Kevin Olson

What I typically do for serrated blades (which is a pretty scant subset of my edge tools - a couple of loaf knives, a sheepsfoot blade on a mutli-tool, and the kitchen steak knives) is to use a diamond stone/plate on the flat bevel, and run a diamond needle file over each serration.  The needle file is also used to resharpen utility knife hook blades (hook blades are great for opening packages, because it's very difficult to overpenetrate the tape and whatnot to inadvertently poke whatever is inside).  I also have a slightly larger diameter diamond rod than the one seen here, but I rarely use it, though it might be handy for a linoleum knife or the like.  The conical end of the rod is exposed here, but the ferrule can be turned to loosen the collet, and the ends swapped to bury the conical end within the handle, leaving the cylindrical end exposed (which also has a groove for touching up fish hook barbs).

I will note that when I use my method to touch up serrated blades, they don't hold up as well as non-serrated blades.  I imagine that some burr or wire edge still remains (no matter how careful I am), which breaks down in short order, leaving a less-than-sharp edge.  I can foresee that a quick pass on the buffing wheel would take care of the burr, though eventually proper edge geometry might need to be re-established with the stones.

The credit card sized diamond plates are SharPal brand, and span from 600 to 2000 grit, as I recall; the grits are actually mis-identified on the backs, so I got them desperately cheap from my local hardware store, but the grit progression is obvious, so no worries, there.  The two DMT stones are 600 grit (I've had this for nearly 40 years now, and it still cuts steel) and 8000 grit (3 micron), really only used when touching up X-Acto blades.

Once I get the Wissota grinder set up with a treadle drive, maybe I'll try touching up serrated blades with a buffing wheel and chromium oxide compound.  I do have a second hand cranked grinder, which I suspect is a Wissota but is not so marked, so maybe I could set up a grinding wheel on one and a buff on the other (TBD).  Wissota did make these grinders for hardware store and other chains to be rebadged, so it may be one of those.

The diamond needle file and the plates/stones:

Behlen also makes triangular plan stock tanks, which would fit nicely into a corner:
https://www.behlencountry.com/products/farmstead-triangle-stock-tanks

As best I can discern, these only comes as a pair, one slightly larger than the other, nested together telescopically.

So, that might provide additional options for close quarters.  Floor space trades at a premium in our little shed, but the smaller 30 gallon size might just fit.  The 12 inch (30-ish cm) depth tanks would have plenty of freeboard to accommodate a wooden grate and still contain the lower edge of a shower curtain.  Careful shaping of the pipe rail to suspend the curtain could provide some elbow room.

bruce Fine wrote:a small cattle tank can also double as a tub

And as a baptismal font (having grown up among full immersion Baptists in the Mountain West)!

I have been noodling on installing a shower pan in our little shed, so the various ideas in this thread are great.  I, too, had looked at appliance pans, but these all seem a bit shallow.  A pan could be formed up, from sheet copper to meet requirements, with soldered seams, but that would be spendy if acquired new.

On a peripherally related subject, my son was contemplating rubber tramping (vehicular nomadic living) in the American Southwest during the difficult days of the C-19 lock downs.  In helping him to think through how to manage the basic necessities, including sanitation, I'd found this video, which described a method of recirculating shower water using fairly standard RV/marine water system parts - relatively inexpensive and ubiquitous, at least here in the US:

His shower pan idea for tent campers (trash bag lining for a hinged wooden curb frame), wouldn't work for your client.  But, what about a painted canvas liner?  Painted canvas was used for boat decks and hatch covers, for the outer waterproof cover of canvas canoes, etc.  Linseed oil based paint may qualify as "natural", depending on the formulation.  Whether sufficiently durable in this application, I don't know.

Personally, I experienced a flush of limerence seeing the Behlens square stock tank.  I think there'd be enough depth to put a wooden grate on the bottom, Will this infatuation fade?  And then there's the drain plumbing...

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

Annie -

Another thought that I dredged up from the dark recesses of the old noggin: somewhat in your neighborhood (NZ, anyway), there is a company marketing something badged as the "IntensiFire".
https://intensifire.co.nz/

Depending on the interior arrangements of your stove, something like this may be possible.

