Joshua Dinerstein
03-07-2010, 1:29 PM
I have recently embarked on a journey trying to polish up my sharpening skills and techniques for my wood turning tools. I have been getting some mixed results. When it is "on" I have fantastic fun and when it is off I get so frustrated I cold scream and just end up ruining good wood.
So I started purchasing sharpening systems. I posted a thread a little while ago, found here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=133095
I decided to go with the Wolverine to start with. I had been toying with the thought of selling it on the bay as it is the complete set and trying something totally different then decided to give it a while instead. I got it all setup.
I have to say I don't have the skills of many here. Holy crap. While not hard per se trying to get the tolerances alignment and position so close to perfect took me hours. Trying to determine where to drill the pilot holes for screws to maintain alignment etc... In the end I believe I have it very carefully aligned and quite good now. Perhaps it wasn't needed to go to that extreme but it seemed important. (Other than the school of hard knocks I am not certain where to go about getting the tips, tricks and knowledge that would have made that easier.)
The first tool I tried to sharpen was my large skew. I got the platform setup and carefully arranged for angle and sharpened it. WOW! That is really all I can say, just WOW! In one quick bit of a grinding I established a smooth even cutting edge and bevel on both sides the likes of which I had never been able to achieve. For this part it is definitely a clear winner! :D
Then I wanted to do a scraper and that would mean changing that arrangement. It has quick release handles for pretty much everything and so can be done but I am thinking I don't want too.
After getting this setup and seeing it all first hand something that Reed Gray wrote in the other thread started to make tons of sense. He said:
I have several wedge shaped plates to go on the table to change angles, so there is no fiddling around to guess the correct angle, and roll the gouges free hand. Really simple, and much faster than any jig.To try and summarize as I understand it now: to get a 35 degree angle with my wolverine at this point I have to move my rest and so going back to 45 is tedious trial and error and from my current experience almost impossible to truly do right. So I have to do more grinding each and every time to overcome the slight angle change. With the blocks Reed mentions there would be no need to move the rest but just switch out the blocks and bingo you have a 35 degree rest. Take the block off and you have the 45 unchanged.
Sounds like it would work great to me!
I ran some web searches and found these images on another persons website. They are variations on a theme but seem to be what Reed was talking.
My question at this point really is how to make them. I have been gathering decent tools and while I know the basics of using each I am just not certain how to proceed to effectively cut the two aligning angles out of a single block to make something like what is in the pictures below.
I PM'ed Reed directly and then thought perhaps others would be interested in this same discussion and wanted to take it here to a broader audience for potential responses and for future public reference.
Thanks!
Joshua
So I started purchasing sharpening systems. I posted a thread a little while ago, found here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=133095
I decided to go with the Wolverine to start with. I had been toying with the thought of selling it on the bay as it is the complete set and trying something totally different then decided to give it a while instead. I got it all setup.
I have to say I don't have the skills of many here. Holy crap. While not hard per se trying to get the tolerances alignment and position so close to perfect took me hours. Trying to determine where to drill the pilot holes for screws to maintain alignment etc... In the end I believe I have it very carefully aligned and quite good now. Perhaps it wasn't needed to go to that extreme but it seemed important. (Other than the school of hard knocks I am not certain where to go about getting the tips, tricks and knowledge that would have made that easier.)
The first tool I tried to sharpen was my large skew. I got the platform setup and carefully arranged for angle and sharpened it. WOW! That is really all I can say, just WOW! In one quick bit of a grinding I established a smooth even cutting edge and bevel on both sides the likes of which I had never been able to achieve. For this part it is definitely a clear winner! :D
Then I wanted to do a scraper and that would mean changing that arrangement. It has quick release handles for pretty much everything and so can be done but I am thinking I don't want too.
After getting this setup and seeing it all first hand something that Reed Gray wrote in the other thread started to make tons of sense. He said:
I have several wedge shaped plates to go on the table to change angles, so there is no fiddling around to guess the correct angle, and roll the gouges free hand. Really simple, and much faster than any jig.To try and summarize as I understand it now: to get a 35 degree angle with my wolverine at this point I have to move my rest and so going back to 45 is tedious trial and error and from my current experience almost impossible to truly do right. So I have to do more grinding each and every time to overcome the slight angle change. With the blocks Reed mentions there would be no need to move the rest but just switch out the blocks and bingo you have a 35 degree rest. Take the block off and you have the 45 unchanged.
Sounds like it would work great to me!
I ran some web searches and found these images on another persons website. They are variations on a theme but seem to be what Reed was talking.
My question at this point really is how to make them. I have been gathering decent tools and while I know the basics of using each I am just not certain how to proceed to effectively cut the two aligning angles out of a single block to make something like what is in the pictures below.
I PM'ed Reed directly and then thought perhaps others would be interested in this same discussion and wanted to take it here to a broader audience for potential responses and for future public reference.
Thanks!
Joshua