Sharpening systems vs freehand/stones

[Derek Cohen]

Roger, train yourself by using an easy blade. This would be a hollow ground 3/16" thick plane blade, or a hollow ground 1" wide firmer chisel. Work the blade directly on the hollow. The easiest sharpening media to practice on would be a 1200 grit diamond stone with a spritz of soapy water.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ned Otter]

Derek - I know you've blogged about side sharpening, wondering if that's the method you still use. I've not tried it yet, but will do so soon. Side sharpening might prove to be a useful method for those who are not naturally predisposed to "straight on" sharpening.

Ned

Roger, train yourself by using an easy blade. This would be a hollow ground 3/16" thick plane blade, or a hollow ground 1" wide firmer chisel. Work the blade directly on the hollow. The easiest sharpening media to practice on would be a 1200 grit diamond stone with a spritz of soapy water.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Derek Cohen]

Correct Ned. I take this so much for granted, and consequently failed to mention it. This photo is from 2007 ..



Once you have mastered the side-to-side movement, you can move diagonally as well.

For narrow blades - chisels and plough - pulling the blade backwards is another option.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

I envy those who have sufficient sensitivity in their hands and the muscle control to both sense and maintain a consistent angle in several dimensions at once while sharpening. If there is a way to learn it I'd love to know about it, decades of just trying hasn't worked. When you're cutting into wood, eg with a chisel, the shape, thickness, and uniformity of the chip coming off the tool provides feedback to keep things on track. When sharpening freehand I've yet to discover any similar source of feedback to correct the process. It's too late when I flip it over to see how I've messed up the edge this time. I think some people must be able to feel when the bevel of a chisel or plane blade is truly flat against the stone. I can't. I'm resigned to using a jig at this point.

It doesn't seem to be so much "a feel" as it is practice and starting slow and watching closely to what your hands are doing. It is like learning typing. Go slow to learn accuracy and the speed will pick up later.

Another bit of help might be to make a video from the side of your sharpening and watch to see if your hands are going strait or dipping up and down.

Yesterday, while touching up a forstner bit, it was noticed how much better the view was from the side as to how my sharpening media was contacting the flat surface.

If you do try watching from the side while holding a stone, make sure you have a good grip or it is secure in its holder. DAMHIKT about this kind of tragedy.

(DAMHIKT - Don't Ask Me How I Know This)

jtk

[John Kananis]

This is an excellent (and very pragmatic) post.

I think the reason many people struggle with sharpening is because they approach it like an end in itself. I need to learn this technique so I can do woodworking. It's not. Sharpening is more like tuning a musical instrument. As you learn to play better and develop your ear, you tune the instrument more and more to your liking.what is sharp enough isn't easy to determine at first unless you use the tool. I suggest using the simplest method, which I find to free hand on stones of some kind but any method that seems simple to you, while building something. This way you'll develop a reference for what is sharp that you can work towards. I'm sure many great pieces were built with dull tools so you're don't worry about sharpening too much. As your hand tool skills improve your sharpening will improve too.

[Jim Koepke]

It doesn't seem to be so much "a feel" as it is practice and starting slow and watching closely to what your hands are doing.

jtk

A clarification on this. My bevels are flat from a disk sharpening system (Veritas Mk.11 Power Sharpening System).

This does not click into place or have the feel one experiences with a properly hollow ground bevel.

Eric mentions "learning to play better." My sharpening journey has been through more than 20 years of learning how to get better at it.

So don't get discouraged by the learning curve.

jtk

[Jimmy Harris]

Here are a few tricks I've learned that helped me.

Try locking your hands, arms, and shoulders into position, and moving your hips to move the blade. Just rock your whole upper body back and forth. It's not something I do much anymore, as it's inefficient. But if I'm really tired, I find it easier to keep it consistent this way, so I'll still do it from time to time. You're using bigger muscles with less angles of movement, so it's easier to control.

Use a softer stone. Hard stones and diamond stones won't provide good feedback for a beginner. With a soft stone, you can more easily tell if you've rotated too far forward and are starting to dull the edge instead of sharpening it. It'll both feel and sound different, immediately. It'll take a bit of practice to recognize this, but it'll come quicker with a soft stone than a hard stone. The brown King brand 1,000 grit stone is great for this, and not too expensive. It'll dish like crazy, so you'll need a flattening stone and need to flatten it often. So it might not be an endgame stone for you, but it's a good stone for learning on. Once you learn to feel and hear the stone, you can more easily move on to other, harder stones, and those sensations will translate.

Keep your eyes on the blade, not the stone. Pay special attention to the angle, and if the angle shifts at all, stop and reset your angle. Sharpening is all about keeping that angle consistent. And go slow at first and don't be afraid to pause after the back stroke before you begin your next forward stroke to make sure everything is still aligned. Don't be afraid to tilt the blade to the side or at an angle. You'll get a better edge if you push the blade into the whetstone versus sharpen from the side, but you can still get a blade sharp enough to shave with not matter what angle you rotate the blade. So choose whatever angle is easiest for you to hold and see any changes you might accidentally make in the bevel's angle.

Lastly, don't tighten your muscles. You want to keep your hands in firm position, but use the minimal amount of physical effort necessary to achieve this. The harder you lock your muscles, the harder it will be to keep them there. It takes a fine touch and it'll take practice to develop the fine touch. But stay relaxed. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Check your edge often. You're not going to ruin the blade, so don't allow yourself to get frustrated. Stay curious and don't shut down out of frustration. The goal isn't to get a perfect edge. The goal is to learn how to get a perfect edge. And you'll learn more from your mistakes than from your successes.

And honestly, about a 300 grit is all you need. Beyond that makes the blade sharper, but at 300 grit it should still be sharp enough to do good work. I can shave arm hairs with a 300 grit stone. It's easy to get a sharp blade at 300-1,000 grit and then mess it up going to 6,000 or 15,000 grits, because those higher grits tend to be harder stones with less feedback. Now I'm not saying don't go that high. I'm just saying that if you're running into problems going that high, then don't and wait until you get better before doing that. And if you round over a blade on a higher grit whetstone, go back a grit or two and restart. You'll save time and frustration. Really, anything above 1,000 isn't sharpening. It's polishing. And polishing helps. But it isn't mandatory.

[John C Cox]

And of course, where would we be without adding on the confusion of coarseness rating and how Japanese water stones, sandpaper "P", and "Grit" are all different scales, and they don't perfectly correlate using math. A P1000 is only about 500 grit... and vice versa a 1000 grit is a little over a P3000.