Water stone sharpening stations?

[Brian]

Absolutely. Interested in something traditional style.

[Chris Pyle]

Absolutely. Interested in something traditional style.

What is traditional style? I was thinking it'd be nice to create something that had storage for stones, a place to sit with an elevated area in front to do the sharpening. Ideally it'd be easily transportable so you could stack/store everything for a trip home and back to the shop. That may be overly ambitious so let me know what you were thinking.

[Jon B]

I'd be interested in participating in this project too. I'm about to move to a new shop and definitely need to improve upon my current messy sharpening system in the new space.

I really like the traditional style sharpening pond like the one posted on the previous page, and had been thinking of making something similar. I recently had a chance to use one that was very similar and liked it alot. Lots of room to soak/store the stones and very convenient with one or more platforms laid across the top edges to hold the stones for sharpening.

I'm wondering what the best joinery method would be for a water tight box? Chris Hall had an early blog post about a hopper stone pond with sliding dovetail connections.... that's one possibility.

[Chris Hall]

Those were sliding dovetail connections on that trough, except with the addition of a packing piece to crank the joints interfaces up tight. Was totally water tight, that much I will say.

[Brian]

I'm thinking the same as Jon, the one on the previous page would suit me plenty, maybe along with a really short stool to alleviate some of the kneeling.

My foot falls asleep every time I sharpen, the rolled up towel helps a lot, but not entirely.

[Chris Pyle]

Alright Brian and Jon, how would you like to proceed? I'll be building this with the eye towards paring the pond with some sort of elevating mechanism and stool, that can always be fashioned after the pond build. I may just look for a large chunk of wood like Chris H. was using for his sharpening.

Do you gentlemen use sketch-up or do you want to freehand post pictures/dimensions of what you are thinking? Should we all take a stab at it and post them then decide on the best path? Not really sure how to proceed but I think an agreed upon plan and a deadline for preliminary sketches would be good to keep us on track (if you can't tell, I really want this done )

[Brian]

Traditional pond plus a stand sounds good, I'll just skip the stand. I'm not experienced in making water tight connections, looking for guidance in that regard.

I'm planning cedar or cypress for this build, how about you guys?

Not sure how well I can adhere to a timeframe, I have some stuff in the works that is taking priority over everything else. Early next year, however, that will change.

[Chris Pyle]

Those were sliding dovetail connections on that trough, except with the addition of a packing piece to crank the joints interfaces up tight. Was totally water tight, that much I will say.

Is there anything you're omitting Chris? By that I mean, would you use a similar connection for a water pond? Any suggestions before we begin the design process?

[Chris Hall]

That trough was a water pond. I made a watertight hopper.

[Jon B]

I'm all for the pond, but could forgo the stand for the time being. I do use sketchup frequently to design projects and would be happy to draw up what I had in mind and share it with you guys. I also have a lot going on at the moment, but will be freed up around mid-Dec. In the meantime I'm happy to discuss design/construction ideas.

I think I'll use either cedar or white oak for this project. I've been thinking about joinery options for this box/pond and I can see how tapered sliding dovetails would work really well for a water tight connection. But I'm also intrigued by the sharpening pond posted on the previous page which appears to have mortise and tenoned connections. It seems to me that mortise and tenon joined sides would be hard to make watertight if the space between the tenons on the one side simply butted up the the inside face of the adjoining side. I would think that if there was a housing in the mortised side for the tenoned side to be let into, that a watertight connection might be more achievable. I hope that all makes sense. Just some speculation/brainstorming.