Sharpening Stones

View our comprehensive selection of sharpening stones, with various grades, material types and shapes, there is a stone to cater for every shaping, grinding, sharpening and polishing requirements. Typically our customers who buy these stones are jewellers, silversmiths, engravers, clock and watch makers, model makers, those in arts and crafts, badge makers, engineers, traditional sword weapons makers, gunsmiths, leatherworkers, chefs, fishermen and wood workers.

• About sharpening stones
All sorts of tools can be sharpened with various stones for instance gravers, screwdrivers, knives, shears, drill bits, scoring tools, tweezers, virtually anything which needs to have a razor-sharp style edge.

Learning how to use a sharpening stone is integral in keeping your tools working like new.

There are many types of sharpening stones available including oilstone, diamond and ceramic. Oil stones are made from natural or man-made materials and are lubricated by oil. Diamond sharpening stones use industrial diamond particles bound to a metal backing. Ceramic sharpeners are made from a hard synthetic material and are perfect for polishing steel tools. Diamond sharpening stones are lubricated with water.

The coarseness of a sharpening stone is defined by its grit rating; lower rated stones are coarse and higher rated stones are smooth. Properly sharpening tools involves three steps: grinding, sharpening and polishing. Grinding shapes your tool, but will leave large imperfections and nicks using a coarse stone. Using a medium grit stone, sharpening gives a tool a sharp new edge. Finishing polishes the tool and removes any small-scale surface imperfections when using a high grit sharpening stone.

• How to use a sharpening stone
It's all in the angle. All tools have a distinct working angle. The working angle is the surface angle of the sharp part of the tool as it goes toward a point. Hold the tool at a consistent angle in order to perfect the sharpest edge on it. Sharpening is a difficult process; if problems persist there are apparatus guides that you can buy to hold the tools at an easy adjusted angle. Every individual sharpens to a different angle so practice to find the right angle for you.

Stay lubed. Lubrication is important to make the tool glide smoothly across the sharpening stone. Lubrication also helps keep the stone from becoming clogged with stone grit and metal filings called swarf. Diamond sharpening stones are lubricated with water, but oilstones need to be lubricated with a light machine sharpening oil. The most common oil for this job will be 3 in 1 Oil (Code O8690) also known as Honing Oil. This premium quality honing oil helps prevent the stone from clogging and helps hone any tool when using a sharpening stone.

Get ready to sharpen. With the stone secured on a firm work surface, grasp the handle or shaft of the tool in your dominant hand with the sharp edge facing away from you. Next, place the fingers of