sharpening techniques

[Gary Falls]

What is the simplest and best way to sharpen your hand tools. Im fairly new to the woodworking thing and I was considering to buy a work sharp system, but Im open to all ideas. Right now, Ive got 4 grits of sandpaper glued to granite floor tiles, and do it by hand, but i cant shave armhair with my edge. Any advice is appreciated.

[Joe Jensen]

What is the simplest and best way to sharpen your hand tools. Im fairly new to the woodworking thing and I was considering to buy a work sharp system, but Im open to all ideas. Right now, Ive got 4 grits of sandpaper glued to granite floor tiles, and do it by hand, but i cant shave armhair with my edge. Any advice is appreciated.

Are you using a honing guide (clamp thing with roller) to hold a consistent angle? I don't know if floor tiles are as flat as float glass. If you use the right grits of paper on glass with a honing guide you get shave your arm sharp.

[Eddie Darby]

If you can't get Scary Sharp to work, then I would suggest that you read some books on sharpening, and do some surfing on the weeb until you gain some knowledge.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=32991&cat=1,43072,43091&ap=1

A good place to start.

[Ken Werner]

Gary, first of all, welcome to the Creek. There is no short answer to your question. The book suggested is an excellent resource. Scary Sharp works well for some. But you'll soon see that there are many different ways to achieve the sharpness you seek. More than finding THE best technique, it is important to have a clear vision of what your goal is, then practice practice practice to attain it.

A local woodworker may be able to mentor your sharpening. That would be a huge help.

Good luck,
Ken

[michael osadchuk]

...one doesn't hear as many upbeat postings about the 'scary sharp' method of sharpening these days (and my guess is the cost of 'consumeables' and needing some modification - like using blade honing compound - to get the very highest grit level of sharpening)
but I am sure the method can teach you how to sharpen manually so that you can use other media such as waterstones, diamond stones if you later want to switch.....
Figure out what you are not doing quite right, quite persistently, quite "flatly", etc. I suspect there are lots of postings from a couple of years ago on various forums on 'tuning up' this method. People sometimes too quickly abandon a manual method of sharpening - and go to a machine which also has limits - and don't hang in there to learn good technique and limits/advantages of a specific sharpening media and the steel they are working with

check out Derek Cohen's "10 cent" version of scary sharp on his website for close to the ultimate in simplicity and cost (uses block of wood for a honing guide):
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/The%2010%20Cent%20Sharpening%20System.html

good luck

[Tom Veatch]

Gary, you didn't mention the grits you were using, but the finest grit should be at least 600 and finer is even better. You should have a mirror finish on the bevel (and back) when you're done.

Consistent angle (use a honing guide, there are several on the market or make your own), flat substrate under the sandpaper (float glass is good, surface plate is excellent, but anything flat and rigid will work), fine grit paper (try auto finishing suppliers for paper in very fine grit, i.e. 2000 or so), and don't forget the back.

Stick the paper down to the substrate, some use repositionable spray adhesive (try hobby shops) but I find a few drops of water works well enough.

Flattening the back of the blade is just as important as working the bevel - at least that part near the edge (1/2 inch or so). The edge is the intersection of two flat planes. The flatter and smoother they are, the sharper the edge.

You might ask a moderator to move this thread over into the Neanderthal Haven - that's where the handtool devotees hold court.

[Gary Falls]

sorry I should have mentioned that I have an MKII honing guide and the gritsI use are 80, 120, 220, and 400. I'll try going to 600 and see if that helps. My chisels feel sharp, just not shave your arm hair sharp. Hopefully the 600 will help. Any advice on grinding the bevels square?

[Andy Pedler]

One day during my lunch break, I dropped in on a local cabinet and tlie store. I asked the manager there if they had any scrap granite from a countertop job that they might be tossing out, and offered to pay them a few bucks for something they'd just be throwing out. The manager gave me a piece of polished countertop that was about 2' square that was already in their dumpster waiting for the trash man. They just asked that I keep them in mind the next time I remodel my house. No problem there, they've got a customer when that time comes!

Anyway, that's what I use for putting the sandpaper on. No worries about the glass breaking and it is dead-on flat. Holds strips of 8 different grits for me, 150 up to 1500 or so. I'm no expert, but my chisels and plane blades are sharper than they've ever been before using this system.

