Whetstones

At the risk of being absolutely repetetive, I can't stress enough how important the Art of Sharpening is to woodworking with hand tools. Yes, I call it the "Art." Sharpening is, by far, the most essential skill to traditional woodworking. Saws, chisels, plane irons.....they WILL NOT work properly unless they are sharp. Furthermore, they are dangerous to use dull. At some point, hopefully, I will delve into the resources available to the woodworker for aiding him in sharpening. I, myself, am but a novice still. But I am more than happy to share my experiences.

Waterstones were my stones of choice, mostly because that's what all the magazines raved about. But as I grew deeper and deeper into traditional woodworking, phasing out my power tools and trying to simplify my life, I started realizing what a pain the waterstones were and just knew there had to be something better out there. Research lead me to consider oilstones, even though the verdict was out by many that they were slow.

Don't get me wrong. Waterstones sharpened my tools very fast and put an excellent edge on them. The maintenance and the mess were the problems. I tried many methods to contain the mess, but it was to no avail. And it seemed like the surface of the stones was always in need of refreshing or flattening.

To make a long story short, I ordered two stones from Natural Whetstone, a soft arkansas and a black.

I couldn't be happier about my choice. These whetstones (oilstones) have made all the difference. I put vegetable oil on the surface, sharpen my tool and wipe the stone. There is no mess. An added bonus is that water never touches my tool now.

As for the edge it produces....I have no scientific numbers to throw at you, and eventually I will get a strop and honing compound, but my 3/4" Stanley 750 had no problem slicing white pine end grain after coming off the black stone, a popular test for an edge tool.

AMDG