Woodcarving Sharpening Station?

[Steve Mathews]

I'm looking to add a new sharpening station now that I've embarked on woodcarving. The setup that I have now works well for my woodturning tools. However, since I will be woodcarving in another part of my shop and the what works for those tools my not be the best for woodcarving tools I thought a separate station would be a good idea. I'm currently looking at purchasing a Tormek T-8 Custom and adding a CBN wheel and honing wheels. The Tormek T-8 isn't all that impressive to me but their jigs do add some nice functionality. What do you experienced woodcarvers recommend for sharpening tools?

[Dave Keele]

Steve,

I started wood carving in 1980 and have used the same type of sharpener all these years. When I started turning a few years ago, I thought I would have a good start on the sharpening learning curve, but couldn't have been more wrong. For me, there were very few methods/techniques that crossed over between the two.

First, and foremost, you don't want to use a jig that holds the tool on the wheel like you do on turning tools. You do not want a concave bevel on your carving tools. You want either a flat surface or (my preference) a slight convex bevel.

I free-hand sharpen all my carving tools. If you want a jig, then you should look at systems that uses a disk, like the Work Sharp.

Before you spend a lot of money on a Tormek or CBN wheel, I would suggest you check into a local carving club (if possible) and see how they sharpen. (You're going to get a lot of suggestions as everyone seems to have there own favorite method. Find one that makes sence to you and learn it.) I believe that sharpening is perhaps the most challenging part of learning to carve for a lot of people.

Here's what I use: (scroll down to "building a sharpener.)

https://shellknobwoodcarvers.weebly.com/projects.html

Free hand sharpening on these types of sharpeners have a high learning curve... can take weeks or months to get the hang of it. When using power sharpeners, you need to dip tools in water often to avoid bluing (annealing the steel).

Good luck.

[Steve Mathews]

Steve,

I started wood carving in 1980 and have used the same type of sharpener all these years. When I started turning a few years ago, I thought I would have a good start on the sharpening learning curve, but couldn't have been more wrong. For me, there were very few methods/techniques that crossed over between the two.

First, and foremost, you don't want to use a jig that holds the tool on the wheel like you do on turning tools. You do not want a concave bevel on your carving tools. You want either a flat surface or (my preference) a slight convex bevel.

I free-hand sharpen all my carving tools. If you want a jig, then you should look at systems that uses a disk, like the Work Sharp.

Before you spend a lot of money on a Tormek or CBN wheel, I would suggest you check into a local carving club (if possible) and see how they sharpen. (You're going to get a lot of suggestions as everyone seems to have there own favorite method. Find one that makes sence to you and learn it.) I believe that sharpening is perhaps the most challenging part of learning to carve for a lot of people.

Here's what I use: (scroll down to "building a sharpener.)

https://shellknobwoodcarvers.weebly.com/projects.html

Free hand sharpening on these types of sharpeners have a high learning curve... can take weeks or months to get the hang of it. When using power sharpeners, you need to dip tools in water often to avoid bluing (annealing the steel).

Good luck.

Thanks Dave! I didn't think of the hollow grind that the Tormek would produce. I see now how that would be a problem even based on my very limited carving experience. I'll look at the alternatives including the Worksharp.

[Kevin Jenness]

You don't really need a new setup for carving if you can already sharpen turning and bench tools. A set of flat stones and a strop with honing compound, plus a slipstone and some unbacked leather for the inside of gouges will do you. Once your tools are properly shaped you can maintain them by stropping for a long time before you need to go back to the stones.

I recently bought a set of Schaaf tools which I expected to need some work, and they did. I used a cbn wheel on a slow speed bench grinder for reshaping the tools that required it, holding the edges at right angles to the wheel for a flat bevel and following up with bench stones and a slip, then buffing. Starting with coarse stones is slower but safer.

[David Carroll]

I use a Tormek for initial sharpening of my carving tools, but I do not use the jigs at all. Mine is the older one with just the standard wheel. I use it because I have it. What I do is sharpen sideways, with the tool at a right angle to the wheel. It goes slowly, and with the water there is little chance of blueing the edge. Like Kevin said, many new tools, even the best ones often need reshaping , but this only needs to be done to each tool once. Once you get the tool "commissioned" (Chris Pye uses this term to describe the initial shaping sharpening), then flat stones, slips and strops are pretty much all you need from that point forward. I do use a hard felt wheel and stropping compound to touch up edges. A light touch is all that is necessary.

These days I use diamond stones, which I like because you don't have to flatten them. If the Tormek is out and handy, I do use the leather stropping wheels that I bought with mine. I also keep a leather strop handy near the bench and stop frequently while carving.

DC

[Andrew Hughes]

I use a Tormek for shaping and sharpening my carving gouges. It true about the stone will leave a hollow grind. It’s not the final process the hollow grind makes it easier for me to get the chisel sharp. Using stones then buffing and the leather strop.
I use the regular stone shipped with a new Tormek a lot. I think it’s a good middle ground the stone can be graded to cut very slow or coarse. It’s something I’ve need to grind small v chisels. I also have the black stone and Japanese polishing stone.
Its not a inexpensive investment maybe only for the serious?
Good Luck

[MICHAEL LAMKA]

Since you already care for turning tools you know most 'sharpening' is stropping/honing to keep the edge sharp unless the tool edge is damaged or worn out. If the desire is a separate shapening station, the best of the best is Tomz Knife Massager.

