op?ie=UTF8

Wondering if this would be better than buying so much sand paper... Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Eli

Wet or Dry sand paper on any flat surface will work well.  -Howard

[gordon 131]

Hey, I am trying to come up with a flattening solution for my new 1000/6000 water stones. I have never used water stones before and I am excited to give them a try. I love the dia-flat plate but at $200 I'm gonna have to wait on that. So I have a piece of granite and some 120 grit wet/dry sand paper. Is this the best option for a low budget solution? I also came across this lapping plate on Amazon and I'm curious if any of you have used it?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BW52DZ...op?ie=UTF8

Wondering if this would be better than buying so much sand paper... Look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Eli

Eli,
I also am new to waterstones and have liked the change from oilstones to waterstones.I use a 300 grit diamond plate similar to the one in your link and it
has worked great to flatten the stones I have. Makes quick work of it. The sandpaper on granite would work for you also.
Gordon

[Ohio Mike]

Hey, I am trying to come up with a flattening solution for my new 1000/6000 water stones. 

Eli

I balked at the price of the DMT flattening plate as well.  It comes in two grits; one to flatten waterstones of 1000 grit and coarser, and one to flatten waterstones finer than 1000 grit.  Each are nearly $200.

I bought a regular 8x3 Dia-Flat stone in EXTRA COARSE grit for $56 and use it for all my waterstones (800 - 12000).  I've used it for 4 years with great success.  If I were a professional, things would be different but I am a hobby woodworker and need to flatten a stone just 4 or 5 times a month.  I make certain to use it under running water (or submerged in a bucket) and rinse and dry when done.
 
Sandpaper on granite will work fine too.

Mike

[adamcherubini]

I'd like to see a study showing what really happens when you rub 2 similarly sized stones together. Pretty sure you won't be left with 2 flat surfaces or 2 mating surfaces.  Pretty sure this is a woodworking myth started by sellers of Japanese water stones.

Also interested in how flat our "flattened" stones and plane irons really are.  I'm guessing not very.

Machinists don't flatten stuff by rubbing it on something flat.  That doesn't result in flat.

I think its worse if the thing you are rubbing on (the flattening stone) is sized such that the water stone over hangs the flattening stone during the process. When I flatten the back of a chisel, the steel never leaves the surface of the stone. But chisel backs are rarely flat.  They are flat-ish.

My sense is that the process we use doesn't produce flatness. So the thing we use to flatten, doesn't have to be perfectly flat. I think I recall hearing some old time Japanese craftsmen flattened their water stones on cinder blocks.  I would start there and see how it works.

[Admiral]

I've used drywall sanding screens on a granite tile; they sell them in 100, 150 and 220 grit; better than a cinder block in my book. Works ok for me but I sort of gravitated over to oilstones lately......

[C. in Indy]

Yeah,  when I get a minute I'll look up the 19th century machinist's proof that 3 independent Plates are needed to ensure that one is working toward "flat" rather than "curved".    2 plates is subject to the "curve following" problem Adam mentioned.

But I don't really need F-L-A-T stuff that much...    And Einstein showed all space is curved anyway



Chris

[Timberwolf]

Yeah,  when I get a minute I'll look up the 19th century machinist's proof that 3 independent Plates are needed to ensure that one is working toward "flat" rather than "curved".    2 plates is subject to the "curve following" problem Adam mentioned.

But I don't really need F-L-A-T stuff that much...    And Einstein showed all space is curved anyway



Chris

,,,,,,
"flat" is highly overrated IMO.....next to sharpening, it is probably the most discussed subject in this forum...AFAIK, it has yet to be achieved with by "hand rubbing" two abrasives together.

[Elijah A.]

So does anybody think the stone in the Amazon link that I posted is good enough for a hobbyist? I'm just a bit concerned with the amount of sand paper that I will have to buy!

[wmickley]

I have used Japanese water stones for over thirty years. I have worn five 1 3/8 thick stones down to nothing. I am not familiar with dia flat or the Amazon plate, never used sandpaper or granite. 

I only very occasionally flatten because I pay attention to using the whole stone and not just rubbing in the middle of the stone. For flattening, I have used concrete and concrete block, loose grit on ordinary glass, and rubbing two stones together. 

I was taught to rub two stones in 1967, long before anyone was marketing water stones in the U.S. Like anything else it is helpful to think about what you are doing and observe what is happening, not just go through the motions and expect good results. If one stone is quite concave and the other is flat, one could end up with one stone slightly concave, the other slightly convex.