My new bestest tool and friend

Rob Keeble

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12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well i have been hankering for a granite flat surface to sharpen on for some time. So when i could not get the deal i wanted at the habitat restore it I decided to heck with them and went to my trusted store yup you guessed it Lee Valley.:D

If you aint got one of these beware, if you get one you will be doing what i spent a week doing.;) Sharpening everything in your shop.

You might remember that a friend of mine gave me a whole roll of wide double sided tape. Well this stuff is tremendous. I lay a sheet of it over the granite (which by the way comes with a certificate of flatness) and then peel off the top cover and voila you have the perfect flat sticky surface. Sheet after sheet of sandpaper can be placed down used and then lifted without disrupting the sticky surface.

So i took out evey plane and started from scratch with sole flattening and blade lapping and sharpening.

Yeah i got tired of reaching for tools that were less than sharp and nicked etc.

This slab of granite is wonderful. If you like the scary sharp sandpaper method of sharpening boy this is for you. Forget glass. forget the shapstones etc, this beats it all. Oh and a few sheets of the 15u water paper by 3M but for that i take some varsol (mineral spirits) and clean the top of the granite off and stick it down on its own. That stuff is amazing for honing. Until you have tried this stuff you will never believe how amazing.

I am also convinced its better than herbs yellowstone and leather for honing. Why? Simply because the danger i found with the leather honing is the tendency to round over the edge ever so slightly. As ya all know sharp is when to straight edges intersect. When you click to that point then you get to know what you looking at.

Gotta tell you before this i lapped on a sheet of melamine thinking it looked flat. Nope. Then tried glass but never got to get a real thick piece because i thought my luck would be to get a piece that is not entirely flat.

But after lapping the back of blades and soles of planes on this granite i just love it.

Thick enough and heavy enough that i put it on my workbench ( which i cover first in standard dry sheathing cardboard) then lay a piece of dollar store non skid mat like we use in routing, then put the granite down and it dont go know where and is at perfect work height.

The results are delightful and amazing and make sharpening a joy.:thumb:
 
rob show us yur set up,, i got a chunk of granite for the same purpose and after i get some time i need to set up my sharping spot and am looking for some ideas..
 
I got a 12 X 18 from Enco about fifteen years ago.

BTW, if you're using wet/dry paper on it, you don't need tape or glue. Just put a bit of water on the back of the paper and it'll adhere to the granite quite nicely.

Works with oil (I've used ATF fluid) too, but it's a lot messier.
 
Sharon this was bought before the new years resolutions came into effect.:D

Thanks for the tip Jim. I read that somewhere but having the great sticky stuff i thought i would try it anyhow.

Larry will take a pic when i am out there again. After today i am all sharpened out for a while and i still have all my chisels to go and my jointer. Shoulders ache like crazy. Lots of curlies in the shop on the floor after all the test runs.:D
 
Sale on them right now...

I've got a granite plate, love it.

Woodcraft has them on sale now ending sometime this month. They were $32 now only $20. They come with a certification paper showing their measured flatness.
With the sale it may be worth ordering if you don't have a store close to home. The sale should help mitigate the shipping cost.
 
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Rob I spent the day sharpening everything in my shop one day and when I thought I got them sharp as I could I built a disc out of MDF for the lathe and added some honing compound and ran the lathe backwards. All my chisels and planes are stupid sharp now. Even did the kitchen knives and there is no comparison now other than a razor. :thumb:
 
What do you have against glass Rob? I use a 14" square piece of 3/4" thick glass, and it's flat. The Wet-or-dry sandpaper sticks to it well with just a little water.

I think I have some 3/4" granite around somewhere. I will try to find it and compare.

It would be nice to have one of those 3" thick toolroom granit surface plates to work with. Expensive.

Aloha.
 
Drew I have a felt wheel that does the same. Except my experience with this kind of honing was that unless you very careful, you can have a nice shiny polished looking bevel on whatever you sharpen but its not scrary sharp because it can get rounded off. So for the moment i have tended not to use it. I am going to give it another go another time because me education since i last used it has gone up ten fold.
 
Drew I have a felt wheel that does the same. Except my experience with this kind of honing was that unless you very careful, you can have a nice shiny polished looking bevel on whatever you sharpen but its not scrary sharp because it can get rounded off. So for the moment i have tended not to use it. I am going to give it another go another time because me education since i last used it has gone up ten fold.

I'm guessing there's a big difference between a felt wheel and MDF. The MDF will be pretty hard, and not prone to flexing, i.e., the rounding off...

Not that I've used it or done this, but just from what I've read, so take it for what its worth, probably nothing :p
 
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