Scary sharp fact or fiction??

[Dave Anderson NH]

While I have some oil stones and ceramic stones for sharpening carving chisels, most of my sharpening is done with "scary sharp". I have not had any difficulties over the years. I started with a flat sheet of Corian instead of glass for safety reasons and switched to a 12" x 18" granite surface plate three years ago. My basic flattenig of the backs of plane blades and chisels is done with an abrasive mesh screen used for smoothing drywall. It does a very quick job, faster than any other technique I know. I adhere the sheets of wet/dry paper to the surface plate by wetting the granite with some water and surface tension holds them in place nicely without the aggravations of adhesive. Adhesives have several problems including lumps and unevenness, the problem of removal, and the wasted time waiting for it to dry. Don't bother.

Depending upon the state of the chisel or plane blade when I start I often establish the basic bevel with a bench grinder to save time. Then it's on to the SiC paper. The lowest I go is 150 grit and often I'm able to begin at 220. My schedule then goes: 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000. Along with a final strop on green Chromium oxide ( applied to mdf or plywood) this gets me what I need. The most important thing to my mind is sharening BEFORE the blade gets really dull or chipped. A few seconds of quick touchup every few minutes of use saves a huge amount of time over the long run. By the way, I sharpen bevels on SS paper by going back and forth across the blade face.

Generally my advice is to take a system (oilstones, SS, or waterstones) and stick with it for awhile until you become proficient. This doesn't happen overnight. Like all manual skills, it takes practice and time to develop the finesse and muscle memory need to get consistent results. I am not fond of the Tormek and other wheen based systems since they don't have high enough grits on their wheels to do a top notch job. They are all right for a start, but it's a pretty expensive start when you have to go to another system to finish the job. Finally, after you have become adept at one system, then you can try another for comparison or because you want alternatives.

[Gene Collison]

Dave,

Tell us more about the abrasive mesh for drywall that you use to flatten the backs like where to buy, how does it come, etc. I would like to try that, flattening backs is of course the most time consuming part of sharpening. Thanks....

gene

[Zahid Naqvi]

Dave thanks for your response. So far I have not been dissatisfied with the quality of the edge I have been able to achieve through ScarySharp. But so many people have raised concerns about running through the sandpapers too fast, what has your experience been in that regard. A few more questions.

1. Do you work with micro bevels or do you stick with the original bevel as you step through the grits.
2. When resharpening/retouching during use, where do you start in terms of grit.
3. How do you find the old bevel when retouching. Since I do microbevels I have to measure the length of the iron extending from the jig very precisely each time. Since I have not had to retouch my irons since the first sharpening no system has been devised yet.

The drywall screen works great. I used it to flatten the sole of my bench plane. But I couldn't garner enough courage to use it on my plane irons and chisels, it just cut too fast and I know I am going to make mistakes as I learn the craft. Gene the drywall screen can be brough form you local home maintenance store, home depot or Lowes.

Zahid

[James Carmichael]

Dave,

Tell us more about the abrasive mesh for drywall that you use to flatten the backs like where to buy, how does it come, etc. I would like to try that, flattening backs is of course the most time consuming part of sharpening. Thanks....

gene

Gene,

The adhesive mesh is and abrasive for sanding drywall joints, you can get them at any home improvement store, they're something like 4"x10".

I've been using them to lap the sole of an Anant #4 since I saw it suggested on this board that using the mesh allows the abrasive to fall through so the sole stays flat on the medium. I used 150-grit since I had a supply of it already, but it is slow going and I've pretty well used it up, so will probably pick up something more coarse.

FWIW, I will second Dave's comment, the adhesive is a pain, I can never get it spread evenly. I saw on toolsforwoodworking.com where they have adhesive-backed sheets containing an abrasive 3M reccomends for sharpening and will probably try those when my supply of fine SC runs out.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I do own a sharpening jig, but rarely use it. With practice you can feel when the full bevel is flat on the paper and then you just lock your arms in that position to maintain it.

When touching up a blade (as opposed to a full resharpen) I usually start around 600 grit and take about a dozen strokes before moving up to the next grit. If I've managed to pick up a nick however, all bets are off and it's back to whatever grit is necessary to re-establish the primary bevel.

I do put a secondary or micro bevel on my blades, but it's done by eye and feel and is probably only a couple of degrees. I do this only on the top two grits so the face on the bevel stays small. This is all that is necessary to reinforce the cutting edge and rarely is this bevel longer than about 1/32".

My philosophy is that sharpening is a task that is necessary to get on to the thing I love-- woodworking. I try to make it as quick and painless as possible so that I don't avoid the task and let my tools get really dull because this ends up causing more work in the long run. I work hard to avoid making it a fetish or sub-hobby. Someone once told me that Better is the enemy of good enough. Good enough being defined as adequate or better than is necessary to accomplish the needed task. How many times have all of us decided to "improve" a great result only to end up with a mess. Yeah, I can already see all of you out there with your raised hands. And you in the back row sitting on your hands, you are either a looney tune or a master prevaricator.

[Zahid Naqvi]

James, since I was buying my sandpaper new I went for the PSA backed ones, these already have an adhesive backing. These cost about $2.35 a sheet from Lee Valley, I figured if they last me a few months it may not be too expensive after all. Look for micro abrasives under sharpening at LV.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...urrency=2&SID=

I got all three with the PSA backed versions and these are the unly three grits I use on the Scary Sharp, although after reading Dave's comments I may need to add a few more.