Chems
Established Member
How would you go about sharpening a range or gouges, v-tools and the like?
How to sharpen gouges?
- Thread starter Chems
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Hi Chems
Any question about sharpening is liable to produce a wide range of opinions and suggestions about different abrasives and jigs. Bypassing all of that, I'd say that if you are talking about carving tools, there are so many shapes and the need for sharpness is so great, that you need to to do it by hand, freehand. Grinding never really comes into it, but frequent touching-up of the edges does, so it needs to be something you can do without a lot of mess, so I think that means you need some fine oilstones and strops.
You need a tapered slip for most of the gouges, which for carving have a bevel on the inside as well as the outside. V-tools are specially challenging. They need a slip with a sharp edge and an angle less than the interior of the V.
There are some good books available on-line at Google Books, the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg.
You could start with this one - Chapter 5 covers sharpening.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22107
Andy
Any question about sharpening is liable to produce a wide range of opinions and suggestions about different abrasives and jigs. Bypassing all of that, I'd say that if you are talking about carving tools, there are so many shapes and the need for sharpness is so great, that you need to to do it by hand, freehand. Grinding never really comes into it, but frequent touching-up of the edges does, so it needs to be something you can do without a lot of mess, so I think that means you need some fine oilstones and strops.
You need a tapered slip for most of the gouges, which for carving have a bevel on the inside as well as the outside. V-tools are specially challenging. They need a slip with a sharp edge and an angle less than the interior of the V.
There are some good books available on-line at Google Books, the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg.
You could start with this one - Chapter 5 covers sharpening.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/22107
Andy
woodbloke
Established Member
Strops are the way to touch up gouges. Glue some soft leather round formers to strop the inside of the gouges. I lubricate my strops with Vaseline mixed with Jewelers Rouge to form red goo...cuts really well and produces a mirror finish on the steel - Rob
bugbear
Established Member
Chems":2egtp9x5 said:
Are you talking about carving, or cabinetwork gouges? The techniques are a little different.
BugBear
woodbloke
Established Member
...'specially if they're scribing gouges - Robbugbear":1r6d12me said:
dunbarhamlin
Established Member
Well don't keep us all in suspensewoodbloke":zzfrvzus said:
Presume referring to the relieved bevel heel and backbevel which might be used on carving gouges but not scribing gouges.
woodbloke
Established Member
Firmer gouges (bevel on the outside) are relatively easy. I just do them by hand on the DMT (green) and then hone the burr on the inside with a slip stone followed by a leather strop, the profile of the edge isn't critical and they can often be rounded to a sort of finger nail shape.
Scribing gouges must be ground so that the profile is dead square (as in a chisel) which is much harder. I did one recently and used a Proxxon mini-drill with a coarse conical grinding stone to grind the primary internal bevel and then I used a much finer wheel to hone a bevel on the edge. The resultant burr on the outside is easily removed in the normal way (by holding the gouge dead flat on the DMT and rotating it) The final bevel can be further honed by using a conical felt wheel charged with Jeweler's Rouge.
I'ts a tricky, time consuming job to do though :x I've got another one to do shortly so I'll take some pics and show how I do it - Rob
Scribing gouges must be ground so that the profile is dead square (as in a chisel) which is much harder. I did one recently and used a Proxxon mini-drill with a coarse conical grinding stone to grind the primary internal bevel and then I used a much finer wheel to hone a bevel on the edge. The resultant burr on the outside is easily removed in the normal way (by holding the gouge dead flat on the DMT and rotating it) The final bevel can be further honed by using a conical felt wheel charged with Jeweler's Rouge.
I'ts a tricky, time consuming job to do though :x I've got another one to do shortly so I'll take some pics and show how I do it - Rob
jonbikebod
Established Member
Hi Chems,
The actual sharpening technique as advocated by Chris Pye and other leading carvers is one that I suspect is very alien to many in this corner of the forum. It is important all the cutting edge is on the same plane – usually perpendicular to the back of the tool. Supposing the tools is a straight one – as it is in an in-cannel (scribing) gouge. Hold the tool vertically above a fine oil stone or diamond stone. Lower the cutting edge onto the stone and then move the cutting edge along the stone keeping the tool vertical all the while. Now look at the cutting edge end on, illuminated with a strong light. If there is a continuous thin bright line, you are ready to move onto the next stage. If there are any gaps because of small nicks or because the tool wasn’t previously sharpened straight across, you need to carry on vertically on the hard, fine stone until it is.
When this ‘line of light’ is continuous, you can start removing metal from the bevel (by whatever method). Start by removing metal from the bevel adjacent to where the line of light is thickest. Carry on doing this until the line is an even width all along the cutting edge. Now carefully remove metal in a way that progressively makes the line thinner while maintaining the even width. When you arrive at the point where the line of light disappears – stop! The tool is now perfectly sharp and has its cutting edge all on the same plane. You should be able to strop the edge sharp using leather around a wooden former and charged with a stropping paste – in the case of a scribing gouge - many times before needing to go through the above process again. The angle you make your bevel is down to the hardness of the wood you expect to use the tool on. 25º-35º should cover nearly everything.
I think this was what you were asking?
The method will not be as alien to those who sharpen their own saws as there is a lot in common in the approach.
Jon.
The actual sharpening technique as advocated by Chris Pye and other leading carvers is one that I suspect is very alien to many in this corner of the forum. It is important all the cutting edge is on the same plane – usually perpendicular to the back of the tool. Supposing the tools is a straight one – as it is in an in-cannel (scribing) gouge. Hold the tool vertically above a fine oil stone or diamond stone. Lower the cutting edge onto the stone and then move the cutting edge along the stone keeping the tool vertical all the while. Now look at the cutting edge end on, illuminated with a strong light. If there is a continuous thin bright line, you are ready to move onto the next stage. If there are any gaps because of small nicks or because the tool wasn’t previously sharpened straight across, you need to carry on vertically on the hard, fine stone until it is.
When this ‘line of light’ is continuous, you can start removing metal from the bevel (by whatever method). Start by removing metal from the bevel adjacent to where the line of light is thickest. Carry on doing this until the line is an even width all along the cutting edge. Now carefully remove metal in a way that progressively makes the line thinner while maintaining the even width. When you arrive at the point where the line of light disappears – stop! The tool is now perfectly sharp and has its cutting edge all on the same plane. You should be able to strop the edge sharp using leather around a wooden former and charged with a stropping paste – in the case of a scribing gouge - many times before needing to go through the above process again. The angle you make your bevel is down to the hardness of the wood you expect to use the tool on. 25º-35º should cover nearly everything.
I think this was what you were asking?
The method will not be as alien to those who sharpen their own saws as there is a lot in common in the approach.
Jon.
Jeff Gorman
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Chems, and possibly other folk might like to look at this page on my web site:
http://tinyurl.com/bkgpec
Jeff Gorman
http://tinyurl.com/bkgpec
Jeff Gorman
