Reddit mentions of HoneRite Gold BORA STN-HRG250 250ml Honing Solution. The Grinding/Sharpening Additive That is Specifically Formulated to Make Water Non-Corrosive and help protect against Rust

If I were in your position, I would definitely shoot for a big ticket item such as the sawstop PCS (36" T-glide) with 1.75hp motor. That will eat up your entire budget (plus $219 more). I cannot imagine a hobbyist woodworker who would not be happy with it.

OR you can do lots of little stuff: (take out the things he may already have)
Sharpening: this this this this and this

Chisels: here

Japanese saw: this and this

Caliper: here

Exceptional quality hand plane set every woodworker would love to have if they don't have it already: here. Conversely, you can get the Lie Nielsen 60-1/2 block plane and get the #4 and #5 from Lee Valley (I prefer their version).


If he doesn't have a planer, this is a great one: here


As for festool products, I would highly recommend the Rotex 150 with Dust collector combination

I'm sure i'm missing a couple of stuff here and there but I hope the list helps you get started.

What are you sharpening, whats your current process.

> And to top it all off absolutely everyone has their own way

You'll find this the case with almost everything woodworking related. "this finish is the best in the world, here's my exhibition figured claro walnut commission piece using a 40+ step buffing/polishing process" and right below it you'll find "here's my super highly figured table using a handful of coats of simple general finishes arm r seal" and then you'll find a guy laughing at you for even spending money on finishes because you can just make your own oil wax blend that gets the exact same results.

As u/joelav said you're overthinking it. Sharpening is simple, keep it simple. You can absolutely be one of those people that spends over a grand on a whole slew of shapton stones and has a big process from flattening at very low grits all the way up to 0.3micron paper to get a glass polish (I fall into this "overdoing it" category). Or you can literally get two or three stones and a strop and be done with it.

> which makes my search for the perfect method even harder

Again, everyone will tell you their method is the best and all the others are inferior for <insert reason>, find what works for you. I'm weird in that I actually enjoy sharpening, have a bunch of shapton stones all the way to 16,000 (they make a 30k stone, but it's like $400). But I started with just a two sided diamond stone and some of this paper on a pane of acrylic for the really high grit for polishing. I had one of those small 3 or 4 set DMTs originally, but found the size limiting for hand planes. So I got one of these in fine/extra fine. When a chisel got worn I'd go to the fine side for a bit until I got a bur, maybe like 10-15 seconds, then a quick 10-15 seconds on the 1200 grit side (if you maintain them enough you can honestly skip the 600 grit), then to the 1 and .3mu paper for maybe 30 seconds each. On the paper I would wipe the blade off each time as you don't want gross contamination of the lower grit particles to the higher grit, you do this with stones too. Then do the ruler trick on the .3 paper to take the bur off. Done in two minutes.

I liked the paper because of the surface area, and that type of paper sharpens really fast and the adheasive peeling back makes it easy to stick on things, lasts a while too so long as you aren't trying to use it for like high speed steel. It was also cheaper than buying a 10k+ grit stone.


I only really got into the high end stones when I started doing more and more projects with just hand tools as I enjoyed it, often with denser exotic woods. I bought into the whole take real small steps between each stone working your way up, but honestly I doubt I could tell the difference. As it is now when I'm doing a lot of work on dense wood with handtools I'll just be stropping or using the 16k stone and then paper real fast to keep them maintained. Sometimes going back down to like 6k grit if needed. If it's taking really long to get a bur then you're on too high of a grit and just wearing down the stone. I've got a shapton lapping plate to flatten the stones. I like the whole "art" of it if you will with my fancy chisels and carving tools.

But for 99% of stuff get a two sided diamond stone, and 10k+ grit waterstone, you can use the coarse side of the diamond stone to flatten the waterstone. Use something like honerite in a spray bottle, you just mix it with water, stuff lasts forever.