As I understand it, the stovepipe is extended down into the fire box, with the lower end protruding into or beneath the coal bed.  With over fire primary draft, the theory is that the partially combusted volatiles are forced to flow through the hot coal bed before exiting up the stack, converting the stove into a downdrafter or gasifier.  Making one of these work with an under grate primary draft would be more monkeying around, since you'd need to convert to over fire draft, by hook or by crook.  You might also need to arrange for a stack bypass for start-up, though proper fire starting technique might head that off.

A DIY version seems doable, though I have a hunch that something as pedestrian as standard black stove pipe - and maybe even stainless stove pipe - wouldn't hold up for very long.  But, maybe long enough to see if it works for you.  Some of the fancy Rolled Alloy steels (I don't know if Thomas can source sheet) would be more durable, if an initial experiment in stainless or Ti sheet proved it out.

I have no idea how well this conversion works in practice, and I can imagine several pitfalls.  But, since it looks like they are just next to you (from my vantage at the Antipodes), maybe there is an installation which you could observe in operation, or a local user you could quiz over a pint or cuppa about their experience with it.

Even with such a combustion enhancer, I think I'd still be entertaining additional insulation inside the fire box to protect the steel/iron stove shell.  Anything you can do to improve heat transfer into the water (or decrease the losses from the water by adding insulation, as was suggested upthread) may also bear fruit.

Separating the heat extraction from the combustion zone, as you are doing here, seems like the right approach (rather than having a water back directly in the firebox).

Is this stove made from welded plate steel, with a fire brick lining?  That's what I'd expect in a US context, given the photo.

How is the primary draft configured (i.e. is there a grate, or is the draft over fire, with a hearth)?  Does this stove have a secondary combustion air inlet?  A catalytic combustor element?

Is freezing of your water loop a possibility in your climate?  Is this water jacket basically a double wall chimney with water inside the enclosed annular space, or is there a coil of tubing wound on the interior of what we can see in the photo?  Or, perhaps something else?

Could you purchase fire clay, perlite, refractory cement, etc. - typical stove building and mending supplies, or are you trying to be self-sufficient in this endeavor?

My first inclination, without knowing the answers to the above, would be to improve the firebox insulation within the metal shell (thus protecting the shell from high temperatures) to improve combustion efficiency.  Adding preheated secondary air, or a catalytic element, to effect more complete combustion may also be low-hanging fruit, again depending on the answers to the above.

In the long term, it might even be worth considering building a rockety combustion system for the water jacket, and using this stove for other purposes.

Since this is for intermittent use (not your primary domestic heating), the payoff for squeezing the last scrap of efficiency from it may be less critical - but only you can judge that, based on  your physical ability to collect fire wood (now in in the foreseeable future), the availability of fire wood, etc.

Michael Feder wrote:When you use those grinding wheels, the edge of the knife heats up. With a heat treated blade that has a cryo treatment bringing the hardness up to 63, getting the edge hot will just ruin the heat treatment. The blade will lose that Rockwell 63 the factory worked so hard to achieve, and end up at 55. The old school method of sharpening a blade with a spinning wheel-  using a modern heat treated steel-  just is a very bad practice. Far better to use a diamond stone or rod, and just carefully work the edge. It stays cool, retains the heat treatment, and then stays sharp as long as it did before you sharpened it.

My grandpa sharpened blades with a power-driven grinding wheel. Back in the non-heat treated 420 stainless era.

Now we have very effective diamond tools in every shape and grit. Fast, effective, and much better on the blade longevity.

Michael -

Welcome to the forums!

Could you explain a little more about this?  Are you advocating against dry grinding only, or also against wet grinding?  Or, are you saying that this caution only need be observed for modern steels?  Do you cryo quench tools to eliminate retained austenite?  If so, do you use dry ice and kerosene for the quench bath, or something else?

Among other things, I've been entertaining purchasing a CPM plane iron from Lee Valley to put in a Stanley #5 to use it as a scrub plane (someone already opened up the mouth of this Bed Rock[!] to convert it to a scrub plane, and it had a broken but glued tote, so swapping in an iron that will hold an edge for longer under trying circumstances seems like less of an indignity than it's already suffered).  I'd be surprised if the newfangled highfalutin thoroughbred steel is any more sensitive to overheating than the old high carbon steel, but I'm admittedly not "up" on the newer steels, so could be way off base, here.

