Flattening Natural Sharpening Stones - easy & cheap Method

Razor sharp woodworking hand tools with little and payable equipment.
New method for very hard japanese wet or water stones and extrem hard natural stones like Wästikivi. I have tried many lapping methods - this simple way came out to be the most efficient.
For more info please open the full text below!

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If you got interested in natural stones from Finland, you can find them here: wastikivi.fi

Which stones are suitable?
This method works best with very hard sharpening stones, like most natural stones are. The stones shown in this video are all very hard. But it can also work with japanese stones, if they are hard. The green one int he video is a Shapton 220. If japanese stones are used, the powder can sometimes just be skipped.

Which powder is suitable?
I used Siliziumkarbid powder grid 120. I have tried also finer ones, but this seem to work best.

Some words about the shown stones:
Wästikivi, a natural stone from Finland, the grid is given 600-1000. I would more give it 1500-2000.
If the blade i want to sharpen is just numb, but not damaged, i start with this stone. If there is a damage or i want to change the edge, i first need something more rough - like Shapton 220 or 320.
The Norppa is officially called Orivesi. I gave it this name cause it reminds me of the Norppa, the Saimaa Seal. Grid is given 2500-3000, i would more go for something like 4000-5000.
I like to use it for my wood working handtools.
In most wood working cases the sharpness obtained with Norppa is fine enough for my needs.
The 'Hottis' is a new invention from Wästikivi - a heat treated natural stone. The heat treatment makes it a very fine and regular honing stone. It has been compared to 8000 japanese water stones. I can say, that it is more fine than my japanese 6000 stones and i would say that it is more effective.


For all three stones the flattening can be very challenging due to the extreme hardness. I have tried with
sandpaper: slow, but possible, lot's of waste and not cheap in the long run
diamond: good but expensive
self made bricks: it is possible to keep flat stones flat. But if the stones are not flat, they can't be flattened, they are simply too hard. In this case a piece of sandpaper on to of the brick can help.
Naniva flattening stones: they got numb immediately without much effect on the natural stones
The shown method seems to be by far the best: Fast, easy, cheap. And it does not take much space, can be transporter in a toolbox...