Disaster! A broken water stone.

[Michelle_K]

I had a terrible accident today and my beloved 10000k waterstone is now in 5 pieces. I am gutted! I cannot afford to purchase another one so I had hoped to glue it back together and I wondered if anyone had done this successfully and what type of glue you used if you have managed to get one back together.

Thank you in advance for any help.

regards

Michelle

 

[topchippyles]

I had a terrible accident today and my beloved 10000k waterstone is now in 5 pieces. I am gutted! I cannot afford to purchase another one so I had hoped to glue it back together and I wondered if anyone had done this successfully and what type of glue you used if you have managed to get one back together.

Thank you in advance for any help.

regards

Michelle

Note nice when tools get broken michelle, What were you sharpening on it

 

[Droogs]

for the cost of any glue you might be able to use . You could try one of these for a while until you can get better

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharpening-Whetstone-Combination-Waterstone-Grindstone/dp/B0755VL36G

 

[MikeG.]

Epoxy, apparently.

 

[Droogs]

Also the rate of wear on the joints will be different to the rest of the stone and will never feel right.

 

[topchippyles]

Epoxy, apparently.

Apoxy will stick any thing mike,I make some resin tables and the stuff is unreal but expensive

 

[topchippyles]

Also the rate of wear on the joints will be different to the rest of the stone and will never feel right.

With you on this and easier to get a new stone

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Surely any slight protrusion of epoxy would just get shaved off as you sharpened the iron?

 

[Inspector]

I'd use the largest piece to sharpen with until you get a new one. Figure eight pattern. You don't need 6" to 12" of stone to freehand sharpen a tool unless you insist on using a jig. You can always make a wooden block to fit around the piece to use a jig on. Reshape the broken pieces into slips to sharpen carving tools, gouges etc. Should shape easily on a brick and can be fine tuned on wet/dry sandpaper, or on a cheap diamond stone or an expensive one if you like.

Pete

 

[Distinterior]

Just as a side question to Michelle's accident,.....How can someone tell what Grit a stone is..?? I have a number of Stones, either acquired as hand me downs or gifts but rarely use them as I have a twin faced diamond plate that does pretty much everything I need.

I would be more than happy to post one of these Stones to Michelle to replace her broken one, but I cant tell if it's a 10000k....
How do I tell? Is the colour of the Stone an indication....?

 

[topchippyles]

I'd use the largest piece to sharpen with until you get a new one. Figure eight pattern. You don't need 6" to 12" of stone to freehand sharpen a tool unless you insist on using a jig. You can always make a wooden block to fit around the piece to use a jig on. Reshape the broken pieces into slips to sharpen carving tools, gouges etc. Should shape easily on a brick and can be fine tuned on wet/dry sandpaper, or on a cheap diamond stone or an expensive one if you like.

Pete

I have never for the life of me understood the figure of 8 way of sharpening.I use 2 indian oil stones and over 30 years old and they are as straight as the day i bought them.Use the whole stone front to back. Razor sharp les the boys have said in the past and all freehand done

 

[Racers]

I have an 8000 grit waterstone that is stuck together with super glue, I can't tell any difference in its performance.

Pete

 

[adrspach]

First I will answer Michelle. Old school would be to use what in UK you call pitch pine resin which was for example used to glue Coticules together in the old times.
New more modern way is to use superglue. However from your description I guess your waterstone is one of the Eastern Asian type which could be very porous which CA will not work well and I would try the resin. The biggest issue you will have that where there will be the glue the hone is going to behave differently as it will not soak in water unlike the rest of the stone.
Second answer is for Distinterior. The most reliable method is comparison of scratch pattern with known grit stones. But again there is a little problem with type of abrasion. There are two main types:- scratching (e.g. Arkansas, Charnley Forrest, Llyn Idwall) and rolling/ milling (e.g. Coticule, most of Japanese hones). It is more accurate to compare apples with apples. Also some stones can show different scratch pattern after different lapping and a lot of people I know lap their hones differently on each side which gives them broader range of honing grits.

 

[Inspector]

Do it in circles if you like then topchippyles. We are talking of using a stone broken into small chunks. My Danish, apprenticed to a wagon maker father, always used a circular motion when sharpening, often holding the tool and the stone, almost never the whole length of the stone. Doesn't matter how you get an edge as long as it is sharp and it is comfortable to you.

Pete

 

[Michelle_K]

Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions and for taking the time to reply. I purchased the stone some years ago and it was Expensive so it is such a shame. From what you are saying it doesn’t sound like there is any saving it as it is in five small pieces. And wouldn’t be great if it will respond or feel different where the glue would be. And I’d have to use a lot of glue.
Thanks again for all of your replies.
Regards

Michelle

 

[Michelle_K]

Note nice when tools get broken michelle, What were you sharpening on it

I was sharpening my chisel. I’d just finished up as well. So annoying!

 

[Michelle_K]

T

Just as a side question to Michelle's accident,.....How can someone tell what Grit a stone is..?? I have a number of Stones, either acquired as hand me downs or gifts but rarely use them as I have a twin faced diamond plate that does pretty much everything I need.

I would be more than happy to post one of these Stones to Michelle to replace her broken one, but I cant tell if it's a 10000k....
How do I tell? Is the colour of the Stone an indication....?

That is honestly so kind of you.

 

[--Tom--]

If you aren’t going to reglue keep the pieces. You can use them as slurry stones (nagura) for sharpening or similar to a rust eraser for dealing with spots of corrosion.

 

[Argus]

Commiserations on the divisive fate of your much-loved stone.......

A carver's solution for old water stones and the like -as in my case - was to turn unusable soft stones into shaped slip-stones. This can be done by sacrificing a hack-saw blade to cut the basic shape, then to refine the curves with old files and sand paper.
Perhaps not what you wanted to hear, but a solution if the epoxy/glue route doesn't work and you have a use for slips.

good luck

 

[Rorschach]

If it is a very valuable stone you could epoxy it into a box to hold the pieces together (without actually putting glue between the cracks)