waterstone question

[Layne]

Rick,

It won't take 20 years to see the return on investment. :-) In terms of getting started quickly and economically Scary Sharp is good. But, over the long haul stones are cheaper and better. The higher grit stones (3000 and up) should last most people a life time. FWIW, I bought a complete set of stones (200, 1000, 4000 and 8000 w/nagura) for about $100. The lower grit stones (the 200 and 1000) were incredibly cheap at under $20 each. The 8000 cost somewhere around $60. If you buy more than 3 stones from Japan Woodworker you get a 10% discount. It's not mentioned in the catalog so it was a pleasant surprise when I ordered them over the phone.

Layne

[Layne]

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 12:34:57 -0400, "phil" wrote: snip

Phil,

FWIW, I don't put a microbevel on my plane or chisel edges. These are western tools too...not Japanese. The reasoning behind a micro bevel is so one can rehone the ege without taking off too much metal. Also, the edge is a bit more resistant to chipping. I don't know if it saves any time or not. Every once in a while...and this is why I don't like microbevels...is that you have to reestablish the primary bevel.

Once, while spending much time reestablishing the bevel of a couple of plane irons by hand I decided not to hone a microbevel. I put the iron in my #6 fore plane and set it for as fine a cut as I could set. For me it was like an epiphany. I could make shavings much thinner than I could when the iron had a micro bevel. So thin they weren't coming out of the plane curly, they were coming out wavy...and so thin, thin like

1-ply tissue. And this was with a stock iron too.

So, that was it for me. No more fussing with micro bevels any more.

Layne