orepass

I took a little time today to create a board to hold my diamond plates. Over the last two years I have been using water stones for all of my sharpening and had good success. There are two complaints from these stones, the first is the time it takes to sharpen a chisel and the second, stone, water and freezing temperatures don’t mix. Solving the time issue is really a matter of stone selection and moving towards hand sharpening. By using a coarser stone I could greatly decrease time. Getting rid of the jigs and time to set them up by hand sharpening would decrease the time even more.

The temperature problems occur because I work in an unheated garage in the winter. I bring my sharpening equipment indoors in the winter so that the stones don’t freeze and crack. This means that I have to come inside, march to the basement, sharpen and then go back out. The result is delayed sharpening, lost time and a tendency not to go back out when I’m in.

Purchasing diamond plates was made easier after using them at the foundations class. They were fast and effective, right next to the bench and will not freeze in the winter. They arrived last week and I spent an hour making a board to secure them. You can find a link with the dimensions here.