sharpening with granite plate

[PostalTom]

Ok, so I went down to Tulsa to the Woodcraft store on Saturday, and purchased their 2" x 6" x 18" granite plate to use primarily for sharpening chisels, plane irons, and my spokeshave blade.  I followed their instructions on their web site, soaking the paper in water, hoping the capillary action would stick it down to the surface of the plate.  That didn't exactly work.  Some of it stuck down, but the ends were curling up.  I pulled up a you tube video where the man was using a diamond plate and wrapped it with his wet or dry sandpaper to hold everything down.  His reason for doing it that way was that yes, the paper will curl, and when the edge of your blade or iron hits the curl, it will start blunting the cutting edge.  That made sense, so on to my question.  Am I doing the water thing wrong, or was that just an advertising ploy to get people to buy their granite plate.  Do I need to use spray adhesive to adhere the paper to the plate?  I will appreciate any advice.

[Gerald]

Had not heard of the water trick but would be cleaner if it worked. I use spray adhesive on 1/2 inch plate glass as did not have granite large enough. I have half sheets of 220, 340,400, 600,1000, and 2000. The mess is when you change paper is a mess but Goo B Gone removes it or any number of other adhesive removers.

[Grandpadave52]

I've had mixed results using the method Tom. I have two different "plates" I use. One is just a 12"×12" x1/4" hi-end smooth granite floor tile. The other is a much larger, really old piece of 1/2" mirror plate. Both check flat within .0015" so good enough for my skill set. Anyways, experienced the same curling issue when soaking the wet/dry paper. That said, I finally stumbled upon a solution that works pretty well.

 

I believe it was an old article in Wood Magazine where they were evaluating cleaners to remove pitch build-up from saw blades and router bits. A simple, cheap and effective recommendation was La's Totally Awesome General Purpose Cleaner --> HERE. Readily available at any Dollar General, Big Lots or Dollar Tree. A great general purpose degreaser too. I use it full strength.

 

It works great for cleaning blades and bits, but I've found it works equally well as a cutting agent as well as holding wet/dry paper to glass or granite. Rather than soak the paper, I spray the plate, then the backside of the paper. Once laid in place, I then spray over the paper. Periodically during the sharpening, I spritz the surface to minimize paper movement. It also helps clear the swarf. Use it with my diamond plates too.

 

A caution, never use anything with ammonia to sharpen carbide. It can affect the braze integrity and damage the carbide. My understanding using Simple Green also can damage carbide cutters. I have used it for HSS blades, chisels and plane irons.

 

 

[Gerald]

20 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

A caution, never use anything with ammonia to sharpen carbide. It can affect the braze integrity and damage the carbide. My understanding using Simple Green also can damage carbide cutters. I have used it for HSS blades, chisels and plane irons.

 

 

It supposedly causes damage to the weld holding the carbide on the blade. I still use it to clean blades and no damage beyond what I did as yet.

[Woodman]

11 hours ago, Gerald said:

did not have granite large enough

My granite is a cast-off from a kitchen counter place. Sink cutout. Heavy! _____ The glue is an issue for me too, especially when making sanding sticks. _____ A jewelers supply used to carry 8.5" x 14" emory paper but now only 8.5" x 11"

[smitty10101]

10 hours ago, Grandpadave52 said:

It works great for cleaning blades and bits

I'll second that!!!

A little soak time, mine's usually under a minute, a quick swipe with a nail brush or vegetable brush. Rinse & dry with a towel.  Back to work.

All toll--about 5 minutes.

 

"Soak" in a plastic platter also bot at the "dollar" store

[p_toad]

On 10/9/2023 at 10:55 PM, Grandpadave52 said:

I believe it was an old article in Wood Magazine where they were evaluating cleaners to remove pitch build-up from saw blades and router bits. A simple, cheap and effective recommendation was La's Totally Awesome General Purpose Cleaner --> HERE. Readily available at any Dollar General, Big Lots or Dollar Tree. A great general purpose degreaser too. I use it full strength.

If you live anywhere near a MARC's, you can get awesome there...spray bottle and gallons, too.

[PostalTom]

On 10/11/2023 at 7:06 PM, p_toad said:

If you live anywhere near a MARC's, you can get awesome there...spray bottle and gallons, too.

Peter, thanks for the link and suggestion I go  to MARC's, but it looks like they are only in Ohio, and that's a little far for me to drive from Wichita.  But we have all three of the other mentioned stores, so I won't have any trouble finding the product. 

[StaticLV2]

I usually just stick down different grits with gorilla glue spray no curling or anything.

When they get work out I pull/scrape them off clean the granite and start over.

Haven’t really done much of that since I got the Tormek and learned how to use it though.