Tool Sharpening

[nonstandard]

Following on from HP's wood saw thread I was wondering if anyone can advise on getting chisels and plane blades sharpened.

To be honest most of my chisels are cheaper items and probably not worth the effort or cost, but I have a couple of old planes that I use mostly instead of the power plane because it is quicker and easier; I would like to get them sharpened and honed professionally as I don't have either the equipment or experience to do it myself.

If I think back 30 odd years to school I remember my woodworking teacher Doug Mower sharpening them on a device resembling a gramophone player, that was when he wasn't hiding in the paint store smoking a crafty woodbine.

 

[merylvingien]

I often wondered the same thing about planer blades, i have thickness planer machine and the blades become dull quick if your pushing a lot a material through them.
Anway i saw a sharpening system on offer and invesitagted and to be honest once mastered its superb. My planer blades and chisels are now sharper than when they were new, i am not exagerating either as my fingers are well aware.

The system i have is a Tormek, but there are other similar machines out there.

Random link to a supplier.
http://www.yandles.co.uk/product.php/site/froogle/sn/TORT-7/GB

 

[Tom Bick]

Come into work all fired up for another busy day and to be presented with a thread like this lol.

It breaks my heart to think that we have lost the skill and the art to sharpen a simple chisel or a plain iron.

If you happened to be close to me I could sharpen them for you I always found it a good and therapeutic thing to do and I often showed off a bit to, I would polish the backs of the chisels so they shined like mirrors and get them to shave the back of your arm with no effort.

The only problem was the last one I did the owner then went and stuck it into the palm of his hand and put him self in hospital and was off work for a week.

Get yourself a couple of the diamond coated wet stones a course one and a medium one they are great for general work, just splash a bit of water on them and you are away. I suppose that machine will also do the job to if you have the money to spare.

 

[DulwichGnome]

I have one of these,
http://tooled-up-com.haluy.co.uk/product,details,,fc09e6f89de71bbf2e80cfb964dc35f4.html
which works well.

Mike.

 

[Jim Lavie]

I'm with Tom, I recently re-discovered the therapeutic effect of using wet stones. Spent some time reminding myself what I was taught in school by watching you tube video, as I found some old chisels in the shed. I even found an angle guide in my neighbours shed and have sharpened everything in site including all his old hand planes.
Regards Jim

 

[oliver90owner]

Tools will still need honing on a regular basis. It was usually a last thing before finishing or first before starting. Much easier to keep tools keen than working up a new edge.

A quick fettle on the coarse side and then the fine side of the sharpening oil stone was usually all that was needed throughout the day unless the tool was abused (dropped or cutting grit for instance).

Trouble is, there are not so many using hand tools these days. Routers for machining; and tungsten carbide cutting edges on saws, etc last so much longer between sharpenings.

Regarding planer blades - I am going to make a grinding attachment for my lathe or milling machine - then a simple task of alignment and then zipping along the blade with the long travel slide. Honing to follow, of course.

And yes, a wet stone is far better for the steel of the tool - it will never have the temper knocked out of it like when trying to use a dry grinding wheel, by someone who has not had a deal of practise.

Regards, RAB

 

[hedgerow pete]

the quick way is to cut a wooden wedge at a 30 degree angle and just hold the blade to that and rub it along the stone.

a slightly easier way to start with is sheets of wet and dry sand paper on top of a piece of glass, start with a course grade and quickly work your way down to very fine, use plenty of water

 

[Teemore]

I took the time to put good edges on my axes and billhooks, reprofiling the heads where needed using files and then moving to the wet and dry paper - it really does put a keen edge on tools and one that is easy to maintain thereafter.

For sharpening pocket knives there is little to beat a strop and a wee bit of metal polish. If you have an old leather belt lying around, screw or nail it to a length of board with the coarse unfinished side uppermost. Apply a blob of the polish to the leather and then strop the blade up and down the leather through the polish. Brilliant for maintaining a good edge - one you can shave with!

Pete - I like the tip about the wedge - i've always been to tight to buy a proper honing tool so no no of my chisels hae an 'exact' 30 degree edge.....

 

[BKF Admin]

If you really dont want to do your own sharpening find your local saw doctor and go see him with a pot of honey in hand.

 

[merylvingien]

Come into work all fired up for another busy day and to be presented with a thread like this lol.

It breaks my heart to think that we have lost the skill and the art to sharpen a simple chisel or a plain iron.

If you happened to be close to me I could sharpen them for you I always found it a good and therapeutic thing to do and I often showed off a bit to, I would polish the backs of the chisels so they shined like mirrors and get them to shave the back of your arm with no effort.

The only problem was the last one I did the owner then went and stuck it into the palm of his hand and put him self in hospital and was off work for a week.

Get yourself a couple of the diamond coated wet stones a course one and a medium one they are great for general work, just splash a bit of water on them and you are away. I suppose that machine will also do the job to if you have the money to spare.

I would like to see you do my thicknesser blades at a foot long and 4 of them AND get them perfectly straight and razor sharp.
Granted a chisel is easy to do on a flat wetstone but thicknesser blades have to be perfect or your wood will be all shapes or if not sharp enough they simply wont cut.

 

[Tom Bick]

I would like to see you do my thicknesser blades at a foot long and 4 of them AND get them perfectly straight and razor sharp.
Granted a chisel is easy to do on a flat wetstone but thicknesser blades have to be perfect or your wood will be all shapes or if not sharp enough they simply wont cut.

My planer blades are also 305mm long but I only have 3 in the block I sharpen them regular and keep them straight and sharp.

