David C":3ryjrwhl said:
I had that tormek jig at one point. It is slow, tedious and generally too coarse working for really sharpening carving tools. It takes seconds on each grit to do them freehand, or following an old text just sharpening on a single washita stone and if needed, touching up the very edge with a burnisher or "a strop with emery" as the book suggests.
People who refuse to sharpen freehand are just making things infinitely harder and more onerous for themselves, and at the same time, limiting what they can sharpen to what they can buy for. if they sharpen freehand, within months, they can quickly figure out how to sharpen anything.
of course, that requires someone to buy a reasonable and more practical sharpening stone for gouges than soft waterstones, which some people are averse to because they "need fast cutting sharpening stones", as they have trouble separating honing from grinding.
): I know you have purchased and used enough stones (water, oil, etc) to recreate the Taj Mahal ... possibly with a little left over to build a shed at the rear for your non-machines. I am curious to know, when you were emptying all the quarries, whether you listened to the advice of others (except your wife - I know you were hiding these wares from her by pretending they were for a boundary wall), who told you that your search was fruitless and that you should instead just concentrate on one stone .. or return to scary sharp? 
