A Specific Sharpening Stone For Woodworking?
The right sharpening stone for what woodworking requires will prevent blade damage, personal injury, and maintain edge longevity. It is important to not treat every blade the same.
What I present here is not about sharpening stones for general uses. Rather this is specific to wood carving tools and woodworking blades.
What makes my suggestions the best has nothing to do with brand. Rather it is science, stone content, and blade material being properly matched.
My suggestions that follow will not give you brand A compared to brand B. Rather I offer you a direction for you to best match your tool to its needs.
Can Diamond Sharpening Stones Be Used On Woodworking Blades?
I wish to get this one out of the way quickly. The only time I ever touch a diamond sharpening stone is for when a blade is damaged. Why?
Allow me to explain the nature of woodworking blades when compared to something like kitchen knives. In cooking a sharp blade is needed yet is not maintained to the same degree.
Rarely would you need an 8000 grit stone for a paring knife.
Diamond stones can be quite aggressive, are best for stainless steel, and they work great for field knives. They are not recommended for chisels, carving tools, or bench knives.
Think of it like this. Would you use a diamond stone for a razor you will shave with? Absolutely not! No one would ever do this.
In woodworking you desire a polished and clean bevel. Most serious woodworkers use carbon blades instead of stainless steel.
Sharpening Stone For Carving Knives
When it comes to a bench knife, they see a lot of different uses. It is the woodworkers multi-tool as so to speak. Yet I sharpen these in the same way as my carving knives.
What is the difference between a bench knife and a carving knife? It comes down to the kind of cutting that is required of the blade. Carving knives are tailored for shaping wood to finish rather than rough cutting like a bench blade.
For these blades I use a whetstone. I will also advise here to not use whetstones for sharpening chisels. These require another process in order to maintain peak efficiency.
If all you perform is general carpentry, then these rules do not apply. That is a separate world from fine woodworking.
Rather than merely recommend a brand of sharpening stone, I wish to delve into what goes into these stones.
Which Whetstone Is Best As A Sharpening Stone?
Let me begin by saying that you will get what you pay for. You have natural whetstones and also man made versions. Natural whetstones will leave a finer edge on your blades.
Either a Novaculite or Coticule stone will be among the best. Many people in the United States are more familiar with Novaculite as these stones reside in abundance within Arkansas and Oklahoma.
A sharpening stone of the Coticule variety will likely come from the Belgian Ardenne Mountains. An alternate variety is called Belgian Blue Stone yet is of a lesser grade than Coticule.
A Novaculite stone is largely composed of microcrystalline quartz. A Coticule stone is primarily composed of volcanic ash mixed with Spessartite Garnet crystals. Each are excellent choices as a sharpening stone.
Both varieties come in soft, medium, and hard. Alternatively you could say they are coarse, medium, and fine. There really is no other natural stone that can be better used for woodworking knives.
Japanese Waterstone As A Sharpening Stone
Allow me to make a clarification here. Many Japanese waterstones you find on the market are synthetic. By contrast when compared to whetstones we enter a whole new world of what is better.
Genuine Japanese waterstones that are natural are quite expensive and are becoming more rare. If you are new to using these I do not suggest you begin here. Rather I suggest you use synthetic options.
Natural stones are inconsistent in grit, quality of grade, and can be problematic. The reason for this is due to the inconsistency found in the clay mixtures when these stones were naturally formed.
Due to this, which is better? The synthetic stones in this case can be better than natural stones.
You will find synthetic not only lasting longer, but they also will give a more consistent edge across the whole surface of the stone. These are the staple and standard within the use of Japanese woodworking.
What do I use Japanese waterstones for? These sharpening stones are for chisels used in wood carving. There is nothing wrong with sharpening a knife blade on them, yet I use whetstones for this purpose.
Why Sharpen Chisels On Japanese Sharpening Stones?
There is a very clear difference between sharpening stones, especially for what is needed from carving knife to chisel. Allow me to give a brief comparison.
A fine black Arkansas whetstone will be at near 4000 grit. While this may make your pocketknife happy it is insufficient for chisels. This is especially true of Japanese woodworking chisels.
When you break in a Japanese chisel, the bevel should be flattened on a coarse waterstone at a grit somewhere between 1200 to 2000. After this it is typically taken to a finishing stone at or near 6000 grit.
Once finishing is completed, a polishing stone is used at near 8000 grit. As you can see a traditional whetstone is nowhere near enough for giving your chisels what they need.
This is also why a diamond sharpening stone is never used for this kind of work. They cannot produce the kind of edge needed for our knife blades and certainly not our chisels.
Why do I not use Japanese sharpening stones exclusively? You could do this if you choose. There is nothing wrong with using the same stones for both chisels and knives.
Yet I found this counterproductive. To sharpen chisels on these stones I use a guide. With this system I attempt to wear down the stone evenly using several patterns.
Using whetstones for blades is more about allowing me to maintain consistency of method rather than anything else. Nevertheless a good whetstone is more than satisfactory for most all wood carving knives.
