How does /diy/ keep its tools sharp? I've been using water

Wet stone. No need to get fancy or complicated imo.

Fällkniven DC4 https://www.fallkniven.com/en/knife/dc4/

I use a bench grinder with a buffing wheel for final polishing, gives a mirror finish and razor sharp edge in 30 seconds.

>>1123629
They lose their flatness and make a huge mess though

>>1123626
diamond plates is just a dry and dusty and inferior alternative to water stones

>>1123671
You're supposed to lap them flat every once in a while with either a diamond lapping stone or even sand paper on a piece of flat tile or plate glass.

>>1123626
Sand paper on various backings from popsicle sticks to glass to foam pads. It really depends on what the tool is.

>>1123626
I use some dmt diamond plates and love them. Never have to flatten them. Less messy, can be used wet or dry. They don't really clog. Don't have to worry about pre-soaking them. Don't have to worry about "contaminating" the grits.

Only thing I don't like is they dont come in grits as fine as water stones (at least last I checked). So you'll probably want to keep your finer water stones around.

>>1123695
Paul Sellers just uses a leather strop with some buffing compound after the diamond plates

>>1123626
P1000 belt on a kmg

>>1123672
>not sharpening anything hard enough to require diamonds

>>1123626
Depends on the tool.

For my wood turning i use carbinde inserts . But i also have a Tormek ( over kill any 6" bench grinder with the right wheels and fixtures will do the same job)

For my planes i have a granite slab, and honing paste. I use it to keep the m flat and to hone them.

For sharpning planes, chisles, carving and chip knives i use a set of King wet stones.
And a flexcut strope block

To keep my sones flat i jave a dressing stone and my granite slab.

>>1123695
>dmt
That's the brand I was planning on getting. There's a set with 350, 600 and 1200 grit for 90 dollars that seems like a good deal, considering I paid a good $30 for my double sided King water stone. It still stings spending that much on sharpening equipment instead of cool shit though.

>>1123626
grew up using an oil stone, don't know if it is better or worse than a wet stone, its just what I know.
I also use the inside of my belt as a strop

Honestly I sharpen my chisels and block plane blade with 120 grit sand paper. My gouges though I use 1k grit sand paper.

>cue the haters.

>>1123817
imo oil is more convient and just as effective

>>1123686
Or you can skip the bullshit and just use the diamond plate to sharpen the tools.

>>1123695
I have a full suite of DMT 8" Dia-Sharps (XC, C, F, XF, XXF) and I have always went straight to the strop after XF. Always worked out fine for me.

I use oilstones, but put water on them.

1) 8" 180/320 grit carborundum stone
2) 8" fine India stone
3) 6" Poland hone from ebay
4) 10" paddle strop

For most things, the carborundum is fine enough.

If I had to use one stone, it would be the Norton IB8 with a coarse Carborundum and fine India sides.

The India stone is supposed to be like 400 grit, but is really polished now and gives a finer edge than it used to. A bit finer than the Spyderco brown.

I rarely use the Poland one for tools. Its very soft but so it gouges easy but gives a mirror polished edge.

I have other stones like a 36grit that makes easy work of reprofiling.
The sticks from the sharpmaker, med/fine Arkansas, a bunch of diamond files, and Eze lap hones in 600 and 1200 grit.

The Eze laps never need flatting and cut fast but the feedback and response is not as natural or at least I'm not as used to it,

>>1123626
Bench grinder. Work on shitty tools first to learn how.

My whetstone has gotten smooth after just a few weeks. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? Or, did I get a bad stone

>>1123804
Sharpening equipment is cool shit anon

>>1123787
>Diamonds can disrupt the carbon concentration in your blades over time.

>>1124026
Its normal.

>>1123827
in what way is oil more convenient than diamond stones?

>messy to use
>messy to store
>have to keep buying oil
>have to flatten them (albeit rarely)
>have to clean your tools after you sharpen them unless you want oil on your project
>clogs over time

>>1124043
what does that even mean? carbon is going to be distributed uniformly throughout your steel... how can your sharpening system effect that?

>>1124092
Because diamonds are made out of carbon. The act of scraping carbon steel against the diamonds deposits more carbon on the diamonds, literally sucking the carbon right out of the steel.

Come on man

>>1124108
Well, actually, if it were to happen at all, it'd be the other way around. The tool sucking carbon from the diamonds and fucking up the ratio.

Not that it's likely to happen without power tools, since it requires heat to absorb carbon.

>>1124114
Not to mention time. Like, hours of constant exposure under high heat and pressure.

