How do you sharpen?

[Brian Greb]

I was just wondering how y'all sharpen... Free hand, Jig, or combination of the two. Thought it would be fun to see what is more popular.

[alex carey]

free hand all the way!

[Steve Schlumpf]

Use the wolverine system with the vari-grind jig for my bowl gouges. Freehand everything else.

[Mark Burge]

I use the worksharp and the see-through disks. I like it, but I do have some trouble with the very tip of my bowl gouge which tends to get turned the wrong way when I'm rolling the gouge over. I haven't heard of any jigs made for the worksharp yet. Does anybody know of one?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Wolverine/Vari-grind the gouges.....free hand my skews.

[Jamie Straw]

"How do you sharpen?" Not very well??:D Getting better. Equipped with the Wolverine and Veri-grind 2, Woodcraft slow-speed grinder. Skews are a breeze now, gouges not so much, but they cut! Aspire to free-hand everything, some day, next life......

[Reed Gray]

It took a class with Stewart and Allen Batty to learn to free hand sharpen and bowl turning. A few months for that to sink in, and at the beginning of the year, I hung up my Ellsworth jig which I had used for about 10 years. I will never use one again as it is faster without the jig. Traditional, swept back, bottom of the bowl gouge, spindle gouge, spindle roughing gouge, scrapers, skews, everything. Oneway had just started then, and I don't think they had their grinding jig out.

One tip is to move with your body, just like when turning. I can't remember if this was taught in the workshop or not, but it makes sense. Makes it a lot easier to control.

The other tip is having a table/tool rest for your grinder that is easily adjustable. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I am just about done with my second prototype tool rest where I can preset angles from 20 to 90 degrees. No need for fancy jigs, or fiddling with the tool rest till it is perfect.

robo hippy

[Mark Hubl]

I love my wolverine jig. Not to say it sharpens for you, but it does help save some metal and deliver consistent results. There is still a bit of learning, do things with the machine off to see how its going to go, and move your body around and get comfortable. I am no free hander, but with what I have learned using the jigs I would be much more comfortable putting steel to wheel if I had to.

[Dennis Ford]

I do it free-hand on a bench grinder.

[Don Geiger]

I use Geiger's Vertical Solution for:

60 degree side-ground bowl gouges
70 degree Micro-bevel bowl gouge with a secondary relief bevel
80 degree side-ground bowl gouge (I move the Vertical Solution over to my Tormek for anything greater than 70 degrees)
40 - 45 degree spindle gouges
Don

[Ted Evans]

Tormek jigs with dry grinder on bowl gouges for roughing cuts, Tormek T7 for finish cuts on all tools.

[larry cronkite]

I was thinking about a VS grinder to sharpen my turning gouges when I realized I already have a variable speed motor - my lathe.
I have the WorkSharp 3000 but even with the see-thru wheel it is not easy to sharpen gouges and if I try to sharpen them on top of the wheel I still can't see where the gouge meets the wheel.
I have seen most of the jigs for sharpening gouges and they all look like "Rube Goldberg" contraptions to me.
I screwed a 3/4" oak board on the lathe face plate, band sawed and sanded it round and applied self-stick 120 grit sandpaper to the wheel and it's right up there where I can see what's going on.
A little touch up with a diamond sharpening hone and it's sharp again.

[Tim Hughes37]

I also use the Worksharp 3000. I found an article on the web that showed a stand and jigs that someone created, so I copied that. It really took the guess work out of sharpening and I get really good results. Whenever I get a new tool, I just make a new jig block for it. I'll post the link.

http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/Main/Articles/Work_Sharp_Tool_Holder_3508.aspx

[Scott Lux]

Use the wolverine system with the vari-grind jig for my bowl gouges. Freehand everything else.

Yup, me too.

[steven carter]

Yup, me too.


Same here.

[Mike McAfee]

Mostly freehand on a small belt sanding system and some times honed between sharpenings! Works well for me!

MMc

[Jeff Fagen]

I use a bench mount 4'' belt sander and freehand everything.:cool:
Yea,Yea,I know I should spend hundreds of $$ like the rest of you but I'm cheap and it works for me. :)

[Dave Ogren]

I have been using a 1" x 42" belt sander for everything. I have a SharpFast and a low speed grinder, still in the box. On of these days I am going to try it. I have been putting it off because I am worried about how to use the wings on a fingernail grind. I really don't want to have a catch like I keep reading about.

Dave

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Tormek for everything. I'm too lame to freehand even my skews. Took an hour to sharpen a skew that I free handed. Tormek is slow to re-shape, but it can take off a lot when you don't know what you're doing.:(

[Bob Bergstrom]

It took a class with Stewart and Allen Batty to learn to free hand sharpen and bowl turning. A few months for that to sink in, and at the beginning of the year, I hung up my Ellsworth jig which I had used for about 10 years. I will never use one again as it is faster without the jig. Traditional, swept back, bottom of the bowl gouge, spindle gouge, spindle roughing gouge, scrapers, skews, everything. Oneway had just started then, and I don't think they had their grinding jig out.

One tip is to move with your body, just like when turning. I can't remember if this was taught in the workshop or not, but it makes sense. Makes it a lot easier to control.

The other tip is having a table/tool rest for your grinder that is easily adjustable. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I am just about done with my second prototype tool rest where I can preset angles from 20 to 90 degrees. No need for fancy jigs, or fiddling with the tool rest till it is perfect.

robo hippy
I agree. I may waste some metal or don't always get a pristine grind but I can change the edge or profile at will. Making the tip or bevel fit the job is more of a priority. A minute or two and it's back to turning. Also agree with body movement to grind. Grinding isn't much different than turning. Hold the tool steady and in the correct position and use body movement to follow a prescribed arc or distance.

[Cody Colston]

Use the wolverine system with the vari-grind jig for my bowl gouges. Freehand everything else.

That's what I do, too.

[Jim Underwood]

I use freehand when grinding skews and parting tools.

I used to freehand scrapers, but recently got a Wolverine Jig and Truegrind (Varigrind? I never can keep those straight.) jig, so now I use the platform for the scrapers.

All the bowl gouges get sharpened on the jig as well.

It's amazing how much shallower my grinds are now....:rolleyes: I am evidently used to using a pretty steep angle...

[Dennis McGarry]

I use a homemade jig with a 6" bench grinder..

Pics of the jig and results are here..

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=124303

[Mike McAfee]

Dave and Jeff, I'm with ya on belts over the fancy rigs and it works AWESOME for me so I'm stickin with it!

I'm adding a MDF and one of leather disk for honing and I've drawn up some plans for a better tool rest as well!

[David Walser]

For most things, I use Tormek jigs and the Tormek wet grinder for sharpening (Tormek jigs and a dry grinder for shaping new tools). For things that are too small or too large to fit the jigs, I free hand.