Sharpening station questions

[prov163]

I'm creating a sharpening station (pic below). I have the Shapton stones that just need spritzing during use. I used to keep them in their plastic cases in a box but was wondering if there's any reason I can't just leave them out on my sharpening bench ready for use?  What do you guys do?

I think if I have an "easy to get to" sharpening setup, I'll use it more often which will improve my woodworking. I plan to buy a slow speed grinder to mount nearby and an LED light fixture above. What else do you guys find indispensable at your sharpening stations?

[Just Bob]

My station is similar to yours, except I use oil Arkansas stones, with my final stone being an 8k water stone.  My grinder is a variable speed 2x72" 3 wheel grinder. It uses a 1.75hp dc motor.  I get belts ranging from 80 to 4000k grits.  My final step is a barber's leather strop that has 2 belts, course and fine.  I use oil stones because that is how I learned to sharpen 50yrs ago. 

I have the Jet copy of the Tormek sharpener, but I get a much better edge by hand and do not use it very much.  With your setup all I would add is a strop.  I agree, the more accessible, the more you will use it, and maintain your blades. I liked the Veritas jig so much, I bought a second, 1 for my plane irons, and the other for my chisels.

[TerryMcK]

There's nothing wrong with keeping your stones out in your own shop. If you can sharpen quickly and get back to work it makes your workflow better. @prov163I would remove the side cleats from the board though. They will get in the way when flattening backs or removing wire edges. The highest thing on the sharpening board needs to be the abrasive surface. I'm not sure which Shapton is the highest grit but the high grit one needs to be closest to an edge to remove those wires.

[wdwerker]

You might add a dust cover.

 I have one of the earlier Tormek machines. Slow but precise. Much better for re-grinding a chipped edge or changing the angle. I had been using diamond (cheap ones) and ceramic stones for sharpening. Just bought my first set of water stones (Norton) and the speed is much better. Now I have to perfect my technique. 

[drzaius]

I used to use Norton, but when they wore out I went to Sigma Power Select II which cut much faster & don't seem to wear any worse than Norton. Expensive though.

[Eric.]

I leave mine out always.  The harder it is to sharpen, the less often you do it.  There's no reason they can't stay out.  They get a little dusty but it's nothing a spritzing can't remove.  I do tip the diamond plate up after a heavy session so it doesn't sit in a saturated holder.  The stones I don't worry about.  My holders have drain holes and they just slowly dry after use.

 

[Tom King]

My waterstones stay out all the time, along with all the other stuff that goes with sharpening.   If I use waterstones, they're in a sink.  I'm using Select II's too, and they're so fast, I doubt I will ever switch again.

The last sink I used was on a job where we worked for about 300 days, and the setup stayed there ready to go with no setup time required.  It's the one in the video I made-just a regular stainless steel double kitchen sink.  That inspired me to make an improvement for future use, and I picked up a deal on a commercial sink off of Craigslist,  It has a draining sideboard for my gear to sit on without having to deal with the issues of it being down in the bowl of the sink, like the last job.

 Pictures to come later, as I haven't had time to get it all put together yet.  The next two jobs we will have, which will last probably a total of five years, both provide good wells, but no sink to use for sharpening, so this will be the rig for those jobs.  I have a little 2.5 gallon water heater for it.

The sink will be used for whatever we need a sink for, and the sideboard for sharpening.  It has a good commercial faucet on it, and I added a double swivel extension to the spout so I can have running water over the stones and flattening sections, and anywhere on the side drainboard.  

For waterstones, I like running water because I sharpen totally by feel to know when a stone has done what it's going to do.  With just water on the stone, I don't get that.  Sometimes it might be finished, and sometimes the water is gone enough to feel the same but the cutting edge is not totally finished on that stone yet.  Running water eliminates the problem with getting to the point that there is not enough water on the stone.  It also keeps everything really clean, including the trap and drain pipes.  Being sintered stones with no binder, the slurry does more cleaning than anything else, and doesn't stick to anything.