How to Sharpen a Chisel using Waterstones and a DMT Dia-Flat Lapping Plate
Morton provides a thorough run-through of one way to sharpen your chisels using a grinder, a set of Norton waterstones, and a DMT Dia-Flat lapping plate. This process gives a hollow-grind to the bevel of the chisel (on the grinder), making it easier to reference on the waterstones. The waterstones are kept dead-flat using the DMT Dia-Flat diamond lapping plate.
Find more information and purchase a waterstone at Highland Woodworking:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/waterstones.aspx
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/waterstonesharpening.aspx
Check out the DMT Dia-Flat Lapping Plate:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/dmt-dia-flat-lapping-plate.aspx
More Sharpening Tools at Highland Woodworking
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/sharpening-tools.aspx
Wondering why your plane or chisel isn’t working? Read about fixing it up at the Highland Woodworking Blog:
The Plane Facts: Why Doesn’t This Plane/Chisel Work Like It Should??
36 Responses to “How to Sharpen a Chisel using Waterstones and a DMT Dia-Flat Lapping Plate”
if you’r’e flattening your water stones on something soft like that grippy pad is there a risk that you’ll round the edges?
You know, the stone really doesn’t move on the pad I use – if it did rock at all, I would be worried about rounding my edges as the stone moved relative to the blade. Find something that supports the stone so it doesn’t slide around, but not too soft that it flexes as you work.
cool thanks
Thak’s for you tip’s… Now I hope you put a new Battery in that smoke alarm .
No disrespect to your intent, if you already have a diamond stone, why not flatten your chisel/s on that and you don’t have to worry about re-flattening your water stone all the time, progress to 1000/8000 after it’s flat, make you life easier.
Cheers…
Yeah – really great idea to start with the diamond stone when you have significant metal to remove. I’d still go from there to 220, as it’s probably faster than going straight to the 1000. Good catch.
Works for me, start on a coarse/fine diamond plate until it’s flat then just remove the scratches and polish and all that with minimal “damage” to the water stone, try that and put it on a video. BTW, that goes for plane blades too.
Cheers.
Ah, right – that’d work. I only have a Dia-Flat Diamond plate, which can be use directly on chisels/plane blades – but it leaves a pretty coarse scratch pattern. Of course, various diamond plates can be used instead of water stones and don’t have to be flattened 😉 There’s a lotta ways to skin that cat….
Why is it when ever a new chisel or plane or even hand cutting dovetails is being demonstrated why is pine the wood of choice. I think we all no the answer to that so why not going across end grain making the nice curls on curly maple??
How do you wet the stone. Is necessary storage it in the water?
I use Norton water stones which don’t need to be stored in water. But unfortunately they do need to be soaked for about 10-15 minutes prior to use. The higher grits don’t need soaking quite as long, but the coarse stones definitely soak up the water 😉
Mike thank you very much for your answer. Why, when I tried to put oil and oil “disappear.” Old times, I had a black stone that uses oil over it.Sharpening my chisels and cutting like razor sharp now!!!!!!!!!!
Excellently explained! Thanks for sharing.
Wow
Awesome
I don’t understand why your sharpening a brand new chisel?
The higher grits used to sharpen, the smaller the scratch marks, which makes the intersection of the back/front more crisp, leading to a sharper edge. Chisels straight from the factory are “polished” up to a certain point – and better manufacturers use higher grits. But if you have finer stones than what they used, you will improve the edge further.
Great video…Oh by the way-That beeping noise in the background,is that your smoke alarm.Change your battery in your smoke alarm.
nice
When you buy a new chisel (or plane or carving tool) it is ground to shape but not to a properly sharp edge. It may feel sharp to your fingertip, but is a long way from sharp enough to cut hardwood cleanly.
just bought my “first” Diamond Stone today.Brilliant vid …just what I needed.Cant wait to have a sharp chisel at last! Thanks for posting. Cheers Bro……Happy chiseling
8000 is great to finish, but I’ve heard of joiners making furniture using 30,000 which for my job is a bit more than i need
Because you have to fettle and sharpen it; they are not good to go from the box – that is a mistake I made and so do many people. Woodworking is not ‘instant-on’. It takes time to do stuff and you learn patience; there are no real shortcuts to doing good work. That is why flat-packs are made 🙂
The tough part of free handing it on a stone is keeping the edge perfectly squared up. Oh well. At least I can get it reasonably sharp. lol
Never grind chisels on bench grinder! Just take chisel as it is from factory, get flat back and keep original bevel flat no hollow or convex and your chisel will cut even better than you shown + stropping on leather strop with some good compound and it will be perfect! You can use a power strop and buffing wheel to get better polish and to get it razor sharp quicker while you are working, but that’s all! You don’t need any other power tools!
Check this video:Preparing and sharpening a woodworking chisel – with Paul Sellers
Wow, this was very clear and helpful. Thank you.
Hola, Mike. Yo, pensaba que afilaba bien mis herramientas hasta que vi tu técnica y me di cuenta que soy un bruto. Lo explicas muy bien.
Gracias y saludos de Chile.
nice
finally someone knows to grind and sharpen a chisel….whats with all these guys using a beltsander?????
Awesome video man. This is a real common sense video.
Wrong direction.
hello, do I need to use the hollow grind method?
If I understood correctly this is just used to be able to better see the polishing result?
Could I sharpen the chisel by just going through the different grits of stones?
Also, do you do any kind of end polishing with a piece of leather or does this not apply to the water sharpening method?
thank you!
quick tip: a cinder block does an awesome job of flattening the stone. That’s what I use.
Have you every considered using metal polish and a leather strop to go one step further
good vid. useful info. nice comparison at the end
I like your hollow grind method, seems to me some kind of wet stone on the grinder might stop it getting too hot(I don’t mean a water stone). Over here in England Norton only supply Oil stones, all the water stones are made in Japan and need to be immersed in water for several hours before use.
Great video!