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Decimal Equivalents| Abrasive Grit| Diamond Grit

Loose Grit SharpeningA-13 Infill Hand Plane

Sharpening:
The Cutting Edge
A Guide to Loose Grit

Getting Started: New to Hand Tools and you need to get the Basic Sharpening Tools?
Here is what I would Recommend.. First you need to choose a Sharpening Method..
You can start with Scary Sharp and use Wet/Dry Silicon Carbide Sand Paper on a Granite Floor Tile or Table saw Top or a Piece of Float Glass.. I would say start at 100 Grit and got to 2500 or higher.

Or you can get a Stone to start with and finish up with Scary Sharp till you fill in your collection of Bench Stones.. I use Oil Stones many other people use Water stones.. Each has there advantages.. Water Stones cut quicker but wear much faster and need to be flattened often.. Oil Stones Cut Slower but wear Much Slower and hardly need flattening..
Also oil stones you use Mineral Sprits or Mineral Oil on so there is no problem with rust.

What Jigs and Gauges Should You Buy?

Now that's out of the way I would Buy one Stone and a Jig along with some fine grit Sand Paper.. Joel at Tools For Woodworking has good prices and just want you need..

Honing Guide $7.95 Best price on the web I know..
Medium India Bench Stone $13.95
Or You can get a equipment from Highland Hardware, Lee Valley, Woodcraft or pretty much any where else..

Sharpening

When I first started using hand tools I though I could get by with just hand sharpening.. I though a lot of the power sharpening systems where to expensive and uncalled for.. I the last few years I have some to relize that everyone should own at least a small bench grinder at the very least..
I own several differnt types of grinders and use a lot of them at different times but seems I still like to finish my irons with a Hand Sharpening Method .. I have a Power Sharpening Page that lists most of the commond power sharpeners..

Loose Grit

Super Charging

I had read a article some place months ago about super charging oil stones or Scary Sharp..
What they did was sprinkle some SC Dust or Diamond Dust I can't remember exactly, but I had just bought some LeeValley Silicon Carbide Grit from Highland Hardware for Chisel and Iron Backs, so I when to my website Abrasive Grit Sizes With this Loose Grit you can use with with out any W/D Paper or direct on Glass or Steel Lapping Plate.. I also just found a place where the grit is 10X cheaper, same price per pound as per 4 oz's www.KingsleyNorth.com

You can also buy Diamond Compounds from the same place.

Below is a two of Equivalency Charts to see what size grit you might be looking for. I would get all starting at 100 Grit but 180 should be fine for starting most jobs.. This loose grit will work great for flatting the bottom of planes also and at $4.00 a pound seems to be a good buy to me..

This Chart lists most abrasives and there relative sizes in different formats
Abrasive Grit Sizes Chart
Diamond Abrasive Size Equivalency Chart

Diamond Paste

Stone Type US Grit Japan
Coarse Crystolon, Coarse India 100 150
Medium Crystolon, Medium India 180 240
Coarse Diamond, Fine Crystolon 240 280
Fine India 280 360
Medium Diamond 320 500
Washita 350 600
Soft Arkansas 500 1000-1200
Hard White Arkansas, Fine Diamond, Medium Black Ceramic 700 1500-2000
     

 

Sharpening Jigs and Gauges A review of the numerous Jigs on the market and which Jigs that might help you decide which one you might want to buy..

Power Sharpening I feel everyone should have at least one power sharpener in a shop.. On this page I go over several machine types that are made today.

Scary Sharp Sharpening is a method of sharpening some one came up with to sharpen blades on sand paper instead of a bench stones and is the most common method for new sharpeners to use..

Bench Stones oil stones vs water stones and what the pros and cons of these honing stones .. With a section of Shapton's to come..

MK III Power Sharpener This page is about the sharpening machine I made and modeled after two popular machines on the markets

Grit Equivalency Gives you a beak down of what abrasive in classes of grit so you can gauge the abrasive qualities of one to another.

Loose Grit Sharpening Blades and Iron or Flattening Bench Stones Loose Grit is a great method to use.. It is also good for extending the life of Scary Sharp Sand Paper

Diamond Equivalency Mesh sizes in micros so you can look the them up and figure about what they compare to in regular grit
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