Ep 2 of 8 - Stones - Sharpening Masterclass with Ben at Crimson Guitars

[@manifestgtr]

My two favorites are shapton glass (for obvious reasons) and Arkansas. I have a pocket combination Arkansas from Dan’s that’s perfect for knives. Good “feedback”, minimal hassle/mess and they cut fast. Those are the things I value most for sharpening and they’re present in both of those systems.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

I agree 100% B

[@manifestgtr]

@@CrimsonCustomGuitars 🤙

[@arthurbrown7501]

Hi Ben. I used to salvage pieces of Quartz out the back of old post 70's TV sets. fantastic for the final edging.

[@symonf1966]

Hi Ben. Thank your Mum and Sister again for the cup of tea. Thanks again for showing us around and sparing your time . We found some wifi at the Tom Brown in town. I promise next time I turn up I'll have a guitar of my own creation to show you. See you again.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

My pleasure! Any time at all, I'm looking forward to meeting one of your guitars!

[@PeterGologranc]

Ben you and your guitars are a complete inspiration for guitar builders... thank you very much for everything! Greetings from Slovenia!

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Thank you! I really appreciate your support, I can't believe how much I enjoy being a youtuber and a luthier in one :)

[@PeterGologranc]

Crimson Custom Guitars I admire every luthier who can make a living out of it and be so open to other people with advices, tips and tricks... I am trying to follow your footsteps... I hope everything goes right on january neext year... I will definately order some of your great tools soon :D so I hope you'll ship those cool things to slovenia :P it's not that far :P

[@stephendevereux4564]

I totally know where you're coming from my grandfather was a master carpenter and had me sharpening from the age of 4 years old he would have me sharpening until I got it right. Then I was responsible for sharpening all the tools in the shop until he passed away when I was 14 needless to say I can put an edge on pretty much anything. I have to say I hated it then, but am very grateful to him now I am using these skills for my own work

[@timothylarson3583]

Shapton pro's are a nice water stone that is a splash and go. These work well with harder steels and are less expensive than ceramic stones like shapton glass or naniwa super stones. They generally hold there shape, but for planes, chisels, etc I recommend flattening.

[@JesusvonNazaret]

I buy used chisels and planes off ebay and for getting them back in shape I use a 250 grid 1000 grid waterstone (two sided thing) then the 3000/6000 grid two sided waterstone and then the leather strop. Once the chisel is in shape and just needs another touch up, it works quite well too just use the strop for one intermediate deal, and only the next time I'll go back to 3k and so on. Also the narrower a chisel is, the more comfortable I feel to use the Veritas honing guide (I also use it for my router plane blade an made a small jig for it's blade that fits into it). 16 mm and above I use the Paul Sellers method.

[@JesusvonNazaret]

I got used to use plain water from the tap with some pumps of liquid soap that's around the sink anyways. Also my DMT diamond stone developed 2 dings, it's not stainless, just zinc plated and the residue left behind from the sharpened chisel kind of ate into it at these 2 places

[@neonistic]

I don't know if you are planning on covering this in a later video, but you can sharpen with sandpaper on a flat surface. Wet/dry sandpaper goes all the way up to at least 3000 grit.

[@jim_no_rulers]

David Willett I use a granite tile with wet/dry sandpaper to sharpen tools etc, and regular sandpaper to flatten smaller wooden pieces.

[@michellek5789]

Would be amazing to see you bring an old rusty chisel back to life. I have a few from car boot sales and just wondered if it is possible to get rid of all of the rust and end up with a nice shiny chisel!

[@NowahRudolph]

I absolutely love these videos, informative but not dry like sitting in a college lecture. This video has definitely made me realize how badly I need to buy new stones dear lord lol I just put up a video yesterday of how I sharpen my chef knives, it's part one but yeah...I need to buy new stones and I think I'll be buying the Bob Kramer stones. They were simply lovely when I had one before, but someone as my old job destroyed it and I just never got around to buying a new set

[@LassetUnsSpielen]

my personal tip: if you want to get good at sharpening with stones, practice on kitchen knives first. the surface that needs to be sharpened is much larger while the blade is (usually) thinner. helps a lot to develop a feeling to where the angle/bevel is

[@nieltymx]

Autosol metal polish as a stropping compound on a pieces of MDF

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

A man after my own heart! I use autosol when sharpening gouges, carve the shape of the gouge into wood front and back and then polish in a custom and perfect groove. This method will show up soon..

