Sharpening Station

[Tom Bender]

Let's share some pics, here's mine

Sharpening Station.jpg

Given my shop time of a couple hours per week I don't sharpen often, maybe 4 times a year. And with no space for a permanent setup I do this.

On the bench I put a big shelf salvaged from a kitchen remodel. Then a towel then a board clamped over that.

Coarse Diaplate, King 800 and 1200 then a 4000 grit finishing stone.

I soak the kings 10 minutes and dry them gently over a couple of days afterward.

[Clifford McGuire]

I have a pretty simple setup. It sits on an old portable typewriter table from the 1960's

Worksharp 3000 is used to hone and occasionally regrind. Still using the glass plates and sandpaper disks, but will someday upgrade to the diamond discs.

I bought the new Veritas Side Clamp Honing guide. I also have the Short Blade Honing Guide, still in the box. For stones, I just have the Trend 300/1000 stone and a Shapton 8000 grit stone.

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On a shelf above I have the setting guide for the new honing guide, fluids and some no longer/rarely used guides.

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It works pretty well. I want to get really good with this setup before I spend a lot more $$$. Feedback welcome.

[Brian Ward]

Well, here's mine: https://galoototron.com/2021/05/30/sharpening-station/

My typical progression is coarse diamond plate, 1000x Sigma Power, 3000x Naniwa Chosera, 12000x Shapton (or something of that nature).

[William Fretwell]

Based on a granite off cut, edges polished, the granite adds good weight. Poplar legs from a tree I cut down. The drawer has a band aid dispenser along with guides, green hone etc.
Stones are Shapton water stones, 800, 4000, stored in a pond. The left Japanese stone is 10,000, spritzed for use. Also have leather hones with green compound. The diamond plate had a short life and was slow.
Cedar shelf for accessories such as saw sharpening jig.
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[Kevin Adams]

Here’s mine…washita (in custom box made by Rafael Herrera), oil, strop. Pretty basic. (I have more stuff, just wanted to show Rafael’s oil stone box!)

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[Ben Ellenberger]

A couple India stones, a hard black Arkansas in the box, and a chunk of maple with polishing compound for stropping. I use the granite block with coarse sandpaper for anything that is really bad or for flattening things. I also think it is very important to have several grades of paper towels, ranging from almost clean to absolutely filthy for wiping oil and grit off as you progress through the stones.

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[Scott Winners]

I am sharing a two car garage with my wife's vehicle, so constrained.

I sharpen my saws at my bench, but have two drawers of my saw till dedicated to sharpening stuff. I have scads of spare saw files under the Lee Valley tool rollup, and a magnifier headband in the wider drawer under the tray with the saw sets on it. There is a visible 2x2 in among the saws with a central rip cut so I can clamp saws in my regular leg vise. I do have a smaller clamp in my other till for back saws.

I started out with a sacrificial piece of half inch fir plywood, with cleats on it, so I could use my bench top as my sharpening area. That got old in a hurry, having to move all the work out of the way to sharpen, then move all the work back. I canned some salmon this morning, the sacrificial top is currently installed on my benchtop.

I came up with a dedicated sharpening area. It is only about 12x24 inches, but there is room to sharpen about anything on it in the moment, and usually that sharpening area is only a step or two away from the leg vise on my bench. Much better, great time saver compared to clearing off the benchtop and installing the other top. My diamond stones are nearby to the dedicated sharpening station I am pretty sure. Just finished painting the garage about a week ago and the chaos is still strong.

Final pic, my guides and jaw sets and so on live in a nearby tool box drawer. I do have a Norton oilstone set on a shelf in a corner, I mostly use it for kitchen knives. Also a bench grinder and a 1x42 belt sander on the sturdy table with my other table top power tools.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Given my shop time of a couple hours per week I don't sharpen often, maybe 4 times a year. And with no space for a permanent setup I do this.

On the bench I put a big shelf salvaged from a kitchen remodel. Then a towel then a board clamped over that.

Coarse Diaplate, King 800 and 1200 then a 4000 grit finishing stone.

I soak the kings 10 minutes and dry them gently over a couple of days afterward.

I certainly sharpen more often than four times a year, but, I drop something down on top of the chest freezer and sharpen then put it away. With nothing dedicated, I opted to go with Shapton Glass stones (well, it is what I use most often). Just spray and go. fast to put away when I am done.

[steven c newman]

And...Andrew has seen how my "station" works...

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I certainly sharpen more often than four times a year, but, I drop something down on top of the chest freezer and sharpen then put it away. With nothing dedicated, I opted to go with Shapton Glass stones (well, it is what I use most often). Just spray and go. fast to put away when I am done.

Occurs to me that you wanted some photos.....

I normally store my slow speed grinder and my Tormek on top of a filing cabinet. Hard to pull down but I do not need power sharpening tools as often.

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Years ago, I built my wife a chest with three drawers. I left my Tormek on top of this chest of drawers some months back and my wife has not yet complained. I have been using it a lot lately since I have been tuning up some old things that have been sitting around. It will probably stay here until she complains. I usually move this to the chest freezer when i use it though. Much easier to move it here then on top of the filing cabinet over the slow grinder.

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I built another chest of drawers and one drawer has mostly Arkansas stones from Dan, a few from Best, and a bunch of small containers of honing oil. My larger containers of honing oil are on a shelf.

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The drawer above the Dan's stones are mostly Shapton stones. A few professional stones, but mostly glass stones. I also have supplies for my knife sharpeners and then some smaller stones from misc companies.

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My larger Arkansas stones are in a larger drawer along with most of my man made stones. These Arks are very large and very heavy. That top Dan's stone is 1" thick and something crazy like 10 or 12 by 3. All those below are the same size. I also have some other dedicated sharpening things. Oh, and a Lee Valley sanding plane that I never used. I should get rid of it, but not sure it is worth the postage to send it somewhere. My diamond files are also in this drawer. My smaller Silicone Carbide grit bottles are here, but my larger bags of it are elsewhere.

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I do have a drawer dedicated to diamond plates of different sizes and levels of "grit". I think that all of these are from DIA-Sharp. I have a couple of cheap Chinese made plates that I should probably pitch.

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I have another tub and a shelf that has other miscellaneous stones such as my Norton Ceramic stones (love those), and a bunch of Washita stones. Then there is a tub full of stones that I categorized and inventoried but rarely use, mostly Washita stones in there.

When it is time to actually sharpen, I put something down like this:

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I guess that is two Washita stones and one Norton Ceramic. My Norton 16K and 30K stones I have in holders, but the rest I usually just put down on the silicone mat, spritz with water and sharpen.