Because of Monsoon and the heat most of my shop time today will be spent sharpening whatever needs it and maybe a few that don't, that got me to thinking about sharpening stations/benches, that and there are several new sharpening threads on the forum dealing with stones and I think how to. Something that is at least as important as what stones to use is where you sharpen. BTW, I have some new Japanese chisels that need setting up but I'm not sure I'll have the energy or ambition for that much work. Anyway I haven't posted a photo of my sharpening set up in awhile and there is no time like the present to do so.
sharpeningBenchJuly2019.jpg
As always, click it to big it.
Here it is, a portable Moravian bench with the vise removed. The oil stones are on the left with strops in the center. The most used oil stone is a Medium India that I use for grinding bevels and to remove damage before going to the set up stones. The other oil stones are used mostly for narrow or shaped irons.
The right side has the water stones, in the tool tray are the man made water stones and my JNat finish stone. On the bench the most used JNats are to the left of the "pond". The pond has a stone holder and a diamond flattening stone. Some of the JNats will not fit in the stone holder, depending on the stone's thickness I use non slip mats either in the pond or to the right to hold'em.
The bench is a step or so off the left end of the main workbench and is pretty efficient. It doesn't take long to go from kinda dull to sharp and because of that I will seldom put a dull iron to the side to sharpen later and I tend to sharpen before the cutter really needs it.
Next to the main workbench the sharpening station is the most important tool in the shop.
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