turning tools

[Aaron Kline]

Can you sharpen HSS tools with oilstones?

[Mike Vickery]

Kind of a loaded question. Theoretically you could but it would take so much time as to be useless. People used to hone their tools however with oil stone (not sure if it was HSS though) but most use diamond stones/files now for honeing.
Just my opinion though.

[Aaron Kline]

I am brand new to turning, dont even have tools yet so I have no clue about the stuff. I just figured you could, but wanted to make sure. Thanks

[Bernie Weishapl]

Aaron you can use oil stone or diamond stones to hone but to sharpen would take forever. That is why the low speed grinder and like the wolverine jig for sharpening. I use either of the above when turning to hone my tools. Gives them a edge so you don't have to go to the grinder all the time. Most of the time I just hone my skews.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Aaron.....I'm no expert but here's my take on it. Turning puts a lot heat on the metal and the wood spinning at a high rate of speed tends to wear an edge faster. That's just my personal theory. As a result, depending on what type of wood you are turning and it's moisture content you end up having to sharpen more often than you would say hand planing that same piece of wood. Dry wood can be almost as hard as rock. Consequently I use a diamond stone for occassional honing and I use a grinder frequently with honing in between grinding.

[Curt Fuller]

I'm thinking that your question is that if you didn't have a grinder would an oilstone work until you could get one. And yes, it would but most stones are very fine for sharpening knives. If you had a stone that was course, like a 100 grit grinding wheel you might have better results. But you can also sharpen most turning tools on a belt sander or even make a disk sander from a face plate and sharpen them on your lathe. In the long run you're going to want a decent 8" slow speed grinder though.

[Aaron Kline]

Is HSS harder than HCS?

[Jim Becker]

Yes, you can sharpen them with oil stones...but that's going to get tedious really fast considering you sometimes sharpen every few minutes with some material...an 8" grinder with AO wheels is pretty standard faire when it comes to turners.

[Dick Strauss]

Aaron,
I use a dual-grit (80/120?) AlOx stone from HF (about $3) for touchup sharpening. I use a grinder for initial shaping otherwise I'd be at it all day on one tool.