Comments on: A Dance to Keep Your Stones Flat

By: palmerb@kcnet.com

palmerb@kcnet.com — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 17:37:46 +0000

Actually, the last frame of the video is missing a zero, too. It reads “His stone is flat to .0125″.”

Typos aside, a thou and a quarter is pretty darn flat.

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 04:26:02 +0000

Howard,

You are missing a zero. It’s .00125″ — the thinnest feeler gauge we own. In other words, Carl’s stones are as flat as our tools could test.

Carl is being modest when he says his stone is dished. It could pass as a reference plate in a machinist’s shop.

By: HowardS

HowardS — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:58:27 +0000

I like the dancing method! I think flat to .0125 is good for chisels but for other tools flatter is better. Straight razors, for example, would develop problems from that level of flatness but they’re examples of extreme honing due to the edge being .001 thick.

I’ve always recommended using the whole stone to people but it seems almost to be a natural tendency to use the center 80% of the stone. Carl himself says his stone is a bit dished.

Overall, I like the dance method!

By: David Keller

David Keller — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 13:33:36 +0000

Chris – What Carl is showing you is the traditional method used for sharpening carving tools. Specifically, you are taught to lock one’s arms and wrists to your body and move the tool on the stone by moving your lower body. One of the reasons for doing this is that with the complex shapes of carving tools, it’s dang near impossible to produce a consistent bevel throughout the radius of the tool without the control produced by the “dance”. Carl has simply applied this idea to cabinetmaker’s chisels (and it’s a good one).

By: Eric R

Eric R — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:39:13 +0000

With stats like that after 25 years, old Carl must know his stuff.
Thanks Chris.

By: B Jackson

B Jackson — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:25:53 +0000

Makes sense to me to do likewise with water stone. Am I on the right track?

By: griffithpark

griffithpark — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:51:48 +0000

OK. This may explain the traditional/old Japanese preference for sharpening with a figure-8 motion.