Andy - Newark, CA

[Larry Fox]

Tormek here. I tried the Scary Sharp system but, FOR ME, it was too much of a hassle and tended to put off sharpening. The Tormek is NOT cheap by any means but worth every penny in my opinion. Once you get the technique down you can touch-up an edge very quickly. I was plaining some ebony edging the other night and seemed to be sharpening the iron about every 5-10 minutes and could have blade out, onto the Tormek sharpened, honed and back to work in about 2-3 minutes. No way I could have pulled that off before.

I have also heard a lot of good things about the Jet unit.

[Glen Blanchard]

The Worksharp 3000 is quick and incredibly easy. I bought one about one month ago and I love it.

[Eric Wong]

Gary, other posters are right on target as far as using higher grits. I don't use Scary Sharp, I use waterstones (Shapton). But I've tried SS and it only worked for me when I went up to 1500 grit automotive sandpaper. I tried many different things before I settled on waterstones, the key is to find a system that works with your shop and your body. Try one way for a while, then try something else if it strikes your fancy.

As far as keeping the blade square, first make sure your finger pressure is evenly distributed across the blade. Many people press harder on one side without even realizing it. If you can't overcome this, then you might have to shift your fingers to the other end a little bit.

Overall, keep practicing! It will pay off in the long run and you will be able to sharpen by hand much faster than you ever thought.

[John Pahl]

Waterstones and a honing guide here. I usually just touch up the back before I start for the day. Ocassionally I'll use the honing guide to retouch the bevel. My chisels stay very sharp and a waterstone isn't that expensive.

John

[Joe Jensen]

sorry I should have mentioned that I have an MKII honing guide and the gritsI use are 80, 120, 220, and 400. I'll try going to 600 and see if that helps. My chisels feel sharp, just not shave your arm hair sharp. Hopefully the 600 will help. Any advice on grinding the bevels square?

I don't use a sandpaper system, but 400 is not that fine. I would have assumed that a sandpaper system would go up to 2000...joe

[Mike Monroe]

I've used the SS method for years and my chisels are shave-able scary sharp. I have some of the highest grit automotive sandpaper. My only tips would be to wipe the blade/tool clean between grits, so you don't inadvertently transfer a lower grit to a higher grit paper and at the highest grit put a micro-bevel on the edge.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I takes mah edgy thingies in mah hands and rubs 'em acrost a oil stone. Works like a charm every time.

If I have a lot of material to remove or want to change the angle of the edge I put a metal cutting belt on my belt sander and working against the drum, I'll put a hollow grind on the tool and then it's off to the oil stone.

( I wanted a bench grinder until I found out how really good a metal cutting abrasive belt can be.)

In 30 some odd years I have never held a tool in a jig or fixture for sharpening save for the times while working in machine shops I had the enormous and mind bendingly wonderful luxury of a surface grinder.

There is nothing quite so nice as a liquid coolant magnetic chuck surface grinder. YA want a hollow grind~? No problem. Ya want a micro bevel exact flat and precise to within 80-millionths~? No problem. Ya want an angle on that chisel~? No problem. Ya want to sharpen those 12" HSS planer blades? No problem. Ya want to re-face your carbide inserts? No Problem.

If I were going to spend money on a device to sharpen edges I'd buy a used manual feed surface grinder, a big magnetic chuck sine plate and a Do-All or Hardinge rotary dressing tool. But that's about $3-Gees of equipment all told.

So I'll stick to my belt sander, pinkies, palms, and oil stones.

[Dan Lee]

I started with scary sharp, bought a Tormek and prefer scary sharp with LV MKII guide man that guide is incredibly repeatable.

I generally only need to touch up with 600,1000,1500,2000, 0.5micron. Don't know if all these grits are required but it works for me. I put on 2 degree secondary bevels so it only takes a few minutes to do all my chisels and planes. Initial flattening of the backs is a pain but you only need to do that once. For that I start at 150 or 220 and work up.

[Peter Quadarella]

I am going to get the Blum Tool Co. Sharpening box at some point. I have the fixed angle jig which I use for my Jack Plane and can finally, and easily, get perfect super sharp blades.
http://www.blumtoolco.com/

It's a bit more work than something like a Worksharp or Tormek, but it's working for me.