Nice and flat ... once I flattened it

I use diamond stones to flatten everything.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I use diamond stones now, too. They’re definitely more expensive than the Norton flattening stone, but you don’t have to flatten them. The Norton flattening stone will need to be flattened periodically. It’s not a one time event.

Another problem I found with them is that they are basically waterstones and behave like them. Specifically, they will tend to dish, if you aren’t careful. When the flattening stone dishes, the waterstone you flatten with it develops a hump. I think that’s the worst result. If my waterstones dish a little, I’ll get a slight camber on my blades. I can live with that. One can argue it’s a good thing, in many cases. However, no good can come from a blade that is slightly concave.

Bottom line, keep flattening the flattening stone. In fairness, I didn’t use it properly at first (I agree 100%, bad instructions). I held the waterstone in one hand and the flattening stone in the other and just rubbed them together. That was way too aggressive and sped up the wearing considerably. The better approach is to put the flattening stone down and put the waterstone on top of it and lap it back and forth without pushing down. Just let gravity do it.

-- Disappointment is an empty box full of expectation.

So, you’ve found the diamond stones to be real flat?

I just have one diamond stone, and it’s some off-brand that I forget, not DMT. And mine is way out of flat. I haven’t figured out how to flatten that yet. ;-)

-- johnjoiner

I use the large Norton Diamond 220 grit stone to flatten my other oil stones and to put a coarse edge on a blade. I have a couple of older DMT diamond bench stones for medium and fine. The Norton is pricey but darned well worth it.

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

One of us must have gotten the exception. My Norton was perfectly flat when I bought it. I’ve used mine several times and it doesn’t need flattening yet. The key would be to check it before using it, to make sure it’s flat.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

I am about to give up on water stones because I spend as much time flattening the stone as I do sharpening chisels and plane irons. You know that Norton flattening stone? Yeah, you will have to spend time flattening that one too after you have tried to flatten your sharpening stones. You know the common thread is that you end up flattening your flattening stone or waterstones on granite. So what’s the deal here? You might was well use the flattening stones to sharpen on and that would mean scary sharp method. I have ended up only honing on my water stones and when I have to take off a lot of metal, go scary sharp to make sure I don’t “use up” too much waterstone flatness.

I have not used diamond stones but the comment about that one not being flat makes me more firm (no pun intended) in my granite. I went by a kitchen countertop store and they gave me a scrap piece that is about 18 X 24 inches. It works great and will always be flat.

I was in the same boat as you on the instructions. I didn’t think to check mine for flat and completely agree with the slurry on a fine stone. I will likely try the flattening on granite as you did and then give it a shot. I have one question. I think I read some piece of documentation on Norton’s web site that says it’s preferrable to “take a wet stone to the sharpening stone.” This still doesn’t answer the question of whether or not the sharpening stone is used wet too.

What did you do, John?

-- Jeff, St. Paul, MN

Hi Jeff.

The flattening of the flattening stone I did dry because the best paper I had handy was not wet/dry paper. To flatten the water stone I used some water, but not a lot.

I saw that instruction of, “take one stone to the other stone” somewhere too, and it seemed very vague. I assumed it meant that the first stone should be on top of the second. I have a little bit of spray adhesive residue still on my granite block. That was handy for this operation. The flattening stone sat still on that, and I rubbed the water stones on it.

I hope this answers your question.

-- johnjoiner

I have started using the diamond stone recently. Very happy with the result. Not sure how long they will last. does anybody know?.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python