Advantages:

• Portable, weighs a couple pounds
• Two diamond stone sharpening wheels: 600 & 1200 grits
• One stropping wheel
• Very low speed so heat buildup is not an issue
• Powerful - it takes a lot of pressure to stall the motor
• Sharpens most edged tools - knives, bench chisels, gouges, skews, v-tools, hook/bowl knives, scissors, axes, beveled or flat blades. If you use it with two hands or less Tomz will care for the edge.
• No need for jigs or special accessories so no additional purchases required except for a jewelers rouge for the stropping wheel.
• Wheel direction is reversable so you don't have to stand on your head to hit the other side of the blade.
• Less expensive than almost any other sharpening system

Disadvantage:

• Inside edges on gouges, V-tools, or hook knives cannot be honed on the machine, but that is is just going to be the burr which is easily removed with a wood dowel.

Over the past six decades I've used flat and profiled water & oil stones, Tormek and an off brand water wheels, standard bench grinders, low speed bench grinders, belt sanders/sharpening systems, even the 'scary sharp' abrasive paper on glass, and none do as much or perfrom as well as my Tomz.

[Andrew Hughes]

I looked up tomz knife massager its a lot like the worksharpe? Not sure if the work sharp has a reverse.
Is the tomz unit hard to find?
I still favor the Tormek it hasn’t let me down if you think carefully it also grinds in two directions.

[Kevin Jenness]

I made this sharpening/stropping wheel mounted on a lathe faceplate. With electronic variable speed (down to about 50rpm) it is faster than hand honing but very controllable with little chance of overheating. I started with hook and loop discs but they seemed too spongy so I inlaid a plastic laminate disc as a backer for psa discs. With a rotary buffing wheel like this you can take out grinding scratches in short order. Inside edges including parting tools can be buffed on the shaped disc edge. I stole the idea from one of Ian Norbury's books.

DSC_1693.jpg

As David said, there's no need to do a hollow grind on the edge of a wheel, you can just turn the tool 90* to make a flat or convex bevel. The Tormek should be good for shaping delicate tools without overheating.

[Mike Henderson]

Here's something I wrote up years ago (2008) about how to sharpen carving tools.

As long as you don't damage the edge, you can usually just strop the tool. I do it on a power wheel, as described in the writeup.

Mike

[Andrew Hughes]

I made this sharpening/stropping wheel mounted on a lathe faceplate. With electronic variable speed (down to about 50rpm) it is faster than hand honing but very controllable with little chance of overheating. I started with hook and loop discs but they seemed too spongy so I inlaid a plastic laminate disc as a backer for psa discs. With a rotary buffing wheel like this you can take out grinding scratches in short order. Inside edges including parting tools can be buffed on the shaped disc edge. I stole the idea from one of Ian Norbury's books.

DSC_1693.jpg

As David said, there's no need to do a hollow grind on the edge of a wheel, you can just turn the tool 90* to make a flat or convex bevel. The Tormek should be good for shaping delicate tools without overheating.

Wow that’s a excellent idea Kevin.
I would like to support my position using the Tormek with a couple pics. I take blades from old pocket knives and grind a hollow on my Tormek. It’s a good way to shape the blades then finish the sharpening on my shapton stones.
I carve in all woods some with success some not. It’s all good learning when I have the will.

[roger wiegand]

FWIW, my carving teacher, who is a professional carver, rarely, if ever, uses a stone or powered grinder on his tools. 98% of his sharpening is done on a leather wheel charged with an green abrasive compound. He also has a mandrel with about 10 MDF wheels in a range of shapes used primarily for the inside of flutes and for eliminating nicks. He has a grinder for re-shaping tools, but that is a one time process. Once we corrected a couple of my mis-shapen tools I've not yet had to use anything other than the leather wheel. I made mine by wrapping heavy cowhide around a MDF disk two layers thick and about 2" wide, scarfing the edges, then used my skew chisel to turn it perfectly circular. It's mounted on a mandrel and runs about 1000 rpm counterclockwise (eg away from me). I can hone the inside edge of most of my gouges on the corners of the wheel. The bevels are slightly convex and polished to a mirror finish.

[Kevin Jenness]

FWIW, He has a grinder for re-shaping tools, but that is a one time process. Once we corrected a couple of my mis-shapen tools I've not yet had to use anything other than the leather wheel.

I agree completely. Once I get a carving tool shaped properly I want it to stay that way, and a slow wheel charged with buffing compound keeps it razor sharp with little risk of damage.

[Andrew Hughes]

Not me I carve in a variety of woods even Ebony sometimes. Lots of experimenting and some serious.
I think more people would find the joy in wood carving if they could sharpen the variety of v tools and gouges. The large one s are easy it’s the small detail v gouges that give me the most trouble. It’s one thing to say ok it’s sharp I can take a cut on end grain basswood now I will put it away in the tool roll. And there it will remain sharp.
Ive used to do alot of Christmas carving walnut, popular, basswood my Ashley isles steel is very good but slightly different edges produce better cuts in the different woods.
My proof of life. I also had a carving teacher that used different chisels did different work and sharpened differently.