Replies

1. 
   Troy | Jan 17, 2006 08:37pm | #1

   I have seen a lot of people recomend flattening water stones with a dimond stone. Being somewhat tight with a dollar I worry about wareing out the diamond stone. I have had good succsess with a piece of drywall sanding screen on float glass.

   Good luck

   Troy

1. 
   John_D | Jan 17, 2006 11:56pm | #4

   Someone posted along the lines you mention.  The theory is, your waterstone cannot, obviously, wear down the diamonds in a diamond plate.  But the abrasives in your stone can abrade the substrate holding the diamonds.  Over time, flattening your stones will wear out the diamond plate.My goal is for my work to outlast me.  Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.

1. 
   kenwerner | Jan 18, 2006 01:17am | #5

   I'm with Toolfreak. The Norton flattening stone works great, and is a very good value at about $25.Ken

1. 
   Handrubbed | Jan 19, 2006 01:29am | #6

   And the eternal question is.......How do you flatten the flattening stone?

1. 
   kenwerner | Jan 19, 2006 02:42am | #7

   Well, I haven't gotten that far yet, but after flattening about 6 times, I don't see any change in the flattening stone.Maybe I'm naive, but I bought the Norton flattening stone to flatten my Norton 4K/8K combi stone, assuming that the fine folks at Norton would provide products that will actually do what they claim, without undue premature wear.So far, I'm quite happy with both items.Your question is a good one, thanks for asking it.Ken

2. 
   Handrubbed | Jan 19, 2006 03:00am | #8

   I actually have the Norton stones too, including the new green flattening stone.  It does a good job.  Eventually I will true it up on some sandpaper on a granite plate.

   People, do not use a hundred dollar diamond stone to flatten a thirty dollar water stone.  There are plenty of alternatives.

3. 
   Cirept | Jan 19, 2006 06:34am | #9

   I use my 200 grit waterstone to flatten my 1000 and 8000 stones.  Rub them together wet and it takes 30 seconds after honing.

   Eric

2. 
   SimplyShaker | Jan 17, 2006 10:12pm | #2

   If it works, then there isn't any issue with it. You can also use silicon carbide wet/dry sandpaper on float glass for flattening or you could use other waterstones for flattening the finer grit.

3. 
   Toolfreak | Jan 17, 2006 11:04pm | #3

   I bought the Norton flattening stone from Hartville tool recently for 22.99 and I like it better than using sandpaper and it does not take as long to do it, I would not go back to sandpaper , too much of a hassle for me.

   Mike

   - Toolfreak
4. 
   pzgren | Jan 19, 2006 08:49pm | #10

   I have never tried this, so I can't vouch for it, but have read that a cinder block does a good job of flattening water stones. If true, it must be about the cheapest solution out there...

1. 
   Hockey puck | Jan 20, 2006 03:13am | #11

   I use a cinder block all the time to flatten my 200 grit stone.  And then I use it to flatten the next finer stone, etc.. The block wears hollow in the middle but it keeps on working because the stone is also hollow.  When the pencel marks on the stones are gone, quit rubbing. I use the wall capper blocks they are the easiest to store.

   Edited 1/19/2006 7:16 pm ET by Hockey puck

2. 
   sharpchisel | Jan 20, 2006 03:33am | #12

   Since I first posted I finally found a 1/2 inch piece of glass to use with wet/dry paper.  I used a fine grit dry wall sanding screen to use on my water stones and it works great.  Now I'm working on all my planes and chisels to re-flatten them.