Mock ye not !!

[G S Haydon]

No, just to break a chunk of the corner. It was a worktop so it was very flat. And the reason we have a broken worktop is that it failed after 4 years, a bad seam just let go and a corer cracked. I'm not saying it's the best medium or everyone should be running out with sledge hammers to get some. I just saw it, felt the surface and thought it was worth a shot.

 

[iNewbie]

I use a Riley's snooker tables slate with a honing guide. You get a good long run up with 12ft. I then strop on the green baize and slosh the sludge down the pockets, so-I-do.


/joke

 

[Carl P]

Mock ye not? Most enjoyable bit so far!

Coincidentally a couple of weeks ago I ordered a slate oilstone (from Inigo Jones) called dragon's tongue, it hasn't arrived yet so I haven't been able to write a review on what getting a proper dragon tonguing feels like...

Cheerio,

Carl

 

[Jacob]

Mock ye not? Most enjoyable bit so far!

Coincidentally a couple of weeks ago I ordered a slate oilstone (from Inigo Jones) called dragon's tongue, it hasn't arrived yet so I haven't been able to write a review on what getting a proper dragon tonguing feels like...

Cheerio,

Carl

:lol:
You do realise - it'll just be a bit of slate?
I wonder if I could sell bits of our Derbyshire stone, with added names; "Dovedale Rough", or even "Grimsdale Excelsior" etc etc.

 

[bugbear]

You do realise - it'll just be a bit of slate?

You do realise - slate is a widely varying material?

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

You do realise - it'll just be a bit of slate?

You do realise - slate is a widely varying material?

BugBear

No really? Well blow me down ooda thortit? :roll:

 

[Dangermouse]

Surely the best thing to grind your blades on is a nice broken bit of concrete block :-({|=

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:idea: Yes - a mundic one would produce a good slurry.

 

[Racers]

I use grinding paste and a nice piece of glass, the obscured bathroom stuff usually.

Pete

 

[MIGNAL]

Mock ye not? Most enjoyable bit so far!

Coincidentally a couple of weeks ago I ordered a slate oilstone (from Inigo Jones) called dragon's tongue, it hasn't arrived yet so I haven't been able to write a review on what getting a proper dragon tonguing feels like...

Cheerio,

Carl

Ahh, but it's only an Oil stone if you start using Oil. Some of the Welsh slate stones come with a little slurry stone, similar vein to the fine Japanese waterstones. I expect slate to cut quite a bit slower than those.
Unless it has been pre oiled you could try water first. Water as a medium usually allows faster cutting than Oil. You can always let it dry and switch to Oil. A bit harder to do going the other way.

 

[Carl P]

Amazingly it arrived today not long after I'd posted here - it is indeed just a bit of slate in the shape of an oilstone, rather flatter than the bits I found on Llanfarian beach a couple of weeks ago. I have used it, initially with water, then as it got gunked up with the remains of the oil I use in a futile attempt to keep rust at bay, with oil. I must say I was pleased, I don't have a huge ammount of experience, so feel free to disregard my comments, but I can imagine being quite happy to go from a Norton fine to this to a strop. The only slight problem is slate is easier to scratch so requires a little more care, the upside of that is hopefully it'll improve my technique on oilstones and stop me hashing up my chisel corners. It's also cheap at £7+p&p and, although nothing to do with sharpening, it's nice to know that my money is staying in the UK with people making something.

One final thing, Inigo Jones' site specifically say it is to be used with water, which makes it a waterstone - a Welsh waterstone, apart from the rather pleasing alliteration, is this any more or less acceptable than Japanese waterstones, given that slate has probably been used in this way since time immemorial.....

I'm retreating to my bunker for now but here's a link to a review by someone who seems to know what they're talking about.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?130020-Inigo-Jones-Welsh-Slate-Wetstone

Cheerio,

Carl

 

[Cottonwood]

LOL Only today, I looked at the damned waterstone, in its wooden box stand. It is the hardest of my collection, probably 1500 grit? Not sure. Anyway I soaked it up for 10 minutes :roll: Then had a go with it. The difference today being my attitude to that stone was what the #### I've got nothing to lose. Instead of getting wound up with it being an expensive precious thing, getting nicked etc, fussy, fiddly etc, instead I just began to see it as a piece of stone to be USED....So I just went ahead FAST and FURIOUS without a care and it was like a revelation. Wether doing a normal flat bevel or a round convex bevel, it worked for both. In fact I couldnt move fast enough. Something clicked. So maybe I might keep one or 2 after all. I HAVE made some waterstone stropping paste from one old (1990) stone though..... (hammer)

 

[G S Haydon]

Amazingly it arrived today not long after I'd posted here - it is indeed just a bit of slate in the shape of an oilstone, rather flatter than the bits I found on Llanfarian beach a couple of weeks ago. I have used it, initially with water, then as it got gunked up with the remains of the oil I use in a futile attempt to keep rust at bay, with oil. I must say I was pleased, I don't have a huge ammount of experience, so feel free to disregard my comments, but I can imagine being quite happy to go from a Norton fine to this to a strop. The only slight problem is slate is easier to scratch so requires a little more care, the upside of that is hopefully it'll improve my technique on oilstones and stop me hashing up my chisel corners. It's also cheap at £7+p&p and, although nothing to do with sharpening, it's nice to know that my money is staying in the UK with people making something.

