Sharpening video on youtube

[Aled Dafis]

I've just published a video on youtube as to how I go about sharpening plane and chisel irons and thought I'd share it with you. I put this on the UK forum UKworkshop and it was quite well received so I thought that you might like to see it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFRJIAOGSJI&context=C317f1acADOEgsToPDskJxko6M4gwYc6gkcAbqhMRo

This is my first go at putting a video together, and it was quite straightforward in fact, I used Windows Live Movie Maker, a drag and drop type editor which made the process quite easy. as always with this kind of thing, producing the video takes a ridiculously disproportionate amount of time. The breakdown of time is something like this.

Actual sharpening process including grinding - 2 minutes
Filming - 30 minutes
Editing - 2 hours - I hope to be quicker next time.
Uploading - god knows, I went to bed, but it must have been 5 hours+

Before anybody jumps down my throat saying that I'm wrong, or that their method is better etc. This is the method I use, having tried many different approaches over the years, it works for me, and I'm more than happy with the results it gives me, the video was produced to share information, not to be argued over ad infinitum. I hope it helps somebody out of their sharpening quagmire - I've been there and it's not a nice place.

Cheers
Aled

[Chris Griggs]

Looks like a good method to me. Grind, pull burr, polish - can't argue with that. I use a different medium to pull the burr and polish, but I that's just personal preference. Really good video!

[David Weaver]

I not to be argued over ad infinitum.

Good luck with that!

[Aled Dafis]

I put that in there to discourage the trolls, we'll see if it works...

[Justin Green]

Sweet video. I'm really glad there are folks who will take the time to make videos and answer questions!

[Stuart Tierney]

Before anybody jumps down my throat saying that I'm wrong, or that their method is better etc. This is the method I use, having tried many different approaches over the years, it works for me, and I'm more than happy with the results it gives me, the video was produced to share information, not to be argued over ad infinitum. I hope it helps somebody out of their sharpening quagmire - I've been there and it's not a nice place.

Cheers
Aled

If it works for you, great!

The problem is that going to the effort of making a video like that usually exudes an air of 'superiority' of sorts, and will draw criticism no matter how much you wish it not to happen.

(Go on, ask me how I know that!)

Good luck, and I am absolutely staying out of this one.


Aside from a few small critiques.

#1; You need more horsepower, computer wise. It will make editing easier, faster and less frustrating.

#2; You need a better interweb connection! Uploading a 15 minute HD video takes me about 40 minutes from here, being shoved down a phone line.

#3; Make sure the music you use is clear, copyright wise. Youtube can be exceptionally vigilant about that stuff.


Stu.

[David Weaver]

I like the method. It's not exceptionally different from what I do, and out of laziness, I have always tried to find the fastest way time-wise to get the same edge you'd get if you spend a lot of time. I think this is where people will end up if they ever start dimensioning their wood by hand only and have to do a lot of sharpening in a given shop session.

The only thing I do differently is to use a 1 micron level finish stone instead of leather and paste, and all of the work on the back of a chisel or plane iron is finish stone only.

Well the other different thing is to use a trizact belt as the honing step on jack irons since they are really curved (laziness again) but usually back to the finish stone for the bleeding edge and back.

Everyone has their quirks, those are mine, I guess.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I think the "feel the burr" thing is the thing I missed first when I was starting sharpening years ago. I'd go until I thought I had gone long enough, and it was always either too long or not long enough . . . once the burr thing clicked for me, all my sharpenings either got faster (I wasn't just rubbing away steel on a medium for too long for no reason) or more efficient (I wasn't polishing the area behind the bevel needlessly, only to move up in steps and realize I still had a dull blade)


I like the method. It's not exceptionally different from what I do, and out of laziness, I have always tried to find the fastest way time-wise to get the same edge you'd get if you spend a lot of time. I think this is where people will end up if they ever start dimensioning their wood by hand only and have to do a lot of sharpening in a given shop session.


That, exactly that, is what has really streamlined my sharpening (and gotten me pretty darn good at it) recently. Been dimensioning the lumber for my bench by hand, and having to sharpen three or more times during a day of work, you get a)good at it and b)efficient.

It also made me realize that I like sharpening more if I do it more often, because that actually ends up being less sharpening. I wish I had picked up on this earlier. . .



The only thing I do differently is to use a 1 micron level finish stone instead of leather and paste, and all of the work on the back of a chisel or plane iron is finish stone only.

This is what makes me want to replace those superstones more than anything, and what I wasn't getting when I first moved to these waterstones from paper - I was under the impression that once the backs where done I should never need to touch them again except with the final stone - (I don't know why I thought this) and it wasn't until I started at least working the back with the 5K that things really started working. The 8K can get a great final edge, but does not want to remove a burr from the 5K stone. Or maybe I'm doing it wrong.

