Bargain tools

[bosshogg]

Cheap diamond 'stones' - don't have an Aldi near me. Would anyone recommend a cheap set for basic work - roughing metal off old chisels to get the primary back?, flattening stones? etc. I accept they won't be DMT standard but if they are any good at all for rough stuff, I fancy trying some. Advice welcome.

Bought Lidl's version of diamond sharpening things. These are metal plates with diamond sintered onto the working surface and glued to plastic strips of different colours, to identify grit...at first I thought take them back, then I decided to silicone them onto flat mahogany bases, offcuts of some skirting I had available. Have been using these for over a year now without a flaw, apart from the metal plates coming away from the plastic if I drop em, I glue em back with some PVA...perfick
Cheers...bosshogg

 

[Jacob]

I'm all for cheap tools. Not just to save money but it's good practice especially for beginners - not be frightened of wrecking them and also having to make the effort to get them working well.
I imagine most of the worlds top performers began with simple stuff - engineers with tin bike spanners, guitarists with Woolworths ukeleles, artists with crayon and chalk, woodworkers with Woolie's tools again. It's normal. It doesn't hold anyone back.

If you want a sliding bevel the very best is also very cheap. It's the Stanley type (same design also made by Marples) with a lever lock like this one (unless they've changed the design). The clever feature of this is that the coach bolt has an octagonal nut instead of the usual square of a coach bolt. This means you can pull it out and turn it so that the lever when tightened will lie within the width of the handle and not get in the way. Just a detail but dead neat.

This is the one I just bought.

 

[condeesteso]

off-topic, but... Picasso Museum in Le Marais. He spent some time on a farm somewhere when he was still quite young. Found a hand-forged garden fork, bicycle seat and a few bits... and welded sculpture to die for. It isn't what, it's what for. And it isn't how. It's how good.