Changed from Diamond to Water Stones for Sharpening

 Truth be told, I didn't think I would ever be changing from diamonds to another medium for sharpening.  When I first started woodworking in 2015, I followed (and still follow) Paul Sellers and his woodworking master classes.  I consider him my primary instructor.  Paul Seller's used diamond stones so without much thought, I bought the diamond stones.  Once I had them, I didn't pay much attention or give much thought to other ways to sharpen.  At that point I had skin in the game in terms of money spent.  

I can get a good edge sharp edge with the diamond stones.  I like that they stay flat.  What I didn't like was that it took a lot of strokes to get A2 steel to raise a burr.  I needed at least 100 strokes and finally added an extra extra coarse diamond stone into the system (extra extra coarse, coarse, fine, super fine, leather strop).  I also use the Lie Nielsen jig.  Since I didn't really have another system I had used and didn't want to waste the money I spent, for the past 7 years, I sharpen with what I have and don't worry about it.

Recently, as part of Lost Art Press's promotion for Chris Schwartz's book Sharpen This, he has been filming some short sharpening videos.  What really caught my eye was Chris was able to raise a burr on A2 steel in about 10 strokes, 30 max.  At this point, I am up to 150 strokes to raise a burr.  I commented and Chris was kind enough to comment back.  Diamonds aren't forever, mine have worn some over seven years and honestly, if he can do it in 10 to 30 strokes, that is a big difference over what I am doing.  I couldn't ignore this. 

I made the decision to change.  I'd like to tell you I spend a lot of time researching options that would be a lie.  Chris has done more research by hands on than I ever will.  It really came down to do I use the same stones Chris (and Megan) uses (Shapton professionals) or do I get the ones Lie Nielsen recommends.  I decided to duplicate the system Chris uses with lapping plate and plant mister as well.  Laura Mays, who I took a class from this summer, also uses water stones.  As such, I was comfortable with the choice.

I spent some time today using the new system, followed the directions and soaked the two fine stones before use and lapped everything up.  Then, I sharpened some plane blades and my chisels.  I was able to raise a burr in 30 strokes for sure.  That's quicker than I was able to do on the diamond stones.  In fact, one of my smoothing planes had a knick on the blade and it was relatively easy to sharpening out the very small knick.  I'm happy with the set up.  The only two downsides I see are: I need to lap the water stones and it's much more messy than the diamond stones.  The mess will take some getting use to; I will probably build a separate sharpening station because of this (the more I think about this, the more likely it will be a smaller, ca. 4-5 feet long, workbench; that way I can use it to sharpen and in a pinch use it for woodworking/finishing type stuff).  I'm not OCD about things but the water stones are a bit more messy than I want to get on my workbench even through I am using a tray.  If I really end up hating the system, I can always change but likely I will continue to use.  I suspect if my tools had been made of O1 instead of A2 steel, I may have stuck with the diamonds.  Such is life.

The good news is that now that I have bought it, I don't need to think about sharpening systems any more and that is a good thing.  Also, I think both the diamonds and water stones both produced a similar level of sharpness.  Having said that, I'm not going to come up with some formal scientific way to measure.  I mostly feel how the sharpened bade grabs my fingernail and how easily I can shave my arm.  Shavings look fine for both.

Walnut & VG Doug Fir Box Made at Port Townsend School of Woodworking

 As I've talked about in past blog posts, in July 2022 I went to the Port Townsend School of Woodworking and took a class by Laura Mays on making small dovetail boxes.  It was a fantastic vacation and I learned a lot.  I can see improvements in my dovetails and I feel a bit more confident.  One of the prior posts goes over the specifics of what I learned.  I think a lot of it is to take my time, be patient, and really look at all various parts of a dovetail to make sure something isn't fat/out of square.

For this class, after the first day and a half, the goal was to come up with a box design that we would spend the next three and half days making.  Since I drove up from the SF Bay Area, ca. 1000 miles (I wanted to use my tools), I had time to think about this.  I knew that I wanted a box to sit next to the box I made earlier in the year that held tea bags as I like a few cups of tea in the am.  This second box would hold the little packets of sweetener.  I find having a specific application in mind really helps me.  Knowing what it would hold helps sort out the dimensions.  

Prior to us designing the box, Laura had shown us the nice variety of boxes she had made.  They were really well made and creative.  In this class one of the things I had wanted to do was get a bit out of my comfort zone.  As such, I wanted to do some of the things I had really liked on a few of Laura's boxes.  Laura and I chatted and she asked some good questions and had some good points that helped refine the design.  

