Thread: Mounting a thin waterstone?

Originally Posted by DaveW

Anything truly quartersawn will be fine. I've mounted stones on cocobolo, cherry, kingwood and walnut. Of those, walnut is the most stable and doesn't need to be quartersawn, I think the others probably really don't, either, only in theory.
Cedar is what is used traditionally on japanese stones, IIRC.

The first and third of that bunch can be skipped, I had them as scrap and they are expensive if they aren't leftovers. Glass, plastic, etc are all fine if you have them and have the means to cut them. you can break the edge on cut glass with silicon carbide paper very easily and it will no longer be dangerous.

I've glued stones with epoxy, silicon sealant and set them in a holder with plaster (for stones that have an irregularly shaped bottom) and all of those worked fine.

Japanese use Ho wood, it is a kind of Willow if I understand correctly. Like Cedar it has no typical structure as other threes, no fibers containing water and therefore it is very water resistant. I think another benefit is that the material is very light.

Here you can see how slate-backed coticules are made (video French-spoken but footage speaks for itself):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9cVcPoYalM

That is a neat video, thanks for sharing!