Trying to find chisel sharpening stone

Maybe your old one is a *water* stone rather than an oil stone? the Japanese seem to favour these, maybe the Chinese do too. Is it red or grey? If you think that's likely, try a specialist woodworking supplier. Your new one is probably carborundum/silicon carbide or some such if it's grey. There are softer *oil* stones, but I think the grey ones are usually carbide. I might be able to help with a red oil stone.

HTH

Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

It's definitely an oil stone and exactly the same grey colour as the 'proper' one which I think I've had for even longer. It's just cheap and nasty which means it's useless for its intended purpose but great for what I need it for. I only bought it for a spare as it was so cheap in case the proper one ever got broken and didn't realise how different it was until I mislaid the other one and gave it a try one day. I tried to touch up the cutting edge on a steel lathe tool and just gouged a groove in it but if you use it on a larger flat surface like the top of a 35mm diameter cam follower it refaces it in no time. With plenty of paraffin it also finishes off aluminium or cast iron gasket faces a treat.

A friend has an identical one but doesn't want to part with it and also doesn't know where it came from. I guess it's actually a fairly common brand on that basis. Must be one out there somewhere, the cheaper the better probably.

-- Dave Baker

the cheap one you want to replaces sounds like the one that I got from Chronos Mike Cole

Dave, is it like these?

If it is let me know & I can get you one from the local pile-em-high-and-sell-em-cheap store. If they dont't have them your'e welcome to these ones, I didn't really need them, just bought them because they were only 99p! Lile you, the idea was to use these for the rough stuff and save the good stones. They also had little 3"x1" diamond laps for 99p a pair.

Peter

Dave, is it like these?

If it is let me know & I can get you one from the local pile-em-high-and-sell-em-cheap store. If they dont't have them your'e welcome to these ones, I didn't really need them, just bought them because they were only 99p! Lile you, the idea was to use these for the rough stuff and save the good stones. They also had little 3"x1" diamond laps for 99p a pair.

Peter

Hi Peter,

Mine came alone in its own cardboard box but those might well be similar. Got to be worth a try at 99p hasn't it :)

Where abouts are you?

Dave

Thanks Mike. I'll give them a ring.

Dave

Dave,

You might want to try Alex Tiranti at Theale (just south of Jcn.12 off the M4). They actually stock a range of stones, principally to complement the range of carving and sculpting tools they supply. They might have something resembling your Chinese stone, and they are not too far from Slough.

They've got a web site and an online catalogue at

Jim.

I'm in Suffolk Dave, but if you e-mail your address over I'll pop them in a jiffy bag and post them off tomorrow.

Peter

Many thanks Peter :)

Address is on the website.

Put yours in with the stones and I'll send beer tokens back by return.

Dave

Got the stone today - many thanks Peter :)

It's actually quite a good quality chisel sharpening stone and worked rather well on an old chisel I tried it on. In fact a bit too high quality, hard and non friable to quite do the job on larger flat surfaces like my cam followers where you aren't generating much surface pressure. The surface of the stone wouldn't break down into paste like my Chinese one did and really bite into the steel but it did remove some stock so nonetheless a most handy addition to the workshop and I'd certainly recommend them for a quid to anyone wanting to actually sharpen chisels.

So the search goes on for the soft friable Chinese type of stone but this one gets me out of a hole for now.

-- Dave Baker

Dave I have an oilstone that's rather too soft to be useful and tends to degrade into paste as you described; it's a Draper brand in a blue plastic case, I believe it came from Halfords; it probably cost more than 99p though. Martin

Dave

What you need I think is a Green Grit (Silicon Carbide) stone. these I use on cast iron, and for grinding stainless steels too.

J&L Had some cheap SC Slipstones at one time, I got a few here in different grades I use for the same purpose you are talking about.

Wayne....

You're welcome Dave. It probably would have sat in the cupboard gathering dust for years so I'm glad it may find a use somewhere.

Peter