[@nieltymx]

Crimson Custom Guitars great tip with the gouge and Great video series thank

[@walterrider1612]

thank you Ben all info is great

[@groovedodger]

ive used a 1mm cutting disc off angle grinder and water when i had no stone worked suprisingly well

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Oooh. The lateral thinking is strong with this one! I'm going to have to do a whole video on non standard sharpening tricks and this will be top :) thank you

[@richardkelltoolmaker]

actually, I met an old geezer / very clever Horologist down in London thirty five years ago and he corrected me in that it is always pron Ar-kansas ..... when we were discussing slipstones and sharpening gear wheel cutters etc. its the UK tradition for referring to such things .....

[@jacobthellamer]

I just use water on my diamond stones, I just wipe them off with a cloth after use. I find that if I do not rinse them well enough after use the filings can rust, I have not had the stones themselves rust on me.

[@Goldsmithexile1960]

the best use for water stones is you grind them to mush in a morter and pestle to make an excellent stroping paste....!!!

[@justanotherdummy3448]

ben on a Smith's diamond stones I use water on to keep it from cloging as say Windex did but there on an aluminum plate or what ever you call it .but it must be aircraft aluminum so it doesn't rust and because it doesn't bend.I made the mistake with mine I put a lot of pressure on it to sharpen a very dull knife quickly and it wore it out lol it was suppose to be 800 grit .it still works but if learned to let the stone do the work Instead of forcing it.

[@r.stobenski3327]

Smith's stones (white) are not diamond, but alumoceramic. ~1000 grit. Works pretty well.

[@approachableactive]

I have an obsession with sharpening lol bit like your block plane one! I used to sharpen sushi knives for a living and it came from there... Ceramic stones are amazing but you only need the higher grits in them. If you are a nutter like me who uses a straight or cut throat razor you'll need a 12k and a 30 k to rehone the edge. The trouble with strops is that they can "shoulder" the grind over time. Not an issue you'd get on a chisel of course! I definitely favour diamond stones up to 3k then ceramic above that. But I have a 8k water stone that just right for a filleting knife. Worth mentioning you can go too sharp. A chefs french knife for example should never go beyond 5k because it gets too much abuse for an 8k edge to last. Scalpels on the other hand I sharpen to 70k which is breathtakingly sharp. Hanging hair test sharp in fact lol

[@onpsxmember]

How do you get to 70k grit? I think I've seen a 30k glas stones and those mono-crystalline diamond honing things, do you breath on it?

[@esa062]

What a great way to get stoned :-) Water stones also go softer as they get coarser. So while a 6000 stone stays flat pretty well, a 200 one turns into a cup immediately.

[@bentyreman5769]

what do you think about natural stones? are they better than ceramic stones, I'm wondering if it's worth spending more, I only want to sharpen kitchen knifes and chisels mainly, I've got some old chisels that need restoring, cheers.

[@hardworker8030]

I've just bought a 800 grit waterstone but is it worth buying a ceramic flattening stone as I've read bad reviews about them and most have said use sandpaper to flatten a waterstone

[@mikedcc100]

Thanks for helping me cut through the chaff and decide how much to blow on tools. King 800, 1200, 6000, slip stone, flattener. You call 3M paper scary sharp? Dude, it's diabolical. I bet it costs more from suppliers of fiber optic splicing tools. It polishes a fiber end flat and glass smooth for perfect mechanical mating. You can see just how awesome it is once you've seen good vs bad in the inspection scope.

[@sirtooby]

Thanx for this video series. Where do you buy King Stones?

[@murrmac]

Just to clarify .. it's not "window cleaning" fluid (like Windolene) that you use ... it's "glass cleaner", the spray-on stuff that picture framers use to get their glass totally smudge free. I never get it on my hands when I am sharpening my tools, and I use it all the time on my DMT stones.

[@jbkibs]

have you used those pink erasers to clean your diamond stones and files? it works surprisingly well.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

Mine came with a white one bit yes, all the time! I came across our newest apprentice trying to use wire wool to clean it and nearly, well.. you know? Violence was considered but professionalism won out :)

[@TheBlitzsmurf]

WD 40 is mostly fish oil if I remember correctly it was developed for use on military missiles

[@jrmakawoody]

Arkansas...it would make sense to pronounce Ar-kansas...but it is actually pronounced Arkan-saw. Ben you make great videos and I enjoy every one!

[@wolfsworkshop9095]

actually i use sand paper, mainly becouse i dont have to worry if the stone is flat and also i don't have to buy a water stone and worry about flattering each time i use it

[@Teguvas]

Top tip for a clagged up oilstone, put it in the dishwasher.

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

What? Elaborate, please.. I must know more :l

[@Teguvas]

Crimson Custom Guitars If you have an old oilstone that is clagged up with dried oil, metal shavings etc. One cycle through the dishwasher will restore it to it's former glory.

[@davidteasdale1]

Crimson Custom Guitars It's true, I have even use a power washer after doing the garden path. Worked a treat.

