I guess evil is a strong word, but it gets my point across. What I'm referring to is tool sharpening. In reading as much woodworker stuff as I can get my hands on, one central tenet of all the masters is the same: you must work with sharp tools. Basically, if you try to do handwork with dull tools, you're going to get frustrated and tired. Frustrated when the pieces look awful or don't fit and tired by having to wail on a chisel to get it to cut.
I got a reminder of both this weekend when working on J's jewelry box. I'm hand-cutting through dovetails for the box joinery, which requires a fair amount of chisel work to get the pins & tails square and fitting nicely. Let's just say I didn't get off a great start. I stopped after being horrified by the amount of tear-out I was getting from my dull chisels. I must at least give myself a little credit for stopping before I would be forced to use the 4 pieces of mahogany as firewood.
Yesterday's activity was getting the chisels back to form. I've been using the Scary-Sharp method, which uses ordinary sandpaper to hone chisel & plane irons. I buy 400 - 2000 grit automotive paper and work my way up the grits until the metal looks almost like a mirror. The hardest part is flattening the backs of the chisels first so you can actually generate a nice edge. Unfortunately, chisel backs are anything but flat when you first buy them. Here's a nice step-by-step description of the process I generally use (sans waterstones for now). Once the backs are flat, honing the bevel is easy. After about 5 minutes or so, they're sharp enough to shave the hairs off my arm. Not their primary purpose, mind you, but it is a good test of sharpness. :-)
The sad part about yesterday is that I had to quit working in the shop before I had a chance to put them to work. Hopefully, I'll get out there tonight after work since it's a balmy 53 F today. Happy Monday, everyone.
4 comments:
I'm with ya', brother. With the various pocketknives in my collection, I've had trouble keeping an edge on some of them. Over the years, I have found that the Lansky system (http://www.lanskysharpeners.com/) works very well (VERY well!) for the knives, and I believe they have systems for chisels and other shop tools. Might be worth checking out.
Cool. I've never seen that system before. It looks like the easiest way to sharpen knives. Do you know if they sell those kits at retails stores?
Check out a hunting supply store. I got mine at Bass Pro Shops. You might also check some of your woodworking-supply stores, too. I love the fact that the guide that clamps on to the blade helps you maintain the bevel angle, and the variety of stones allows you to start rough and work to fine.
Yo. Doofus. Update your blog!
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