AAvK wrote:
The one I'm looking at is a new stanley blade. I touched it up (having
used it) to do your test, and I do see a little bending near the edge.
Odd, since I used a pristine side of the stone.


The Norton water stone? Possibly too soft. Best for back flattening must be as
hard as possible, glass and abrasive paper, Japanese kanaban and grit powder,
Norton india oil stone and Arkansas natural oil stones. The glass and abrasive
paper is the worst of all the above methods simply because of the softness of
the paper, or it takes a lot of 'concentrating on keeping it flat' just to get it right.
The Norton waterstone is a veritable PEZ candy compared to an oil stone, or a
steel Kanaban. http://japanwoodworker.com/

I'm skeptical, if only because I've read the soft stones are suited to
very hard steel blades, and because with my own blade I'm able to reach
the glides-through-hair-without-resistance sharp using waterstones.

Also, since you say you are using green compound on a strop--I think
you'll get the same results following up a waterstone with chromium
oxide. I haven't been doing that, but I'm getting good results with a
hard blade (I didn't bother tempering since the blade is so very thick)
and water stones with no green compound.

Now, if I had oilstones, I could make a real test instead of mere
protest.

er
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