[@williewise1609]

Ben I enjoy tour channel and follow often,great stuff, I am not trolling bat Arkansas is pronounced ARK-CAN-SAW...LOL from a friend in Texas.

[@Barrygee]

EZ Lap diamond stones for me...cut fast and give a great edge

[@pseudosnob]

My xgf’s father had a whetstone that was so bowed it was almost gone in the middle. He also had a terrifyingly sharp, if crudely made, blue#2 10”chef knife. Much respect.

[@dannyrexknight]

Ceramic stones do need to be flattened too. Just less often.

[@nomski80]

tips of the trade from the sharpest tool in existence: wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Death's_Scythe

[@squareyes1981]

Take an empty window cleaner bottle. Fill it up 4-6mm with ordinary washing up liquid and dilute it with tap water almost to the top and give it a shake up and BOOM!..., hands that cut chisels that are soft as your face

[@0v3nm4n]

pause at 2:02 XD

[@onpsxmember]

6:08 Feeling to need to wear gloves... You should do that occasionally. I watched huge amount of your videos. I guess i've seen you wearing gloves in the spraypainting area. Rest of the time: Every kind of glue applied by fingers...but soapy water will kill you^^ I'm used to work in huge companies with great safety equipment. So i protect all my senses whenever needed like I'd work in the saftey department. There are great gloves out there, that don't tear easily and you still have lots of feeling. Also for mechanix...on the long term the contact to mineral oils raise the likelyhood of cancer. What would you say about your lung function after 14-15 years of being a luthier? Look out for an savety endorsement.

[@chucknowakowski6676]

All I know is family from there say it's Arkansaw so that's what I'm going with!!lol

[@featherplays9354]

I started off sober and after all these tequila shots, I'm pissed!

[@titianobsidian6549]

You need to get a tempered glass bottom so you can give your informed opinion on such matters.

[@apinakapinastorba]

I hate the local hardware stores. They sell all kinds of fancy tools, like chisels, scrapers, water stones and whatnot. But none of the tools to actually use them. No burnishers, no flattening stones, no nothing. Got to use internet stores for every single time.

[@catdumpling]

"ARK-in-saw" . ;)

[@chucknowakowski6676]

Love the vid.....but gotta point out ....Materclass on title page of video...Lmao

[@CrimsonCustomGuitars]

The editor will be shot at dawn while reciting shakespearean sonnets in atonement... Mater :) lol

[@NeilRobertTurner]

Are you actually "BATMAN" :) you forgot to hide your Bat mask it's hanging in your tool rack behind you.Or was CATWOMAN visiting to check up on her custom build. ( 13:11 min ) .The secret is out.

[@JoeThornhill]

I think it's some sort of scraper, guide or they're going to put it on a guitar.

[@dannyrexknight]

King stones are synthetic.

[@MusicMan642]

WD-40 is mostly made from fish oil.

[@EagleEye223]

Arkansas- ark in saw...that how us 'mericans pronounce it

[@Barrygee]

Arkansas hehe...Americans will be screaming at you for that pronunciation!

[@shoominati23]

The saladhead Lave Trader strikes again ;)

[@Jshortca1]

shoominati23 Ben should start an episode with roughage on his head.

[@91donwilson]

I killed the cow now what?

[@chucknowakowski6676]

Ar-kan-"saw", not ar-Kansas!! Lol damn Brits ...just messin

[@littlearsehole75]

Right!

[@jbkibs]

I'm American and I say "Our Kansas" in one word fashion much like him. why is Kansas not pronounced Kansaw? ;) Wekansaw would have been better btw. lol. really I figured they fought over the territory and eventually said, "fine, you can have your kansas, but this is our kansas".

[@asefvdfzbzdfbz]

Chuck Nowakowski You don't get to name something stupidly and complain that people mispronounce it.

[@littlearsehole75]

asefvdfzbzdfbz I didn't name it. Sheeeeiiit.

[@pseudosnob]

That diamond stone is effen (danish for smooth) sexy

[@pseudosnob]

Don’t tell me what I can or cannot see, I’m effen blind. Mebbe if I put my coke bottles on (5.5&actual glass!...made by a place that makes glasses!!!) I could see it, which is to say, I have recently acquired the technology that make this endeavor possible to begin with. You need to be able to see...very small variations to properly sharpen anything (not true, I’m sure a zen master could do it blind in more ways than I could hope to learn [also not true, I hope to learn everything, without the delusion that that is possible])

[@elijahmaurer4613]

Arkansas=Are-Can-Saw

[@subrecesubrece9317]

I'm following loads of your videos, I'm building acoustic guitars, etc, but there's so many times i'm pulling my middle finger out to you, while watching. Weird how you can be so annoying and so interesting at the same time.

[@Coylee91]

Natural occurring resource? I have an unhealthy obsession with the use of language, sorry.