If you prefer a Japanese waterstone for your knives there is absolutely nothing wrong with this selection. I would suggest having stones dedicated for that purpose and separate stones for your chisels.
Is Oil Or Water Better On A Sharpening Stone?
This is a great debate among many in knife forums. Yet I will state that in the Japanese waterstone variety you must always use water, and only water. Never use oil.
When it comes to whetstones such as Dan’s Arkansas Stones, you will see that they recommend oil. In fact these are called oil stones.
Here will come a shocking revelation. I use water on these whetstones, not oil. Why do I do this? Let’s look at what these lubricants are for.
The purpose of using oil or water is to keep the stone clean so that it will continue to do its job. Both oil or water will do this sufficiently. Mix a little soap into the water as I find this works best.
These liquids are not truly used as a “lubrication”. A slurry is created and the goal is to keep the debris from becoming embedded into the stone. If this happens then it inhibits the sharpening process.
My reason for using water over oil has nothing to do with water being better. Rather it is to have consistency across all my sharpening methods. Water is used on waterstones and whetstones, no confusion can be found.
There is one problem that you can create if you are not careful. It has been long recommended by old timers that if you choose to use oil or water on a whetstone, then stick to what you select to use.
In other words do not use oil today, then water tomorrow. Once you have applied oil or water to the stone then that is what should be used on the sharpening stone from that point on.
If you read knife forums you will find arguments for both sides of the aisle on which is best. I will tell you that either oil or water will work without any problems. It really comes to personal choice and preference.
Will Water From The Sharpening Stone Rust A Carbon Blade?
There are some who become concerned with rust impacting a carbon blade by using water as the “lubrication” in a sharpening stone. There is a very easy solution for this.
Before the creation of stainless steels, frontiersmen would use animal fat to coat their carbon blades. This layer of fat would seal the steel and work its way into the blade.
While I am not suggesting that we use animal fat, there is a lesson to be learned here. Once you have finished sharpening your carbon blade first ensure that it is dry.
Despite it being dry to our sight and touch, there is still a degree of water to be found we cannot remove. To solve this problem use olive oil to coat the blade.
You could use other oils if you so choose. Nevertheless this acts much in the same way as the older methods of animal fat.
The common bench knife and also whittling knives which I often use never show any rust. Also I will say that a blade that is being steadily used need light oiling when compared to one that sees more storage.
Cost Of Different Sharpening Stones
The cost of Japanese sharpening stones will typically be cheaper than whetstones. For sharpening chisels it is nice to have at least an 8in x 2in stone.
For a Kensai waterstone you can pay anywhere between 50 to 100 dollars per stone depending on the retailer and if you catch a sale. Also note that it is best to not buy combination stones.
Why not use combination stones? I like to always sharpen from one side and keep the other side flat as a constant. As the stone wears you do not want to flip it over to have the bottom not be level.
By contrast for sharpening a knife with a whetstone, you can get away with a smaller footprint to help bring cost down. Let’s select a stone from Dan’s Whetstone to compare prices.
As of the moment of this writing the same size, a 8in x 2in fine black stone, will run you 113 dollars. The medium stone will only run you 33 dollars. The black stones are always more expensive.
If you drop the size down these become more affordable. Yet the upside is that these sharpening stones will last far longer than any waterstone. Taking this into consideration the whetstones may actually be cheaper.
Are Ceramic Sharpening Stones Any Good?
The Japanese variety is in part what I have been discussing in previous portions of this article. So yes these are great! Yet take a step back after this note.
Not all ceramic stones are equal. I would use the Japanese versions as the benchmark to meet. The common ceramic rods or lap disks I would never use.
Shapton Kuromaku may be a brand to your liking. These can at times be called “glass stones”. In terms of maintenance they are far easier to work with.
These stones are often a “splash and go” rather than requiring them to be “soaked” in water. Grits can range between 600 to 30,000. Be aware that you will can spend considerably more money for these options.
If you happen to use a straight razor in shaving, these stones are commonly used for sharpening these as well. This gives you an idea of the grade of sharpening stone you are getting into.
The question becomes whether or not this is a real need. You can get by with the cheaper waterstones. Nevertheless this ceramic option is among the better or best you could buy.
On a personal level I would refrain from investing in western ceramic options. Companies like Norton have their versions. Yet in reality there simply is no comparison to quality and finish.
This though should be obvious. Not only is Norton only slightly cheaper but their options in fineness of grit are more limited. You can save about a hundred dollars with Norton on their “kit”, yet I would say the savings is not worth the difference.
Why Be Picky About Sharpening Stones?
Being picky about which sharpening stones to use is not about being elitists or showing off. When a clean cut is needed in wood it should be near effortless.
This necessity is also about safety. Dull blades cause injuries. If you get into using these tools for wood carving you will find yourself sharpening often between cuts.
Thus here also longevity of the sharpening tool becomes an issue. There are a lot of factors which come into play. This is one of those areas where it pays to spend for a better option than to just get by for the moment.