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Attending my frist class at Woodcraft tonight. I figured it might be a good way to get my tools sharpened by the end of the evening, learn proper methods (hands on learning is best for me I think), and test driving the products they sell to do so. There is alot of discussions here about sharpening which has left me baffled about which is best based on cost ect.
If anyones interested, I'll report back.

mrhart wrote:Attending my frist class at Woodcraft tonight. I figured it might be a good way to get my tools sharpened by the end of the evening, learn proper methods (hands on learning is best for me I think), and test driving the products they sell to do so. There is alot of discussions here about sharpening which has left me baffled about which is best based on cost ect.
If anyones interested, I'll report back.

Always interested in others opinions about wood working products and tools.

Hi Gang;
Tim Yoder of Woodturning Workshop had a program about six months ago about sharpening. The guest sharpener had a very interesting take on sharpening. His attitude was "if you don't use a jig when turning why do you want to use one for sharpening".
A very interesting concept. So I have adopted the attitude of trying to learn about sharpening freehand. I am achieving some success but there is a learning curve to say the least.
Honing is VERY important to achieving a good sharp edge. I am now using a low speed Delta grinder with the white wheel for grinding and a 600 grit credit card style honing plate. I only grind when necessary and mostly re-hone as I turn.
The use of a grinding wheel instead of a flat plate is that the wheel leaves a cocave bevel which is easier to hone. Al that I do is to place the sharpening plate on the heel of the bevel and then bring the card into contact with the cutting edge and stroke downward. For the inner portion of the gouges I use an old honing tool found in most kitchen drawers for carving knives. It works great. The plate can be set flat on a workbench for the skews and parting tool.
He did mention some things about grinding wheels. He said the "The old gray wheels, they ain't what they used to be". The white aluminum oxide friable wheels are THE thing to use for HSS cutting edges. The grey wheels will only be worn down by the HSS tool.
Another important item for sharpening is a diamond wheel dressing tool.
These are "T" shaped with imbedded diamonds and primarily keep the wheel flat and clean of debris.
I am getting better at this sharpening stuff and I wish I had the money back for the SS grinding jig, The Tormek clone from Grizzly and the attachments. Those bucks would have been better spent on some good quality turning tools.
Bill V

Hey Bill,

As I read your post I remembered something about using a blue wheel instead of a white (and just throw the grey ones away). It was something about easier to hone?? (I think) when using blue versus white and possibly (damned brain farts!!) ONLY pertained to HSS.

A good friend who is big time into hand tool woodworking is also excited about hand sharpening and honing, but he buys Lie-Nielsen stuff. He says it takes a while to get the hang of it but once you do you never go back.

I am going to "try" to learn some on the Stanley planes I bought for next to nothing as I try and restore them to working order. Maybe if I get the hang of it I'll try the lathe tools (but keeping my SS sharpening guide just in case!!;) )

Ben

I don't use a jig when driving my car, but I certainly use them for putting one together.

Even when doing pottery on a wheel, it might be blob, and I'm just using my fingers to squish it around; but the pottery wheel itself has bearings and maybe even an electric motor. I want them to work right, and work well. So jigs and precision were used there.

Free handed sharpening is fine, and some folk do it superbly. But generally speaking, a good jig used right will get you a sharp edge very consistently.

Well the sharpening class at Woodcraft was informative and very helpful to a novice sharpener. There are soo many opinions on how to sharpen, based on what folks already have, or can afford to spend. It was nice to just get a fresh opinion from someone who does it everyday and is in clubs ect and "knows the pros". He could grab the most expensive thing on the shelf and steer you that way as a customer to raise sales, but he did not.
What we used was the Wolverene sharpening set up. It was fairly simple to operate and set up and it's affordable. He used their grinder, but made note that any lower speed grinder will work fine, no need to buy one if you already have one. A 60 grit wheel and normally an 80 grit on the other side. He did say the wheels that come with their grinder are chinese and not as good as the Canadian od US wheels. He also said no need to spend the money on a diamond wheel.
He does use the "T" diamond tool to clean up and square his grinding wheels especially when they're new. After putting an edge on something, he touches it up frequently with a honing scraper. He said it was approximately 600 grit. There are three colors of those, the 600 is the green one. He did mention those were about $9 but would last a long time.
I have SS tools but ended up with the set of 5 from the late 80's (same age as the SS) but also in a box was an older and shorter set of 3 SS stamped tools and 3 other unmarked tools that came with my purchases. The other people in class had a little fancier stuff and he pointed it out. My steel threw way more sparks when sharpening than the newer hardened steel. He said that was the easiest way to tell which steel you're working with. He did say to watch the sparks and when they start to come over the tool in front of you work (instead of just under it) that your edge was fairley flat. He definately was conservative with his grinding as to preserve the life of the tool.
His advice on spending money, was to spend it on a better quality tool that will require less sharpening and last longer, than spend it on sharpening equipment itself. And avoid buying sets, he thinks the smartest way to go is to buy as you need, and get decent quality.
I thought there was more of a mystery to putting a nice edge on tools, but I think after some practice it will be fairley simple and straight forward.

By the way, he was a SS owner for years but has focused his woodwork to turning and now has 4 lathes at home and had passed down his SS to his son. But I thought it was cool thet he learned on a SS.

mrhart wrote:I thought there was more of a mystery to putting a nice edge on tools, but I think after some practice it will be fairley simple and straight forward.

I spent some years working on saw blade teeth for Black & Decker, trying to determine what makes a sharp saw. We'd spend hours a day together pouring over the test data, trying to understand what sharp actually is. Trying to figure out why this particular blade would cut well, while this other blade would not. Studying each blade, and each tooth on each blade.

None of us on the team, nor any of us involved in this globally, reached a perfect consensus as to what sharp exactly is, or what is the best way to achieve it. From hardness, to angle, to taper, to smoothness, to uniformity; each played a part, but it was never easy or simple to identify what that part was.

Benush
I have seen the blue wheels and I think that they are another form of a friable wheel of a different construction.
Getting back to Tim Yoder's program, the instructor had microscope photos of the cutting edge after they came off the wheel. They were extremely rough compared to the refined and honed edge. It only took a few strokes of the hone to refine the edge.
The instructor said that a 60 or 80 grit wheel is sufficient if it is honed after grinding. My white wheel is 100 grit so I will keep on using it.
I went to a meeting of the Central Florida Woodturners recently and the demonstrator had a different method of sharpening the scrapers. He first ground the bevel and then removed the "slag" formed by the grinder by flattening the back side of the tool on the hone and the removing the slag from the bevel side of the tool also with the hone. After this was done he drew up a new burrl using a burnishing tool in the same manner that you would use it to form a burr on a cabinet scraper. His explanation was that the slag left after grinding would be gone as soon as it touched the wood. But the new burr was all steel and not slag it would last longer and cut better.
He put a partially hollowed red oak bowl on the lathe and started to hollow it out further. The shavings came off the end grain in a long ribbon not small shavings. And the finish was so smooth that it required no sanding.
That was one of the most impressive demos that I have seen in a long time.
I will keep my grinders for now but I am still practicing freehand grinding. I also find that by keeping the little credit card size honing plate in my pocket I sped a lot less time sharpening and more time "playing".
Bill V

This skill remains one of the great mysteries for me. I have sharpened a few chisels, but I have no idea what I did differently on those than on the failures! Plane blades have all been epic fails! I have not found a class, but there is a turners club here that offers a helping hand on turning tools, I have contacted them and they are willing to share on other tools. I have not been able to master it alone!