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.