[David Weaver]

If you polish the back with the 8k a little bit each time you sharpen with finger pressure near the edge, and you run the bevel then with the same stone, then the wire edge should come off or almost come off. If I spend 30 seconds sharpening a chisel (when it doesn't need grinding), then probably 10 seconds of that is just work on the back. Same with a plane iron, work until all evidence of wear at the edge on the back is gone. I haven't had similar issues, but I haven't used superstones other than one 12k for a while (and I thought it was a nice stone).

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

David -

So it sounds like my problem is I'm trying to hone off the burr, by working just the back, whereas I should chase it back and forth on both sides a little more? I mean, I usually end up chasing back and forth from both sides anyway, but my brain always just wants to get rid of the burr first. Sounds like if I just do my normal routine on that stone, it'll come off on its own.

I had been honing on the 5K (I try and avoid letting it get so bad I need to go to the 1K) until I felt a burr, and then a couple sideways pulling swipes on the 5K to remove the burr on the back (which now that I think about it probably just folds the burr onto the front) and then moving to the 8K for final polish.

The trick you've mentioned about letting the final stone dry out a bit actually works pretty well on this superstone 8K, by the way.

Someday I'll replace these - the 1K is already getting noticeably thinner than the rest. They seem to move a fair bit when they go from dry to wet, and I'm not convinced the 1K I have is bonded incredibly well to the plastic base. But I can get a good enough edge for me, they were cheap, and I have other things I'd really like to spend money on.

[Chris Griggs]

I like the method. It's not exceptionally different from what I do, and out of laziness, I have always tried to find the fastest way time-wise to get the same edge you'd get if you spend a lot of time. I think this is where people will end up if they ever start dimensioning their wood by hand only and have to do a lot of sharpening in a given shop session.


True!

Its funny but the way sharpen when I'm in the midst of dimensioning a bunch of wood or chopping a bunch of dovetails is often different then how I sharpen when I'm just dinking around at the bench or doing a mutliple tool sharpening session between projects.

Last time in was in the midst of a project, I found myself ignoring my waterstones and just using a secondary bevel on my black ark to pull the burr and then following with green stuff.

When I'm sharpening tools in between projects I tend to spend more time, am careful to maintain the primary hollow grind and tend to progress through my water stone grits and still might follow with green stuff.

Lately though, I've settled somewhere in between my fast-dirty method and long OCD method. I've been using my water stones but just doing a 2 stone Sig 1k to a barely wet Sig 6k set up followup by a quick palm stropping to remove and remainging, undedectible burr. Usually, I stick with honing on the primary bevel but in some sitiuations still lift up a couple degrees.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

By the way Aled - sorry to derail your post! Thanks for the sharing the video. I think, like others have said, there are plenty of ways to sharpen somewhat similar to this, and the nice thing that your video demonstrates is that sharpening can be quick and easy. Your quick and easy might be different than someone else's, but it's always neat to see how other people do it, and refreshing to reinforce how quick freehand sharpening can be. (I wish I had taken it up earlier!)

[Kevin Grady]

Thanks for posting this. What stone are you using to raise the burr? There's so many out there it insane.

Thanks

[Aled Dafis]

By the way Aled - sorry to derail your post! Thanks for the sharing the video. I think, like others have said, there are plenty of ways to sharpen somewhat similar to this, and the nice thing that your video demonstrates is that sharpening can be quick and easy. Your quick and easy might be different than someone else's, but it's always neat to see how other people do it, and refreshing to reinforce how quick freehand sharpening can be. (I wish I had taken it up earlier!)

No worries about derailing my post, sharpening discussions almost always take on their own lives as we all know. My whole intention in putting this video was to show how quick and easy sharpening by hand can be, it's quite libererating when you throw away the jigs and just go at it freehand. I in no way make out that my way is the correct way, it's just the way I hone, and as you say there are plenty of ways to sharpen, in fact there are probably more plane/chisel sharpening techniques than woodworkers.

As Joshua mentioned, one of the most important things is to feel the burr, otherwise you're just polishing blunt metal, I also struggled with this for a while.

Stuart, it wasn't my computer slowing down the editing it was my inability to use the software unfortunately, and as regards a quicker connection, I'm in the sticks in West Wales, UK, and a 2MB connection is regarded as pretty damn good in this neck of the woods ;-)

Cheers
Aled

[Aled Dafis]

Kevin, my stone is the Trend combination stone, but I only use the fine side. Any fine diamond stone will do.

Aled

[David Weaver]

I believe the trend stone appears to be the same stone as the combination stone made by koyama (I think it's called iwood or something at stu's joint), where the coarse side is described as 300 grit and the fine side 1000 or something along those lines (there is more than one combination stone, though).