One final thing, Inigo Jones' site specifically say it is to be used with water, which makes it a waterstone - a Welsh waterstone, apart from the rather pleasing alliteration, is this any more or less acceptable than Japanese waterstones, given that slate has probably been used in this way since time immemorial.....

I'm retreating to my bunker for now but here's a link to a review by someone who seems to know what they're talking about.

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?130020-Inigo-Jones-Welsh-Slate-Wetstone

Cheerio,

Carl

Carl,

My thoughts exactly, to echo you, please feel free to disregard my comments.

 

[Corneel]

Congratulations Cottonwood! It's always nice to have a few different kinds of stones around, instead of throwing them away. And I agree with not being too carefull with your stones. You should see my polishing stone, it looks like rubbish, works great though. Sometimes I dig a corner, but who cares. After a few flattenings, the nick in the stone is gone.

There is absolutely no correlation between waterstones and jigs. The Japanese keep traditional handskills in high regard. The word sharpening jig doesn't exist in their dictionary. :wink:

 

[Cottonwood]

Congratulations Cottonwood! It's always nice to have a few different kinds of stones around, instead of throwing them away. And I agree with not being too carefull with your stones. You should see my polishing stone, it looks like rubbish, works great though. Sometimes I dig a corner, but who cares. After a few flattenings, the nick in the stone is gone.

There is absolutely no correlation between waterstones and jigs. The Japanese keep traditional handskills in high regard. The word sharpening jig doesn't exist in their dictionary. :wink:

The irony is that the more looser and "care-less" (worry free, not careless) the easier it became, and in fact despite the rapid speed, the blade never dug in once, either doing a normal flat bevel, or the convex bevel (yes the rounded bevel worked with that particular stone as well the same as with the oil stone-but like I said it is the hardest one I have, but not the finest)
I thought maybe its llike when someone is learning to draw or use watercolour paints. At first they are tight and nervous because of the expensive paper and materials etc. Eventually they earn to relax....
Can I ask please, is it normal on fine stones for them to feel slippery or slimy when honing on them? I often wonder if they are working correctly, it doesnt feel like they are cuting much?
Cheers Jonathan

 

[bugbear]

Can I ask please, is it normal on fine stones for them to feel slippery or slimy when honing on them? I often wonder if they are working correctly, it doesnt feel like they are cuting much?
Cheers Jonathan

They vary - I have a Yellow Lake slate that feels like that - horrible thing. And yet a recent (unidentified) s/h green stone (no, it's not a Charnley Forest) it very grippy, but cuts ridiculously slowly, leaving a mirror finish.

I have a Japanese Synthetic waterstone (used for my better kitchen knives) that is both grippy, fast cutting AND leaves an excellent edge.

I like it...

http://www.chefknivestogo.com/suri50grst.html

BugBear

 

[MIGNAL]

Well even my White/Grey Arkansas feels a little like that. I expect it's at around 3,000G - but it cuts quite a bit slower than my 8,000G waterstone. I guess the trade off is life expectancy. The Arkansas was bought 30 years ago and shows little sign of wear. The Japanese waterstone is half that age and I've probably used a good 70% of it's initial thickness and I rarely flatten the waterstone. It would probably be down to nothing if I'd adopted the method of flattening it before each and every sharpening.

 

[mark w]

David Charlesworth seems to have gone very quiet, I would like to know what he thinks of Paul Sellers method of sharpening, I`ve been a fan of David`s method, not only for sharpening planes but also in fine tuning them, its methodical and accurately repeatable, Paul Sellers on the other hand, he seems a bit manic in almost everything he does, I recently watched a Youtube video of him making a workbench, the flattening of the top was almost laughable, I wonder how flat that top really was, I don`t think his work is what you would call fine furniture making, please feel free to prove me wrong.

 

[Corneel]

I think you are looking at two different ways of woodworking. The engineer and the artisan. Because I am an engineer (electrical though), I tend to the former approach, but the more I learn about woodworking, the more I see the artisan approach is more valid for using handtools. When you first seek a mathematical solution for every problem, you might just as well use a machine. It''s the development of handskills, that make handtools so powerfull.

I can't compare the work of Sellers and Charlesworth though and really don't want to.

 

[Cottonwood]

I think a lot depends on wether you see woodworking as an activity which attempts to mimic precision engineering (still using hand tools)-becoming "clever" enough to acheive CNC type tolerances by hand. Or wether it is something looser intuitive and more expressive.
How "precise" does something need to be? just how "sharp" does a blade need to be? How far do you take these things before you get befuddled with pseudo metaphysical and philosophcal "dilemmas"? :lol: I am not arguing for or excusing sloppy work, but on the other hand super precision can become a kind of tedious end in itself, look at me I am super precise... :lol: