water stones

[PHANTOM]

Hey there everyone hope you all had a grest christmas. I was lucky enough to score a veritas honing jig and a set of four different grit wet stones. My question is do i need to keep the stones in water or just wet them before use? In the Robbie Obrien luthier tips clip on sharpening he has his stones stored in water so im guessing that this is most likely the way to go. Thanks is advance.
Wayne

[DarwinStrings]

I use Japanese Whet Stones and store them in water but stones do vary so best to check with the manufacturer. Some do not need to be stored in water.

Jim

[kiwigeo]

Keep them in water. Add a bit of bleach to the water to stop any mould growing on the stones.

With Japanese water stones it's important to keep them flat. I flatten my stones on a diamond stone or on a glass plate with some sandpaper lying on same.

[Allen]

With most of the very fine ones....2000 grit and up you just splash them with water when you are using them.

[Kim]

Take Jim's advice, check the manufacturer. Some Jap stones 'are' meant to be kept in water, but some are not. The later are only meant to be whetted on the surface as you work, these stones are a different compound and soaking them will soften them too much and they will wear or even crumble like dampened clay.

Cheers

Kim

[Dominic]

Hi Wayne, good score. The Veritas jig will get you great results as long as you keep the stones flat as others suggest. The coarse grits (usually brown colour) can be kept in water but if you have 4000 and finer grit Japanese stones (usually white/ish) keeping them in water makes them too soft. I just dunk mine before use.
I start with the micro bevel maker in the eccentric wheel pointing up to clean up the blade edge then point it down for the micro bevel. Just remember to put it back before your next session. Took me while to work this out.

I recently bought the cambered roller for doing smoothing plane blades. http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 43078&ap=1It helps you put a slight curve on the blade which helps avoid leaving track marks with a square blade when smoothing or flattening wood. A cheap addition at around $25 plus post from Lee Valley.

Also got given the Veritas stone pond for a gift a while ago and while a bit extravagant it does have a system for flattening stones on the top which is pretty convenient. No excuses now. http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.a ... 43071&ap=1
Cheers
Dom

[PHANTOM]

Thanks everyone the stones i got are all king delux stones they are 300,1200,4000 and 8000 grit. I looked these up on google as all the wrighting on the box is in japanese. They say to keep the light coloured finer stones out of the water but i cant find much on the coarser stones. I also scored the camber roller asembly must have been a good boy last year.

[kiwigeo]

http://www.woodturns.com/articles/tools ... stones.htm

Scan the Japanese writing and email to me and I'll get the boss to translate. Email addy is kiwigeo at spamcop dot net.

[PHANTOM]

Thanks mate going away for a few days will try and scan the writing and send to you wahen i get back.