No guarantees that one isn't just a copy of another, though, as there's also a chinese-made version of the same stone.

I wonder who actually makes them.

[Richard Line]

Aled, thanks for the video. I found it helpful and informative. I'm also glad you didn't post using Welsh, that might have impacted its usefulness for me http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/smilies/biggrin.gif. I enjoyed the selection of music, put me in the mood to get out there and sharpen. Dick

[Martin Rock]

Hi All

Quick question: Is the presence of a burr on the total lenght of the cutting edge automatically means that you can move up to a finer stone? What about the scratch pattern on the bevel? when I sharpen with my waterstones, before moving to a finer grit stone, I always make sure that I can feel the burr AND that the scratch pattern (for what I can see) is uniform.

thanks, and great video

Martin

[Jim Koepke]

Aled, thanks for sharing.

As far as avoiding trolls, good luck. There is always someone with nothing better to do than criticize people offering to help others.

Since my shop doesn't currently have a grinder, my method is a bit different. It isn't any better, just different.

jtk

[Aled Dafis]

Thanks for your kind comments guys.

David, I can see how the Trend stone may be sold by others also, I doubt that they actually make it themselves, mine is as you quite rightly say a Fine/Coarse with the fine side at somewhere around #1000.

Richard, had I posted in welsh, then my audience would have been massively diminished, there are only just over half a million welsh speaking people left in Wales, and I doubt that many of them are dedicated woodworkers.

Martin, I just feel for the burr, the scratch pattern gets polished out by the strop/diamond paste in the final stage.

Jim, I doubt that I'll completely avoid the trolls, but my sentence was just put there to put them off the scent for a while, they'll be back...

Kind Regards
Aled

[Brian Glendenning]

Why do you lift the edge a couple of degrees rather than just use the front and back of the hollow grind to "register" it? (Genuine question, I use a jig and have assumed that I could probably only go to freehand if I hollow grind and have it "click" into place).

Cheers,
Brian

[Chris Griggs]

Why do you lift the edge a couple of degrees rather than just use the front and back of the hollow grind to "register" it? (Genuine question, I use a jig and have assumed that I could probably only go to freehand if I hollow grind and have it "click" into place).

Cheers,
Brian

I'm not the OP but, I can tell you why sometimes lift up slightly to hone a secondary bevel

1) Believe it or not is or not its actually easier (for me anyway) to get good results - especially when you are first learning to freehand. I believe this is because you are working so little metal that little bits of error don't really effect things. In particular I find it easier to follow the curved edge on a cambered blade since i'm not trying to roll/rock the blade while perfectly maintaining two contact points (hope that make sense)

2) It lets you get away with grinding less often since you are only honing the front of the hollow grind. You're essentially work half as much steel, so the process of raising a burr stay fast longer.

All that said I typically do hone right on the hollow, for the sake of repeatability and also to practice and maintain consistency in holding a blade at a set angle.

[Aled Dafis]

I'm not the OP but, I can tell you why sometimes lift up slightly to hone a secondary bevel

1) Believe it or not is or not its actually easier (for me anyway) to get good results - especially when you are first learning to freehand. I believe this is because you are working so little metal that little bits of error don't really effect things. In particular I find it easier to follow the curved edge on a cambered blade since i'm not trying to roll/rock the blade while perfectly maintaining two contact points (hope that make sense)

2) It lets you get away with grinding less often since you are only honing the front of the hollow grind. You're essentially work half as much steel, so the process of raising a burr stay fast longer.

All that said I typically do hone right on the hollow, for the sake of repeatability and also to practice and maintain consistency in holding a blade at a set angle.

Chris is exactly right, I raise the iron a little because it's easier, did I mention that I'm probably the laziest sharpener around so this method evolved to make life as easy as possible. This is the only method I've used where I don't put off sharpening for another couple of minutes... That was my eureka moment!

Raising the iron means that you'r only working a thin band of metal no more that 1/16th wide, which is dead easy to raise a burr, even if you're at a slightly different angle than your previous sharpening, absolute accuracy and repeatability isn't needed, you just need to be in the right ballpark, which becomes second nature, just find the hollow grind and raise a little. Honing on both the front and back of the hollow grind means that you're taking away twice the metal - now an 1/8th - and expending twice the effort in doing so, that back edge (furthest away from the edge) never sees the wood, so why bother honing it? Also, honing both the front and back of the hollow will mean that you need very good technique and repeatability to ensure that you avoid rounding over your bevel.

I'm not sure about grinding less often though, as the metal honed off the front edge is what governs the grinding, what happens further back is just a consequence of the process. However, grinding with my dry grinder and Norton 3X is a quick and effortless process, it only equates to about six seconds per sharpening.

Kind Regards
Aled