In restoring old tools, it's sometimes necessary to take off quite a lot of material - 1/4" or more - to get back to decent steel, especially for single bevel tools where some extent of the back behind the edge also needs to be made flat-ish.  I've done this by hand with a coarse carborundum stone - I had to take a lot of meat off an old framer's slick (broad paring chisel) that had been rusting in a bucket with some other unloved tools - but it does take quite a while.

I picked up an old Wissota hand cranked grinder a couple of years ago, which I plan to convert to treadle drive (though workable for sharpening chisels, the hand crank is long enough to foul longer tools like a draw knife, or even a bench axe, but a shorter crank with a treadle would obviate that problem).  This is a dry grinder, but I would think as long as I am careful to keep dipping the tool in a can or pan of water, it should be OK.  A buddy also has an older 10" wet grinder (no motor, just the grinding arbor and bath) which is mine for the collecting, but I haven't yet availed myself of it.  That too may be converted to foot power, though it currently has a v-belt sheave for an electric motor drive mounted on the arbor.

Mostly, I do just use progressive grits of diamond plates (down to a DMT 3 micron/8000 grit plate for fine work), as you have suggested, followed by a few swipes on a hard strop loaded with green (chromium oxide) buffing compound to get to a mirror finish.  But, to re-establish the (concave) primary bevel on a thrashed out socket framing chisel or a plane iron, or to work down the edge of a rusty hewing axe to usable condition, the grinding wheel seems to be an ideal tool, if used with care, so I'd be curious if you can clarify your guidance.

Again, welcome to the forums.

Kevin

Though he doesn't address serrated blades - he's a wood worker - Chris Schwarz has made the PDF version of his booklet "Sharpen This" freely available/downloadable, here:
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Sharpen_This_Aug2022pdf.pdf

Or, you can buy the print version from him for $20 US:
https://lostartpress.com/products/sharpen-this


For those unacquainted, Chris has been a vocal proponent in the US context of "unplugged" woodworking (though he does use a table saw to break down stock and a thickness planer to remove lots of material).  He was formerly an editor at Popular Woodworking magazine, but now teaches hand woodworking classes and publishes or reprints relevant instructional material through his Lost Art Press.

I have several books from LAP, and a few on the wish list, too.  His hard bound books are well bound, nicely printed and I've never been disappointed by the content, though I am really at the beginning of my journey into the hand woodworking endeavor - I have more tools than skills.  I haven't purchased any of his soft bound offerings, so can't speak to the quality of those, though I'm fairly well confident Chris wouldn't do anything by half measures.

At first blush, I think I'm leaning toward the dehydrate first (and possibly later char/combust) approach for a mobile installation.

I have no direct experience.  But, I did look into the incinerator toilets when my son was contemplating building out a van (in his case, the RAM [i.e. Dodge] version of a Mercedes high roof) - requests for technical support from him are common.  He works as a medical traveler, at the moment, and is pretty adventurous in his off time (mountain biking, hiking, somewhat technical mountaineering [Hood, Ranier, Shuksan, 14ers]) so a mobile base of operations could kill two or three birds with one stone - portable principal residence, adventure base camp, and eventual temporary quarters while he builds a fixed home place.  But, he decided not to go that way, at least for now, though it remains as a future option.

Anyway, the commercial incinerator toilets are, as Carla noted, decidedly un-cheap (even used), so this lateral thinking is, in my estimation, a worthwhile endeavor.  Add to this that a secondary fuel system might need to be managed (diesel, propane, maybe compressed natural gas), and the luster fades, somewhat.  Managing a bit of fire wood, especially rocket grade fire wood (i.e. twigs and branches) is simpler.

One advantage of the drying first approach is that it gives some flexibility as to when the final "treatment" occurs, if at all.  It may not always be convenient or necessary to fire up the rocket stove in warmer weather.  But, warmer weather might correlate nicely with solar gain much of the time, meaning the solar dehydrator idea would be possible.  The desiccated intermediate "product" could also be composted, if the opportunity presented itself, bypassing the final phase.

