Sharpening question and tip

[john brenton]

So it's a give and take...

Question:
I posted not too long ago about a nice little haul, and two of the tools were spoon gouges. One of them I spent a little time sharpening last night and sharpened the bevel...only touching the inner lip to remove the burr. It's sweeter than yoohoo now.

But it seems that the other one had been ground on the bevel and the lip, like a knife's edge. I didn't know the previous owner of these tools, but judging by the edges and maintenance of his other tools he clearly knew what he was doing...does anyone know if it is common to do that? Should I go off what he did or reshape the edge? Do I need a picture or are you picking up what I'm throwing down?

Tip:
I was sharpening up a couple sorby patternmakers gouges (bevel outside) and was having a hard time sharpening and stropping the inside. I don't have the right stones (I will shortly, thanks you Eb*y), so I took some my small waterstones and gently toughed up the inside, then I took some white rouge and charge up a paper towel roll that I had laying around. I had my finger on the inside of the roll to shape it and stropped the curved edge on that. It sounds dangerous but remember I was stropping, not pushing. It worked great.

Then I remembered a long time ago hearing about people stropping with newspaper. I wish I had remembered that when the question about stropping with MDF came up. You can pretty much strop on anything.

[Mike Davis NC]

I have some old spoon gouges and they are all sharpened different ways, some outside, some inside and a couple sharpened on in and out sides. Try them out and see how they work before you change them.

I use 2500 grit wet&dry sandpaper to hone the insides of my gouges. I adhere it to different size dowels to match the shape of the gouge. 3M spray adhesive works great for this. If you have a lathe you can make the dowel fit the tool. Or just use a spoke shave and card scraper.

[john brenton]

Yeah, I had done that with some of my other carving tools...but you ever get so lazy that even the easiest things seem like the biggest chores? I just didn't feel like doing it! It was one of those things were I was waiting for some joints to dry and I just started fiddling with the tools. The strop with the paper towel roll made all the difference in the world though.

Thanks for the info on the gouges though. I appreciate it...in fact, I think you're the one that told me what they were initially. I think I had described them as spoony looking pokers.



I have some old spoon gouges and they are all sharpened different ways, some outside, some inside and a couple sharpened on in and out sides. Try them out and see how they work before you change them.

I use 2500 grit wet&dry sandpaper to hone the insides of my gouges. I adhere it to different size dowels to match the shape of the gouge. 3M spray adhesive works great for this. If you have a lathe you can make the dowel fit the tool. Or just use a spoke shave and card scraper.

[Mike Davis NC]

That was David Keller NC.

[David Weaver]

There have been discussions on here before about back-beveling gouges. I remember adam cherubini talking about someone who was a competent carver doing that with all of his gouges.

I've never ventured astray from the single bevel, but it seems like it could remove some of the work of prepping gouges, especially if there is light pitting or a poorly finished steel on the back of the bevel, or if you do something that damages single bevels easily.

I sharpen mine on the primary on a tormek wheel, then a diamond stone and the back side of the bevel with autosol on a leather wheel, and then try to keep them up as much as possible with stropping. I just got some incannel crank-neck gouges last week, and I have no idea how the original owner took care of them - some of the bevels look like they were stropped only with no regard to geometry for years and years, but they are still at a fairly shallow bevel angle, so he got away with it fine.