Glass Stones

[Christopher Staples]

I just pulled off my 50 / 60 stones and swapped them over with glass for installing sandpaper onto
glass shop only charged $1 a stone
works a treat

used my 2000 / 3000 / 6000 grit paper from my edge pro system on it

would make a nice option for kits as its cheaper to get polish tape then full stones for each grit

worked out around 10 cents a stone and polished 3 knifes before they showed wear

[Josh]

Yeah, Ken Schwartz was working on glass plated to go onto the weps paddles with a diamond lapping film…. Haven’t heard anything more about it though. Personally I think it’s a great idea!

[Ken Buzbee]

So do I. I was trying to figure a mount for PSA sheets. These would be great.

Ken

[Mark76]

Hey guys, I don’t have any PSA sheets or don’t use sandpaper, but why are you looking for glass or plexiglass backings? I understand it is a little flatter than aluminium, but so much that it matters in practice? Wouldn’t an aluminium strip backing work as well?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Ken Buzbee]

Aluminum would probably work fine but I think glass would be better. Are you thinking “cost”?

Ken

[cbwx34]

Hey guys, I don’t have any PSA sheets or don’t use sandpaper, but why are you looking for glass or plexiglass backings? I understand it is a little flatter than aluminium, but so much that it matters in practice? Wouldn’t an aluminium strip backing work as well?

My .02, having used both, yup it matters. Flat aluminum is surprisingly not that, flat,,, and flattening it isn’t as much fun as you’d think. 😉

cbw

[wickededge]

I’ll explore sources for glass blanks.

-Clay

[BassLake Dan]

My .02, having used both, yup it matters. Flat aluminum is surprisingly not that, flat,,, and flattening it isn’t as much fun as you’d think. 😉

cbw

Actually the AL that you buy in the hardware store is extruded, and it is not very flat, that is quite true. I was able to mount it and lap it flat fast, maybe took me an hour and a half to make 4 AL paddles out of a set of Clays Blanks that you can buy right here on the site. Also had a local glass shop cut a few pieces of the necessary size and mounted them same way with hot glue on a set of Blanks. As I mentioned elsewhere you can then use the glass plates with sub micron diamond sprays for excellent ‘final finish’ stops.

Here is a vid on how to lap AL Plates and mount them with Hot Glue: –> video link

and here is same technique with the glass plates:

[Ken Buzbee]

I’ll explore sources for glass blanks.

Excellent!

Ken

[Phil Pasteur]

Dan,

I seen your post about your technique posted in several places here and have watched your videos with great interest! You do a great job at mounting the plates to the paddles. A good concept and excellent execution. I have an issue myself with using hot glue. I always make a mess and I can’t seem to get it to work that well with nonporous surfaces. Of course this is just a personal failing 🙂

So here is my question. If I can get the blank paddles from WEPS with the 3M double stick tape pre-applied (the same tape as I understand it that they use to secure the stones that they provide complete), what would the advantage be to using the hot glue?

Just curious! I think that mounting to the tape would be very secure and put the surface of the glass closer to the same height above the paddle as the stock diamond stones. This would mean less fiddling with the angles. I have washed my stock diamond paddles with extremely hot woater and soap, but the 3m tape has held, even when soaked for some time. For me anyway, it would seem to be a simpler overall process that would likely last a very long time, to get the glass or AL plates mounted this way.

Probably I am missing something obvious, if so, please let me know what that is.

Phil

video link[/url]

and here is same technique with the glass plates:

[BassLake Dan]

.. what would the advantage be to using the hot glue?
.. it would seem to be a simpler overall process that would likely last a very long time, to get the glass or AL plates mounted this way.
..

the hot glue is for us ‘do it yourself fiddlers and hopeless experimenters’.

You have already mentioned possible issues with water and other cleaner bath issues regarding the 3M mounting tape…

but there are at least four other things that make the hot glue process attractive to me. 1.) it is very inexpensive. 2.) you can flatten the plates and check the mounting precision yourself as you are the supervisor and QA inspector of the project, 3.) I am suspect of the ‘flex’ of the 3M tape mounting system, but with the hot glue on the edge the plates are placed flat against the paddle back with no chance of springiness or misalignment from an adhesive layer between the paddle and the plate 4.)for us fiddlers –>we can choose and experiment with different plate materials, the hot glue attachment system is removable. You can remove and replace materials at will and continue your fiddling with the same set of paddles that we reuse over and over again. To remove a plate you mounted with hot glue simply place it in a warming oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes then drop the plate off. Then cool the paddle and remove the hot glue remnants for another try with other plate material. (i.e. tempered plate glass, balsa wood, plexi-glass acrylic, you name it!)

What is nice about the WE system is that you can choose to either wait for the company to provide a ready made plug and play solution, or you can have a go at your own experimentations in the meantime. WE has found a broad range of users, and forums like this do tend to have a disproportional amount of posts by us fiddlers, but the fiddling approach is not for everyone, and I can certainly understand that.

[Ken Schwartz]

I now have glass blanks that I use for diamond films for the WE. Anyone interested, please contact me.

I do agree that the glass is flatter and more precise than the aluminum surfaces.

—
Ken

[Josh]

Ken, I’ll probably order some… if its fine w/ clay can you post your prices? or would you rather a phone call…

Dan, I REALLY appreciate your video series on the aluminum blanks/3m lapping film. I did the same thing you did w/ the al blanks and then got some PSA 3m lapping film (silica carbide i think) and have obtained outstanding results…the smoothest, closest shave on my straight razor to date (and i have all sorts of strops/compounds, etc). Thanks for the video and recommendation. Oh, and I can verify that you MUST lap the aluminum blanks, they are not completely flat from Lowes or HOme depot.

[Christopher Staples]

now why didn’t I think about hot glue

would have been quicker then cutting all the double sided tape I used

glass is also better because the tape peels off and back on it easily

very happy over demolishing my cause stones
just a shame the very last paddle broke when forcing it apart

nothing araldite did not fix

how ever if i was to do it again I would heat up the paddle a bit so the tape hopefully lets go
and make the glass panels the same size as the paddle and hot glue them in also then the edge pro tape would fit perfectly with out cutting

how ever working just dandy as thin slithers of tape

[Ken Schwartz]

Ken, I’ll probably order some… if its fine w/ clay can you post your prices? or would you rather a phone call…

…

Just send me a PM for details. Regards, Ken

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