Oilstone box

[Warren Mickley]

Hi Warren, I’m betting you have said this before, but how do you hone your tools...perpendicular to long edge, parallel, somewhere in between, figure eight, etc.? I know you have said that you don’t grind and hone frequently so the edge stays well sharp.

Thanks as always for your advice.

Kevin

We usually use the word honing for just the finer stones. And some use the term grinding for both abrading with a coarse wheel and abrading with a flat,coarse stone. I usually start with an 800 grit stone and would not call this honing. Toshio Odate says to start with a 1200 stone and if that is not sufficient, the tool has gotten too dull.

I keep the tool about thirty degrees from perpendicular to the long edge of the stone, and sharpen in a back and forth motion. This is a very common technique, both in Western and Eastern practice. Introducing this angle makes the iron much more stable and less inclined to rock in the direction of travel. It is as if you have a much wider bevel to rest on. Being able to overhang the edge of the stone with the tool is important for both maintaining the flatness of the stone and for adjusting the camber of the blade.

[Kevin Adams]

Being able to overhang the edge of the stone with the tool is important for both maintaining the flatness of the stone and for adjusting the camber of the blade.

Yes, I can see now what you mean. Is your coarse stone a water stone? And how many stones do you use? Flat bevel with no micro bevel, correct?

Thanks again, Happy New Year!

Kevin

[Rafael Herrera]

I finished the box. I'm very happy with the final box. I had some issues with tearout since I glued the two pieces w the grain going in opposite directions. Regardless, there were fibers going in different directions even in the same piece so it was something I had to deal with. I did a test run with a chisel and being able to use the very end of the stone is satisfying.
Rafael

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[Jim Koepke]

Looks great.

jtk

[Mike Manning]

We usually use the word honing for just the finer stones. And some use the term grinding for both abrading with a coarse wheel and abrading with a flat,coarse stone. I usually start with an 800 grit stone and would not call this honing. Toshio Odate says to start with a 1200 stone and if that is not sufficient, the tool has gotten too dull.

I keep the tool about thirty degrees from perpendicular to the long edge of the stone, and sharpen in a back and forth motion. This is a very common technique, both in Western and Eastern practice. Introducing this angle makes the iron much more stable and less inclined to rock in the direction of travel. It is as if you have a much wider bevel to rest on. Being able to overhang the edge of the stone with the tool is important for both maintaining the flatness of the stone and for adjusting the camber of the blade.

Being a complete beginner, it feels like the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" could very well have been first uttered in reference to people describing their sharpening techniques. Sigh.

[Warren Mickley]

Being a complete beginner, it feels like the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" could very well have been first uttered in reference to people describing their sharpening techniques. Sigh.

Here is a picture of chisel sharpening, showing slight angle. I usually steady the chisel near the edge with my left hand, but used the left hand to take the picture. direction of travel is lengthwise on the stone. You can see from the black oil at the end how close I get.

sharpen chisel.jpg

Here is a picture of the chisel overlapping the edge of the stone, to avoid dishing the stone.
sharpen overlap.jpg

[Kevin Adams]

Thanks, Warren. Nice stone, too.

Kevin

[Mike Manning]

Warren, Thanks for the pics. That definitely is a big help for me understanding your description! That's not a knock on you by the way.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I finished the box. I'm very happy with the final box. I had some issues with tearout since I glued the two pieces w the grain going in opposite directions. Regardless, there were fibers going in different directions even in the same piece so it was something I had to deal with. I did a test run with a chisel and being able to use the very end of the stone is satisfying.
Rafael

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Any insights into how you made this? Let me be specific.

It looks like you used a solid piece of wood and then created the "hole" for the stone. Your "hole" looks to be perfect. I assume you used a router of some sort and then squared the ends using a chisel. I would need to think about how to use a router to do that. I assume a plunge router with a guide. I assume that you did not do something crazy like but your wood and then glue it back together, I would expect to see seems if you did that. I think that in the reference video he claimed to have used a chisel followed by a router. I was not certain if he meant a powered router (probably) or a router plane (seems less likely).

Would have loved a build thread with pictures as to how you did this. I really like the results.

[Rafael Herrera]

Hi Andrew, I got the inspiration to start this project after watching the Bill Carter videos. I found some reclaimed Mahogany at a salvage yard, several 2" x 2" x 6' pieces. I cut 4 pieces with my table saw and glued two pieces together to get the two sides of the box in the width I wanted. I dimensioned the glued pieces using hand planes. The pieces are about 12"x3"x 1 1/8" each, the end grain blocks are 1" wide. I marked the outline of the oilstone and end grain blocks and cut the recess with a chisel deep enough to engage the hand router. I cut about 1/8" away from the line for later refinement when fitting the stone. I cut the recess to a depth of 1/2" with a Millers Falls hand router. You can see how Bill did it in https://youtu.be/-62acG8vpqY?t=62.

I made a mistake gluing the wood pieces together and each piece had its grain going in the opposite direction than the other, so I had to run the smother plane and hand router in different directions to avoid excessive tear out. However, the grain would reverse direction even in the same piece, so I had to plane the recess following the grain direction as I made progress.

For the base I pared down the walls of the recess until I got a tight fit for the stone and blocks; for the lid I pared down the walls a little wider for an easy lid removal. I planed the chamfers with my smoother in a similar fashion as shown in https://youtu.be/uz5Z-IsvXfE. I finished the boxes with several coats of shellac. To level the stone with the blocks I used a strip of sandpaper on a glass surface to wear down the wood until I started to abrade the stone. Since I didn't glue the stone or blocks, they can come apart by holding the stone and tapping the sides of the box with a rubber mallet (by the way, that's a good way to remove the stone from an old box if it is not glued to it.) If the oilstone is removed, one needs to pay attention to the orientation when re-installing, the blocks will become misaligned and will need a bit of lapping.

Here are a few pictures I took during construction, I didn't take that many.

Cheers,
Rafael

(Bill Carter makes metal hand planes, check out his web site http://www.billcarterwoodworkingplanemaker.co.uk/, his prices per plane are not for the faint of heart.)

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[Andrew Pitonyak]

Awesome, thanks for the update AND for the extra links. Very helpful indeed.

[Rob Luter]

This thread inspired me to make one of my own. The Cedar wasn’t ideal, but it was in the scrap hopper. The hinges are really too big, but they were in the spare parts bin. The cavities were pre drilled with a Forstner bit and finished with a router plane. Crude but effective. The stone seems ok with the whole situation.

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[Andrew Pitonyak]

It looks pretty nice to me!

[Rafael Herrera]

For those of you with Arkansas or Washita stones in your collection, check out this pamphlet put out by the Pike company around 1905 (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...view=2up&seq=2). It describes their whole line of oilstones, including the Washita stones. It describes their appearance and uses. Even how to check their hardness by the sound they make when struck with a metal hammer. From what I learned there I realized that my stones are very likely all Rosy Reds, maybe soft ones (comparable to Lily Whites, which were the top of the line in the Washita category.)