Carla's notes about the practicalities as bodies age are duly noted.

Considerable design/engineering may be needed to make such a system workable.  For inspiration, I spent most of yesterday on a scaffold with the outlet from the power vent of our composting toilet blowing near me, sometimes directly in my face (this is at our lake lot, so occasional recreational use); it could have been worse, but even though this seems to be composting pretty well at the moment, it was still a bit "fragrant" due to recent use.  Ruminating...

On edit:  It comes to mind that the prime mover of a van is probably only 1/3 thermally efficient, meaning that 2/3 (or even as much as 3/4, depending on whether diesel or gasoline, and the exact vintage of technology) of the available energy in the fuel is "waste" heat.  I wonder if an exhaust manifold "stove", similar to the old-fashioned carburetor intake air preheaters or the Model T manifold ovens, could be rigged up to provide "process heat" for the dryer?  Still with a solar dryer for when parked, though.  Still noodling on this...

I've had some trouble with this, following an iatrogenic bout of prostatitis (don't ask, you don't want to know! - but it was rather unpleasant).

For other reasons not directly related to the prostatitis per se, I have tried to follow a diet which is anti-inflammatory: minimize commercial seed oils (surprisingly difficult to totally eliminate - they're very sneaky!), in favor of animal fats, olive oil and coconut oil; and minimize easily assimilated carbohydrates (refined flours, sugars, etc. - I do currently eat some legumes, especially chick peas, in moderation).  I eat very little fruit (from a cookery perspective, not a botanical perspective - I do eat tomatoes, curcubits, eggplant, etc.), and am even careful about how many carrots I eat.  But, I do eat lots (and lots!) of leafy greens and cruciferous vegetables.  Basically, I try to minimize blood sugar excursions, as a means of also limiting insulin spikes.  I am not diabetic (though, in retrospect, I may have been exhibiting some early signs of insulin resistance before all of this started), but I am trying to reduce the potential for inflammation.  I also take Vitamin D3 supplements (currently 10,000 IU daily) and K2 (100 micrograms daily); I am supplementing with oral D3 because I likely don't get enough sunshine to make my own (I try to stay out of the mid-day sun, since my mother died of malignant melanoma, and I have a lot of risk factors for melanoma, though all biopsies have been clean, just weird looking).  I have also pretty rigorously limited my fluid intake after 9PM (a couple of hours before my bed time), and I make sure to empty my bladder good and well just before clambering into bed.  I am also on a very low dose of tamsulosin; I'd like to try to wean myself off of that, but deep in the throes when this all began, it seemed necessary to keep the plumbing working.  Having had multiple relapses of prostatitis, I have been hesitant to mess with it, since keeping urine moving, with good voiding, can't hurt, but the opposite certainly could.

Within the past few months (so, beginning a couple of years after the start of this whole escapade), I've experienced a marked improvement in how long I am able to sleep (once, recently, until 7:30AM - crazy!) and the number of night time trips (rarely more than one, anymore, unless it was a really hot day, and I have overcompensated on rehydration; sometimes zero trips per night, for two or three nights in a row - woohoo!).  Most of the time, I am now sleeping until 5 or 5:30AM, sometimes until 6 or even 6:30, and even then, I may get coffee going and whatnot before I do what's necessary.  I may even need to start setting a morning alarm again, something I haven't found necessary for several years.  These days, if I do get up to make a trip, it's usually somewhere 2 and 3:30AM.  Most often, the cat wakes me up, or the neighbor's lovelorn cat is yodeling, or one of the neighbors is making his way home from the local watering hole, or some kids who should be in bed are still out playing hide-n-seek or flashlight tag, and I figure "well, I don't know if it's really necessary, but I might as well go take care of it, since I'm already up".  When this first started, I would be up - with urgency - 2 or 3 times per night on a good night, cat or no cat, and as many as 5 or 6 times on a bad night.  Hard to get much good rest that way...

I can't guarantee that any or all of the above would help you.  In point of fact, I'm not entirely certain what's helped me.  But, I am going to keep doing what I have been doing, for the foreseeable future, since it seems to be helping in various facets of my health, not least fewer night time trips and better sleep.