Thread: Building home made balsa hones

Hi Gents,


I've aquired a piece of balsa material 1/2x3x36" and am looking for advice from anyone more experienced than myself so I can learn from your experiences and perspectives. When I cut it into lengths it seems logical to mount it to a harder substrate to prevent any future deviations from a flat, true profile and then I believe the honing surface should be lapped. I have various sandpapers and a piece of truing glass for the lapping process and will pencil out a grid the same as I would do for my water stones on my DMT 325.

Not really sure what size I'd like. I could leave them 3" wide or cut it in half and have 1 1/2" lengths. I wouldn't go any smaller than 6" in length and 9" would be max as it divides evenly into 36 but the combinations seem endless

Is 600 grit high enough to finish lapping the honing surface of the balsa?


Thanks,

A