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Installing a pond in the woodshop


rrmccabe

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Have been talking about building a sharpening setup to keep my stones wet and contain the mess for quite a while but it keeps getting moved tot he back burner.

 

I started to look for a commercial product and the only one I could find was Veritas. So going to give it a try.

 

Also wanted to try some diamond stones.

20170206_174157.jpg

 

 

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Unwrapped it and set it up.  Has tempered glass on top for lapping which is nice. Holds my wet stone, truing stone and 3 new diamond stones along with my Veritas honing guide.

 

Here is a picture of it in the stored state. There is a plastic lid to cover the glass.

 

It is designed to keep water in and soak the stones but its unlikely I will use it that way. I think I would prefer to store all my stuff and then add water an hour prior to sharpening and soak my stones.  Course if I like the diamond stones I dont need to pre-soak.

 

Will give you and update when I use it later.

 

20170207_073311.jpg

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These are like a sponge and you cant keep the surface wet and clean very easy.

 

If you saturate the stone in advance then you can keep up with just spraying water on the surface occasionally or dabbing it with a little brush.

 

 

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22 hours ago, rrmccabe said:

Unwrapped it and set it up.  Has tempered glass on top for lapping which is nice. Holds my wet stone, truing stone and 3 new diamond stones along with my Veritas honing guide.

 

Here is a picture of it in the stored state. There is a plastic lid to cover the glass.

 

It is designed to keep water in and soak the stones but its unlikely I will use it that way. I think I would prefer to store all my stuff and then add water an hour prior to sharpening and soak my stones.  Course if I like the diamond stones I dont need to pre-soak.

 

Will give you and update when I use it later.

 

20170207_073311.jpg

 

I've always heard that you're NOT supposed to store your wet stones in water, just soak them an hour or so before you use them.  Storing them in water brings the likelihood that you'll end up with bacteria / mold in the water if you don't change it every day, not to mention the fact that some stones will turn to mush if left in standing water for too long.

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Well I think I am going to give this 1 1/2 thumbs down.

 

It does work but in my case will probably end up being a $60 storage box or more likely end up giving it away.

 

But the biggest issues for me are the solid aluminum rods that hold the stones. They have a little play in the slots where it drops down into the case so they rock back and forth on the stone. Also the additional height is not good when working on a bench.

 

So think I will just build a bench hook plate to hold the stones and call it good.

 

I will say I loved using the diamond plates since I did not have to keep trying them up. However, for the final finish, the wet-stone did a superior job.  I had one Stanley chisel that a contractor left during my house build that I use for stuff that might have a nail in it. It needed brought back to 25 degrees and the diamond stone did a great job of that.

 

So guys I would not consider this typical Vertitas quality.

20170208_085710.jpg

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2 minutes ago, khariV said:

 

I've always heard that you're NOT supposed to store your wet stones in water, just soak them an hour or so before you use them.  Storing them in water brings the likelihood that you'll end up with bacteria / mold in the water if you don't change it every day, not to mention the fact that some stones will turn to mush if left in standing water for too long.

Yea I dont think I would like keeping stones soaking all the time. More than likely it would dry up on me anyway.

 

It only takes about 1/2 hour to saturate my wet-stone so not a big deal.

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I have decided the Veritas sharpening pond sucks :)

 

So I decided to build a board with a bench hook to keep them from sliding around.

 

I friend of mine showed up a while back with big sheets of 1/2" thick UHMW left over from a project as well as a few dozen 3/4" x 4" x 96" pieces. Works great when building sliding surfaces and since its does not corrode makes for a great washable sharpening station. Used stainless screws on it so it should last forever. Little more block planing and it will be done.

 

 

20170211_112957.jpg

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20 hours ago, rrmccabe said:

I have decided the Veritas sharpening pond sucks :)

 

So I decided to build a board with a bench hook to keep them from sliding around.

 

I friend of mine showed up a while back with big sheets of 1/2" thick UHMW left over from a project as well as a few dozen 3/4" x 4" x 96" pieces. Works great when building sliding surfaces and since its does not corrode makes for a great washable sharpening station. Used stainless screws on it so it should last forever. Little more block planing and it will be done.

 

 

20170211_112957.jpg

That's awesome.  Is that like cutting board material? I'd love to see pics of the build when you're all done.

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Its UHMW and is commonly used for conveyor slide material and other surfaces you want to be slick. The side fences of my table saw came with similar stuff.

 

I have seen cutting boards made from it. Cleans easy but is pretty soft so a knife will scar it quickly.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

I have decided to give up on jigs and learn how to do it freehand.

 

I have been in Rob Cosman's class for 3 months now and have come to the conclusion he is probably right that you need to learn how to sharpen a plane blade in 30 seconds and a chisel in 10 seconds. Currently, it takes me several minutes to do either and because of that I dont do them as often as I should.  I might even buy a couple extra plane blades for my most commonly used planes (low angle jack and block plane) so I can have a second set ready.

 

Not sure I can pull this off but gonna try it. A sharp chisel or plane does not last long.

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@Rrmmccabe. I wouldn't give up so easily. I think it is true that a blade shouldnt need much to get back to sharp. I like the veritas guide and once I realized I didn't need to go through the whole process from start to finish it went much better.

I put my plane in the guide and did like 20? Passes on the fine grit diamond stone and then slid it on the back of the blade twice. Then I took it to the leather strap for 20-30 passes. She was good to go. Only took a few minutes total.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

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