Flattening a waterstone

[Ironballs]

Where do you get those from Phil? And how affordable is affordable? My 800 grit King does wear pretty quickly but it also does the job well, interested in alternatives though

 

[bodgermatic]

I'm grinding with a 240G King waterstone, honing on an 800G and polishing on a 6000G. The 240G gets flattened with a cheapy coarse DMT. The finer stones get flattened on the coarser one below. I find that the 240 wears too fast for my taste, and still doesn't cut quickly enough when you need to true up a badly out-of square iron or remove a nick. I've just scored a hand crank bench grinder on the 'bay which I'll use in future to perform those tasks.

I think I'm finally at the point where my sharpening is consistently of hair-shaving quality, and when it's just a quick hone and polish it doesn't take me more than a couple of minutes.

 

[Philly]

Got my Shapton from Classic Hand Tools - about £36, I think. I liked my King 800 stone - as you say, it cuts fast. But it does go out of shape quite quickly - the Shaptons are ceramic stones, but moistened with water. They cut as fast as waterstones but are much more resilient.
The "system" comes with a diamond lapping stone, whic keeps everything spot-on. But the UK price is quite serious - maybe the next time I make a US trip :lol:

Personally I find the finer grit waterstones stay flat much longer than the coarse - but then you only need two ro three strokes on each. I use a bench grinder to remove metal - my stones are used to hone the edge.

Cheers
Philly