FedX arrived with lots of fun today

[Bart Leetch]

Some might not think its fun but I enjoy sharpening.

This is what was in my shipment form Lee Valley.

I can sit at my bench with the music or TV on & just relax & sharpen things up a bit.

[Brad Holst]

Looks like fun to me...I also have lots of sharpening ahead and am impatiently waiting until I have a chunk of time. I have the older LV honing guide and find it a hassle to align the blade edge at 90 deg. Does the new guide easily align the blade? Or, are there tricks to using the old guide?

What is your final step in honing?

[Garth Keel]

I was thinking of buying the veritas honing guide. Does it work well?

[Joel Goodman]

The new lee valley guide is excellent. It's very easy to set up repeatable angles at exactly 90 degrees. I use the extra "cambered" roller which lets you camber a plane blade slightly.

[Bart Leetch]

The new lee valley guide is excellent. It's very easy to set up repeatable angles at exactly 90 degrees. I use the extra "cambered" roller which lets you camber a plane blade slightly.

Yep Joel has it spot on. The guide system works great.

[Don Bullock]

Bart, that looks like a very nice set up with the stones suspended over the pan. Do you have any problems with the pan sliding around on the bench top? When I start purchasing planes, I'll have to look into buying a better guide system and am interested in reading what "real woodworkers" think about the different ones available.

Actually that does look like fun to me as well. I must admit that I've just started to learn how to sharpen my hand tools. It is actually very relaxing. The LOML, however, isn't too thrilled with my present choice of location for the task. Since my shop space is very limited, I set up on the kitchen counter, sit on one of our stools and watch TV as I sharpen ( I have hinted that I "need" a TV for the shop, but that hint hasn't gone anywhere - perhaps buying a SS as well as several other machines this year has something to do with that. I guess I'll have to wait until we move in a couple of years and plan a place for a TV in the new shop.)

[Ken Werner]

Hi Bart,
I thought I was a geek for enjoying sharpening. Glad to hear I'm in good company. Have fun.
Ken

[Bart Leetch]

Don I actually put the stone there for the pic & then when I went to sharpen found I like them better down on the rubber mat. You'll notice everything is on a grey rubber matt 24" x 36"x 1/8" I purchased at Grizzly last week when I was up there just for this purpose its a nice non skid surface.

I just got tired of struggling to get tools sharp. Now at least I can sharpen tools on nice flat stones. I spent at least an hour on the blade for my #3 last night & am still not through.

[Greg Cole]

I have the same system for sharpening with the stone holders and the honing jig. I can't say as I truly enjoy sharpening, but I do like using them after sharpening... so I guess I do enjoy it.:cool:
Keeping the stones truly flat is something to keep your eye on for certain & get a hard Arkansas stone to keep'em flat.
I sort of have a hybrid method of the scary sharp-sandpaper method as well as the 2000-4000-8000 grit water stones. Pretty much depends on the amount of material that needs to be removed to get back to sharp again.
I find that constant honing while using is best. I don't beat the tar out of my plane irons, so it's pretty easy to keep a nice edge on them.... the 2 Cherries mortise chisels on the other hand need to be done from a couple hundred grit all the way to 8000 water stone every so often. Again a few swipes ala scary sharp as I'm chopping mortises helps keeping a keener edge.
I finish irons on 5 micron paper & I've been tinkering with the leather strop & diamond paste idea too.
'Creeker Derek Cohen seems to have alot of info about sharpening that helped me wrap my head around sharpening & keeping it simple (Derek, thanks for the postings on sharpening ESPECIALLY on card scrapers).:D
Cheers,
Greg

[Gary Tenney]

I have that "Stone Pond". In the picture, the stones are supported only by the little trusses, but if the stone is shifted to the side of the pond instead of the middle of the truss, the ledge/lip supports one whole side of the stone and the clamps on the truss keep it from moving front-back. It is actually quite stable like that.

[Dominic Greco]

...
I sort of have a hybrid method of the scary sharp-sandpaper method as well as the 2000-4000-8000 grit water stones.

Thats EXACTLY what I started using. When you need to remove a lot of material (like establishing the bevel), scary sharp is the way to go. After I go up to 1500 grit with the scary sharp, then it's time to pull out the 4000 grit water stone.

I have the stone pond. And like Bart, I prefer to use the stones on a rubber mat. But that's just because it's makes the stone sit lower on the table, and thus easier on my back!