I wanted to have two angles on all four sides of the box, which would be made out of walnut.  I wanted the bottom and top to be made from vertical grain doug fir (VGDF).  I think it's a pretty wood, would work well with walnut, but, more importantly, Laura said it required sharp tools to work.  Challenge accepted.  On the top and bottom underside of the VGDF , I would gem them (bevels from four directions.  

Why gem the bottom where it won't be seen?  I like having something hidden that is nice on pieces that I build.  Most of the things I build have something I really like on a non show face.  Not completely sure why.  However, I really liked the story in the bible where Jesus turns water into wine at the wedding He is attending when they run out.  I remember the line in which someone compliments saving the better wine for later in the feast.  Normally the best wine is served first because as one drinks, one becomes less able to distinguish good stuff from inferior product and often inferior products were served (or so I was told).  Anyway, that Bible story has stuck with me.  I also like understatement (lived in the UK for two years and the Brits are fond of understatement).  I happen to like it as well.  Also, I believe in humility which seems to tie with understatement.  Combine all of the above (plus probably a dozen or more subconscious things I don't know about myself) and I like to have "hidden features."

I don't recall all of what we did in the afternoon of day 2 (hopefully I wrote more about it in my blog and I know I have notes so I could go look it up).  That night, my family was still on their trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island.  As such, I happily sat in the hotel room and drew partial scaled drawings of the box.  Laura had suggested we do so in order to work out any kinks.  I find it helpful and often do drawings of things I am making so I didn't need my arm twisted.

With that, I was ready to make the box.  In the next post, I will talk about the actual construction.

My "Super Powers" that Help Me When Woodworking - Grit and Deep Focus

 My life has been pretty good.  I am very happy I found woodworking as a way to use my hands again now that I no longer work in a lab.  My work certainly isn't prefect, but it isn't horrible.  Considering I have mostly learned remotely, I can't complain.

One of the things I think helped me has to do with my personality and less about woodworking.  When I am really interested in something, I have a lot of grit and determination to learn how to do it and to stick with it.  I've done this for another hobby.  Also, my Ph.D. in chemistry was accomplished this way.  I wanted to study and learn more about chemistry.  Period.  Nothing else mattered no matter how hard it seemed at first.  By sticking with it and studying, little by little it became easier.  To me, woodworking is the same way.  Instead of exams, we make things.  My first dovetail joints weren't that good.  However, little by little, by keeping at it, they slowly started to look better.  I think for many things, us just having determination and grit is what it takes to succeed.  Now, mind you, I'm not talking about being a savant in a field; rather I am talking about being a solid individual.

The other thing which really helped in grad school was my ability to be patient and go the library (pre-internet) and do the research to read and learn what I needed for the task at hand.  I would spend a lot of time reading to learn what I was about to do.  Prior to the internet, it was harder (but not that difficult) to find information.  It just took more time.  I can think of one case, where I found what I really needed was in a Harvard Ph.D. dissertation.  I needed to get the Harvard library to send it to my university so that I could read it.  When all was said and done, it took a few months.  Again, not hard, just needed to get it in the works.  For woodworking I enjoy reading and doing.  I think the reading part helps me understand what has and hasn't been done and tried and what does and doesn't work well.  With this information, I feel better informed.  The current thing I am trying to find info on (that I don't see much) has to do with fuming oak with ammonia.  As a chemist, I have worked a lot with ammonia.  I know folks talk about fuming.  My question is, why not just wipe the ammonia solution directly onto the wood?  Yes, it will raise the grain.  However, I think it will give a much higher effective concentration of ammonia to react with the tanic acid in the wood.  It's too obvious for it to not have been done but I have yet to find good info on this.  There is literally one line (don't have handy) in the Lost Art Press book by Charles Hayward entitled "The Woodworker's Pocketbook."  Will I try it myself?  Sure.  Ideally I'd like to see what has been written about this approach as well.  Obviously in this case, this is easy enough to just go and try but the questions I have grow from there to be expensive or time consuming and ideally I'd like to see what others have discovered before me.  There is very little new under the sun when it comes to woodworking; at least I think so. 

So, I enjoy the doing in woodwork.  What helps me get through the humbling learning phase is grit to stick it out and a curiosity to go and read and learn what others have said as that both inspires and informs me.  I call these my superpowers and have helped me beyond just woodworking.  If I could only figure out what/how I can lock onto the thing and become transfixed  Organic chemistry did it, woodworking did it.  Few other things have held such a strong hold on me.  If there was a way I could sort out what causes that hold, I'd likely have a whole new career to teach others.