Chipped Japanese Watersto

Posted by Jeffrey Ward on Nov 3, 2004

I am carving a Greenland Paddle. Last night, I was sharpening my new spokeshave, using a Japanese waterstone that I bought from CLC about two years ago. It was slipping on my bench, so I clamped it on my WorkMate. When I finished flattening the sole on the course side, I flipped the stone over to the fine side, and noticed a chip in the corner of the fine side. That's odd, I thought, I don't recall dropping this. But, since I have two toddlers at home, I figured maybe one of them had played with it and dropped it.

A few minutes later, when I finished flattening the backside of the blade on the course side, I flipped the stone over to the fine side, and noticed that more of the stone had chipped away. That really had me confused.

What gives? The only thing I can think of is that clamping the stone in the vise caused the chip. But, are water stones really so fragile? I thought it was okay to use a vice, particularly the little plastic plugs on a WorkMate.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks.

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