Contributor
Added to cart, thanks Jim.
I look forward to having a separate sharpening table. For now I have a thin sheet of plywood with 1x2 stops screwed to it so I can set it on my bench top for dirty things like sharpening or metal work. It means I have to stop working, clean off the bench top, put the cover on, sharpen, take the cover off, get back to work. Pain in the neck.
[OP]
Member
Scott
Sounds like i should be doing something similar until I can make a sharpening table. I have a old desk, that the legs snapped off of. I've been tempted to block it up until it's flush with the bench top. And use that as my assembly table / sharpening / catch all. It has some type of coating (maybe urethane) on the top that is extremely slick. Glue pops right off of it.
Contributor
It is certainly not my place to tell another wood worker what to do. I am mostly here to learn stuff. It seems to me from reading a lot serious amatuers and up have a "sharpening station." It seems like a good idea, have the bench grinder and the belt sander and the stones over on a dedicated surface away from the clean wood. I am confident I would sharpen sooner and more often if I could just walk over "there" and do it without a lot of drama. Saw vise, or whatever solution for saw sharpening, etc. All that 'stuff.'Originally Posted by Michael J Evans
I have been tempted to build a holder for my diamond plates similar to the one Paul Sellers shows in his youtubes often, but I am just not fastidious enough to keep my bench top clean if I did that, I would end up with some swarf on every project somewhere. At the end of the day, for me anyway, sharpening is metal work. It is a fundamental component of wood working, but it is metal work.
Contributor
I sharpen on a general purpose bench, away from my woodworking bench.
This does mean some extra steps to go sharpen, but it also means I'm not splashing water or stone slurry around on workpieces or bench.
I do use rags to wipe down the blade after sharpening and clean my hands.
As pieces get close to final prep, I will try to keep them protected when I'm not actively working on them.
Having pieces sitting around in a near-final state for a long time is inviting trouble, but as a hobbyist, this is something I need to work around.
I do try to protect any near-finished pieces -- storing flat and out of normal traffic, covered from dust and any other insults looking for them.
One other problem area I've had is contamination between contrasting wood species from sanding dust.
For flat work, planes/scrapers can give a clean result. I don't have a magic solution for this when the piece is shaped and I want to use sandpaper to smooth it out.
Matt
Member
This is a good reminder for me. I once had a mouse take up residence with babies in my mandolin I was working on. Reshaped the f-holes on me.
Member
My sharpening station is on a bench 3 or 4 steps away from my workbench where I have a box of non-latex shop gloves I put on when sharpening my tools. The stones are wiped off with an old t-shirt rag and the tools are cleaned with a cleaner t-shirt rag during the sharpening process. At the end of the sharpening process the tools are wiped with the same rag followed by a much cleaner rag to make sure the tool is clean and dry before going back to the workbench and after taking the gloves off I wipe my hands off on the clean rag to remove any moisture from wearing the gloves.
Tools are always sharpened prior to final prep of wood and if the wood has to sit around for a while prior to completion I put them in an area where I can keep them flat and covered until the time comes for completion.
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