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Started by thedeeredude, October 18, 2009, 05:49:22 PM

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thedeeredude

for chisels when you're at flea markets and antique stores!  They are usually cheap, still useful and plentiful.  This was a $3 Craftsman.  The original handle was ok, but I decided to turn a new one anyway.  The steel was rusty, but wire wheel and scotch brite fixed that.  Quick hit at the grinder, then sharpen and strop and shes done.   Minus turning the handle, it would have been a half hours work. 








Warbird

Very nice.  What is the proper way to sharpen a good chisel?  Maybe I should search around here.  I'm sure someone has asked before.

thedeeredude

I grind a hollow bevel with the bench grinder(hand crank of course ;)) and then proceed with two different sharpening stones.  Now, a lot of people use expensive machines, fancy jigs, setup equipment made for machinists, etc.  I just use a cheap combination carborandum/india stone and a cheapo arkansas stone.  Start by flattening the back of the chisel.  This doesn't take real long and it doesn't need to be precise.  Just hold the chisel as flat as you can and rub the back on the coarsest stone.  I only flatten around an inch behind the bevel.  Then to sharpen the bevel itself, just hold the bevel flat on the stone and push forward and pull back.  Then with the next finer stone, repeat, flatten the back and sharpen the bevel.  Then the last stone, repeat again.  Then I strop,  I just take a hardwood scrap a couple inches wide and fairly flat, rub green compound on it and just set the bevel on it and pull back, don't push when you're using a strop.  There's a lot of writing in here but it's easy.  I can take a chisel from the grinder and have it hair popping sharp in 10 minutes or less depending on how the chisel was to start with.  I had a terrible time sharpening stuff until I figured out that it isn't complicated, it's a heck of a lot easier than people on woodworking forums make it sound.  The only jig I use is on the grinder itself, the Veritas grinder tool rest/jig.  It holds the chisel or blade at a consistent angle and keeps it square t the grinding wheel.  The stones I use are a small combo oilstone from Lee Valley Tools and the Arkansas Hard Select from Dan's Whetstones. 

Warbird


CHARLIE

Sharpening knives and tools is so easy and it amazes me how many people are either scared to sharpen something or think sharpening is real complicated or a mystery.  It's so easy.  Of course, I know that some people complicate anything they do.

Here is a sharpening method called "Scary Sharp".  It uses different grades of sandpaper and will really put a razor edge on a tool.

http://primeshop.com/access/woodwork/scarysharp/
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

Lud

I read that Scary Sharp with interest and bookmarked it.  Good approach in the "philosophy of sharpening"  for chisels and planes...............but..........how much of that do you apply to your turning tools?

Repeatability for consistent bevel is good but how much honing is useful since the edge wears so fast.  Do you consider different grinds for different woods?   

What about the burr on the scrapers.   Should one be trying for a some uniformity or amount of burr.  Or doesn't it matter ,  since we go back to the grinder so often?

I've been having some luck touching up on Trizact diamond belts from 3M  running backwards, i.e. up and away so I can work on top of the wheel freehand.  it works fast to a mirror with a 700 grit. 

My 2 cnts......
Simplicity mill, Ford 1957 Golden Jubilee 841 Powermaster, 40x60 bankbarn, left-handed

thedeeredude

I tried scary sharp and didn't like it.  I always ripped the sandpaper and those fine grits get expensive.  I just use a bench grinder and wolverine jig for my turning tools.

Dan_Shade

did you make sure the paper was wet when sticking it to the glass?

I've never tried it, but it looks good in theory.

I like the Tage Frid video of him sharpen chisels on the belt sander  :-) 
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

LorenB

I use glass for a sharpening bed, but I don't use sandpaper.  Put a few drops of lightweight oil on the glass and sprinkle some rock tumbling grit on the oil.  Sharpen your tool just as if you had a giant stone. 

You can buy the abrasive at rock hound shops, or probably on-line.  It comes in lots of grits, from really coarse to polish.  I'm still using the few pounds of it that I bought about 20 years ago. 

-- Loren
Loren
Baker 3667D portable sawmill, Cook's edger, Logrite arches & peaveys.  Husky 272XP chainsaw & two Echos.

thedeeredude

And another.  This was a $5 junker left for dead at the farmers market.  Sandpaper and scotch brite again.  The handle material I've  been using is scrap cutoffs from a local muzzle loading shop.








Brad_bb

I like the sandpaper method too.  I built a fixture to hold a 30 inch piece of 3/8 thick float glass.  30 inches so I can adhere 3 different coarse grits of pressure sensative adhesive backed sandpaper (PSA sandpaper).  Usually 80, 150, 220.   For finer grits, use automotive wet/dry paper and just place it on the 220 grit.  The 220 grit will hold the finer grit wet dry paper for honing with 600, 800, 1000.  How do you maintain your bevel angle?  You simply set the top of the bevel on the paper and rotate the chisel until the tip contacts the paper.  Then use 2 fingers or so to put pressure on the back of the chisel directly over the bevel to maintain your angle.  Your sanding direction should be perpendicular to the axis of the chisel.
  Hollow grinding does allow you to re-sharpen a little faster due to less material to sand away.  I'm not yet doing it though.  The hardest part is getting a chisel tuned up right  to start with.  Routine maintanance only takes a few minutes, provided you don't drop or otherwise get a chip in the edge.  If you do, You have a bunch of material to remove to get rid of the chip. 
Anything someone can design, I can sure figure out how to fix!
If I say it\\\\\\\'s going to take so long, multiply that by at least 3!

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