Water stone sharpening stations?

Looking to buy a new square, saw, plane, or ?? Have a question about which sharpening stone to buy? This is the place.
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Chris Hall
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:27 pm

That's looking good, though I would suggest for next time to make the wedges a little less acutely angled. Those appear to be on the order of 10˚ or so, whereas a 5˚ angle is probably better.

Reason: with seasonal swelling and shrinkage, a more strongly-angled wedge can more readily work its way out from the kerf over time. When pounded in, a steeply angled wedge 'ramps up' too quickly, and its fibers cannot compress quite as much as a wedge with a shallower angle.

The softer cedar floor panel can be made so that it has a too-fat tongue, and then prior to fitting up you can do a round of ki-goroshi to compress the tongue until it fits tightly into the dado. That will generally produce a watertight floor junction.
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Jon B
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Wed Dec 30, 2015 7:59 pm

Thanks for the words of wisdom on the wedges Chris, that's good to know for the next round. I actually tried to make the wedges a 1:6 slope, which I guess is still pretty steep. The tenon was let into a dadoed side, leaving 3/8" wall thickness. Then I widened the mortise for wedges by 1/16" on each side. But I failed to account for the saw kerf when calculating the size of the wedges so I ended up needing to make them a bit steeper yet.

I also made the panel too-fat and went for ki-goroshi, which worked great, but I was over enthusiastic with my plane on one corner when I was final planing the bottom....It's hard to be patient sometimes when a project is getting close to completion :)
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Chris Hall
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:18 pm

Yeah Jon, 1:6 would be a 9.46˚ angle.

1:10 or 1:12 is more suitable.

You could always shove a little silicone into that corner and reassemble, but don't tell anyone I suggested that :?
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Paul Atzenweiler
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Wed Dec 30, 2015 9:14 pm

Thank you Brian and Jon B. Jon B the reason I did not add a dado for the other side of the wedge is I didn't want to inhibit the tightening of the joint. I suppose I could make the groove loose but I chose to not add the groove. I could not see the photos you added to your post. I don't know if the problem is on my end or what but I am interested in seeing the progress. Also I forgot to mention (although it is obvious in the photos) I used oak as the wedge material because in the previous water pond I used pine as the wedge and experienced significant crushing of the wedge.
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Brian
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Thu Dec 31, 2015 1:33 am

Nice work Jon, I've heard floating some saw dust into the leaking area can help (no personal experience there).
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Jon B
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Thu Dec 31, 2015 9:29 pm

Well I still had a slow leak in the bad corner today so I ended up using Chris's suggestion.... and now no leaks! So I trimmed the tenons and wedges, and glued on some handles and caps. Still have to make a top, but I couldn't resist putting it to use today.

I made up a platform for the stones to sit on and cut a channel on each end hoping to reduce excess water from spilling over the side of the box when sharpening. I'd like to apply something grippy to the platform, such as a piece of rubber to grip the stones. But in use today, with nothing on the platform, the stones actually held in place quite well with a little suction between the stone and wood.
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The little blotch on the platform is a bit of water
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stone.jpg
stone.jpg (39.65 KiB) Viewed 9971 times
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Chris Hall
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Thu Dec 31, 2015 9:40 pm

How did you go about connecting the two end pieces on the box opening to the rest of the box?
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Jon B
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Fri Jan 01, 2016 2:14 am

I didn't do anything fancy there, simply glued the caps to the top edges of the pieces which make up the handles as well as the edges of the end panels. I kept the glue off of the long sides in case I ever need to disassemble things.

Someday I would like to do a project like this again using only joinery, similar to the study group tool box.
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Paul Atzenweiler
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Mon Jan 04, 2016 7:42 pm

I put my new water pond to use today. There were no leaks. I am also using a "new" stone for the first tiime. I found the stone in a box at an estate sale. There are saw marks on three sides of the stone and a smooth top side that was dished from use. It is about 1.75" square X 7". I flattened the stone with a cheap diamond stone. The stone produces a slurry readily and leaves a very nice matte finish on the blade. I think the stone is a medium to fine stone. The stone also produces a prominent "earthy" smell when in use. Even though I only sharpened the knife in the picture, the stone stayed flat. I am no expert in natural water stones as all my stones are man made except 2. I do like using this one so far.
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Jon B
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Re: Water stone sharpening stations?

Tue Jan 05, 2016 6:49 pm

Looks like your pond is working well Paul. I can't offer any info on the stone as I have pretty limited experience with natural stones, but if you're getting good results thats great. Seems like a cool find to come across at an estate sale!

My pond has been sitting with water in it now for several days, but unfortunately the wet sides of the box have swelled and have started to cup rather significantly. I used rift sawn material for the sides but they were only a 1/2" thick and I'm beginning to think that they aren't beefy enough to resist the forces of movement caused by the moisture difference between the inside and outside. For the most part the wedged tenons did a great job of holding things together however the seams have opened a bit, and I continue to have slow water seepage. I think I'm going to set this one aside as a tool box and build a new pond.

Some things I hope to improve on are the fit of the bottom and the swelling of the sides. I think I'll increase the thickness of the sides to 3/4" or even 1".

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