I have a Sink made out of Metal.

I just Run the edge of my knife against the Metal sink to Sharpen it?

>>1124089
..than water stones

>they're not messier than any other sharpening method
>they're not hard to clean, give it a wipe
>a 4oz bottle is like $6 and that will last quite a long time
>water stones would still need to be flattened
>people clean their tools regardless, wipe and done
>proper maintained they should work for many, many uses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scary_sharp

Cheapest and best way.

All the hobbyists and weekenders can spend thousands of dollars on diamond shit and imported sandstones. The guys who work with cutting tools for a living know it only takes a few bucks to get a blade sharp enough to split a hair lengthwise.

>>1124128
you can use the bottom of your coffee mug

>>1124043
do you even realize how many layers of atoms are being removed with each pass while sharpening, and your worried that some carbon a few layers in is going to be removed?

sharpening with anything is going to remove carbon, along with iron and other elements, that's the point of sharpening.

you do realize that carbon gets locked in the crystal structure of the iron right?

>>1124128
thats not removing material, or it shouldn't be. thats just reforming the edge like a steel does

>>1124250
works well in a pinch, so does glass

>>1124248
A few bucks to buy some sandpaper. You can't reuse the sandpaper for long, so long term, almost any other sharpening method makes more sense economically than sandpaper IMO.

>>1124089
Use water instead of oil. No more mess.

>>1123817
I think the term oil vs water is misleading. I like to call them Japanese or Western.
They both do the same thing, and achieve the same results.

Waterstones are commonly available in much finer grades.

Though you can get oil stones in very fine grades too.
Most of the time these are intended for straight razors and not working tools.
But they do the job on tools all the same.

Waterstones cut quicker, but they wear down quicker too so they need to be flattened constantly.

You can use a mix of both if you want.

>>1123626
Generally when I'm doing the edge on a knife or tool that I've made, wet-dry 300grit sandpaper on a hard, very flat surface (thick metal, glass etc) to shape it, then 600 grit to do the final tweaks, knock out any scratches and sometimes a 1200grit for a polish.
After that- diamond plates to do the bevel with lots of water
Final- paper wheels on the grinder
Do a couple of quick swipes on the abrasive one tuned up with some rouge
2-3 passes on the plain wheel for the final edge and polish

That seems to make them about as sharp as I can make something that I've found yet and they are very fucking sharp.

>>1124276
Are the paperwheels the same ones that old coot on bladeforums used to shill with every post he made?

>>1124288
I'm not that guy but I have made several sharpening wheels out of MDF last year. They work extremely well.

I think I know the shill you're talking about. It's probably a good product, but it's not hard to make these wheels yourself.

However I would never use them for woodworking tools, which stress importance of straight, flat edges. The speed of the paper wheels will turn the edge of a plane iron into a wavy mess in no time. They are strictly for knives.

>>1124288
Dunno, never hung out or looked at knife or bladeforums
They do work pretty well though when you've got a lot of stuff to sharpen or making knives, otherwise its probably not worth your while and can strop the edge on cardboard

>>1124299
Oh yeah MDF works a treat if you can cut an accurate, round shape, guess for something like a plane blade or chisel you could make a fairly large beast of 10-12" across and it'd avoid hollow grinding the surface to the degree you'd notice.
But, you'd have to be sharpening a lot of shit to really make it worth your while

I haven't used my own stone before, but I got an oil stone to sharpen my tools
My question is what type of oil can I use on these stones? and like someone mentioned here, can you use it like a water stone?
Google just brings up a ton of different hobbyist shit so the bare minimum knowledge would be cool.

>>1124328
You can use any oil. Its only purpose is to carry off the swarth.

Like 3-in-one or even motor oil.

>>1124332
Sweet, this helps a lot.

>>1124123
Yeah, it'd have to be hot to have any effect at all, like if you were using a power tool. Even then, the effect would probably be negligible, especially compared to the fact that you'd ruin the temper long before you'd dick up the carbon content.

Simple Green on oil stones works very well. For my chisels and hand planes I use a wroksharp to establish the bevel or repair any nicks. I take that up to 1000 grit. From there I got to an XXF DiaSharp diamond plate and then to my 4000/8000 Norton waterstone.

I never cared much for the XXF diamond stone. I don't get nearly the same polish as I get from my waterstone.

I use the Coarse DMT stone (approx. 220) to flatten my waterstone.

>>1124328
>>1124332
I have some 2 stroke oil I have lying around from an old lawnmower. works just fine. 3in1 or a dab of used motor oil have also worked for me.