Have worked with 600mm planers in my time they are more like swards to handle.

 

[Tom Bick]

When you are given a couple of HSS blanks and an original moulding to reproduce on the spindle moulder you are then given a bit of freedom to do things less than straight

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If I think back 30 odd years to school I remember my woodworking teacher Doug Mower sharpening them on a device resembling a gramophone player, that was when he wasn't hiding in the paint store smoking a crafty woodbine.

Chisels have two angles at the 'sharp end' - the first or ground angle is about 25 degrees (you wouldn't have to touch this until you've had quite a bit of wear out of the chisel) that was what your woodwork teacher was using the horizontal oilstone for - he'd still have to sharpen the tools afterwards. The second angle or honed angle of about 30 degrees is what needs regular sharpening if you want your chisel to be effective. The honed angle should be done using a decent oilstone and should only take a minute or so if you do it regularly, you can buy jigs to help you keep the angle but a bit of patience and you'll soon get the hang of it.
My dad who was a carpenter always stropped the chisel after sharpening with the palm of his hand and then shave a bit of his forearm as a test (or just to show off to me!)

 

[nonstandard]

Thanks for all the advice, and yes Tom Bick I agree with you about the loss of skills. I'm not afraid to have a go but funds are a little tight at the moment so diamond whetstones are out in favour of new shoes for the children (I kid you not, have you seen the price of kids shoes?).

Anyway I stuck a sheet of fine wet & dry down to a piece of glass and had a stab at it the end result was some nice curls of wood coming out of two block planes, three sharp Wickes chisels and a flap of skin hanging off my right thumb

I'm not even sure how I cut my thumb, I didn't even feel it, I just found a flap of skin when I washed my hands; I guess it's evidence that I have been reasonably successful at sharpening the tools.

 

[Tom Bick]

That’s great nonstandard just as long as the end result is the same and that works for me, it was a good tip that wet and dry and obviously works great.

No stopping you now sharp tools make all the difference

 

[hedgerow pete]

great news, heres a few more tips

super glue is great for sticking flaps of skin back to each other

if you had cut your self and not noticed thats brilliant because your tool was sharp

sharp cuts are the easiest to deal with

a piece of glass and wet and dry paper is the easiest to start with but invest in oil/water stones when you can if you start to do a lot of sharpening

you can buy honing gauges from shops if you want but i find it better to teach with a angled block of wood as you start to get memory of where the hands should be and after a while the wedge can go but the angled hands stay the same.

you need two blocks one at 25 and one at 30 degrees but the 30 degree block is the one you use the most and dont forget that the back of the blade, the flat side is to be flattened on the very fine wet and dry to. as we need to keep the metal flat on front and back to make the angle of the edge the right shape.

p.s. dont worry about trying to sharpen 400mm planer blades as thats proper wood workers stuff,

start with a cheap chiesels and work you way to plane blades and then do what i do and sharpen the kitchen knives. it drives my wife crazy as i like a razor sharp knief and she always cuts her self on it after wards, lol

 

[fredbloggs]

If you are interested in sharpening long planer blades and can't do a tormek, checkout youtube and search for "sharpen planer blades". One of the first should be steve maskery from british woodwork magazine. If you can stand him sucking his teeth every sentence, it is an interesting vid on making a jig. Warning- set yourself a timer or before you know it, you will have been on it a couple of hours!! Its easy to get completely sidetracked on youtube especially as there are some seriously weird people posting videos emphasising that very fact.

Regards

FB

Ps also spot the vid by duelen selling the same type device made from metal. Retails about $90 so the diy jig is worth a try!!

 

[nonstandard]

Bonus

I had a poke about in the sheds and sheds of stuff I inherited from my father in law and I discovered two oilstones complete with wooden boxes. One is marked as a Norton India IB8 which appears to be a 2 inch wide course/fine grey/orange combination stone and the other unmarked grey stone; both stones had a sticky oil residue on them.

I had a poke around on the internet and now know how to clean and resurface the stones and phase 1 is complete, both stones were boiled in a pan with soda crystals and a rag in the bottom to stop them chattering. The boiling process has stripped out all the old gummed oil on the surface and I now have two clean stones one grey/orange and the other white which infers that it might be an arkansas stone which is even finer than the orange india stone.

Both stones seem to have a fairly flat surface without any obvious dips so tomorrow it's off to B&Q for some wet and dry paper to stick to an old mirror to resurface the stones and then I can properly sharpen my tools.

While rooting around in the shed I also found an old Stanley No5 plane (just visible to the right in the first photo) that is a little rusty but complete apart from the adjusting knob and adjusting thread so I now have another project as well, if anyone has any spares please get in touch.

BTW I found some great videos at woodtreks on setting up and sharpening planes as well as other tools.

 

[Tom Bick]

The stones look perfect to me and good quality to, look after them and they will be good for many a generation to come.

That sounds like a great shed to rummage in.

Have fun I will have a look at my old plains I may have a few bits.

 

[Torq]

shave a bit of his forearm as a test

Have to admit that I do that as a test for sharpness of chisels and plane irons. My left thumb has plenty of scars from sharp chisels and as someone else said you don't notice cutting yourself if the tool is sharp. It's the blood on your work piece that gives it away!!

To sharpen I use japanese waterstones kept in a tub of water. They give a mirror finish when you work through the grades.

A master boat builder (he's in his 80's and has just retired) I know uses oilstones and strops the blade on his palm after honing.

Torq.

P.S I use MHG chisels from Rutlands.co.uk