Sharpening Chisels & Planes

[Phil Pascoe]

Sharpening on wet and dry is another one - I was doing it forty years ago.

 

[rafezetter]

David Charlesworth invented it
...

Perhaps with the exact set of devices he uses, but the "lift" has been done with freehand sharpening for a long time. It's especially popular on moulding planes from the hundred or so that I've bought.

my friend george in the states has done this freehand for at least 60 years. "lift" is his term.

Methods are discussed here all the time but what beginners really need is to understand the result and not to choose a method without understanding the result and standard they're looking for because it takes little time to find something that won't fit your method if you stick with the hobby.

I figured out about four weeks ago that I can sharpen the flat face of a beading plane with a buffer instead of a stone and suddenly they will go any direction on a board without tearout.

It will not become the DW method for rounding over the very tip of a beading plane because....

.....I'm sure it's been done in various ways for eons.

pedants pedants everywhere.

The "lift" method relies on muscle memory and can obviously vary from sharpening to sharpening and is there unreliable, the ruler trick however when using the same ruler and the same technique should give you the SAME result as the last time, and the time before - and right or otherwise David is indeed the person who I beleive popularised the method, and may even have been the one to "modify" and thus "invent" the addition of the ruler to the less reliable "lift" method, to give even novices repeatable results.


I've also edited my other post to reflect the level of pedantry on display here.

 

[D_W]

It's not a matter of being pedantic. David gave the method a name or someone else did and he popularized it (I don't know which) and has used the same term consistently, but the same thing has been done for eons.

Using a ruler makes it accessible for beginners, but it's not different just because it becomes accessible. That's sort of like saying sawing a tenon with a contraption is different than sawing a tenon freehand.

 

[woodbloke66]

I am not to good at sharpening chisels & planes. Your expertise most welcome. I have done a bit of homework on the subject.
My question is: Which of the following 3 methods would you choose to sharpen?
a) Tormek sharpening system--is this the best method?
b) Wet & Dry paper on a tempered glass plate? --thickness of glass?
c ) Diamond stones?

When 'stropping' which side of the leather would you use to strop?

Many thanks.

If you were to throw 5 woodworkers into a closed room with the single task of 'discuss sharpening' at the end of an hour, having lit the blue touchpaper, they'd probably emerge with 1000+ variations on the theme. There's no right or wrong answer and you need to find, usually by trial and error, what system works for you, but to answer your question, based on my nearly fifty odd years at this game, this is my response to your specific questions;

a) Tormek - great (I use one myself) for removing a lot of steel relatively quickly, especially if you go for the coarse diamond wheel. This will remove steel from the primary bevel usually ground at 25deg. However, it's hideously expensive but the original and best slow, water cooled grinder.

b) Wet and Dry paper - a faff 'cos you have to stick the stuff down. Don't use it, instead go for the 3M self adhesive films (rather like a big 'Post It' note) from Workshop Heaven on chunky bit of 10mm float glass (also supplied by WH) I still use this system and it's pretty much foolproof...if you do tear a film, just stick another bit in it's place. The films last for ages before they need replacing; at least three+ months.

c) Diamond stones - I used these before the WH 3M films. They're good but the DMT stones I used were a little small and the cut was quite coarse. The 3M films give a much more refined finish to an edge

Stropping - use one (I still do) with the green Veritas stick. Lubricate the leather with a smear of Vaseline and rub well in with a digit.

Lastly, buy and use a good honing guide. I use the Veritas Mk2 which is just about foolproof. You can learn to sharpen freehand and many do, but a guide makes the whole business of finding a repeat angle a doddle. I can free hand hone btw as I used to be (in a distant former life) a woodwork teacher and could hone a complete set of bench plane blades for the workshop (that's 20) in around a half an hour - Rob

 

[dannyr]

How many of the five would be left standing?

 

[MikeG.]

Not me. I'd have fallen asleep with boredom.

 

[D_W]

How many of the five would be left standing?

I can't imagine that people talk about sharpening in person. One of them would have a tablet and pencil and inevitably they wouldn't be able to resist the urge to talk about actually building something.

What can be shared sketching on a tablet is suddenly less easy in back and forth messages, so we argue about sharpening instead.

 

[AndyT]

Back in 2013, member Chris Smith kindly hosted a forum get together at his workshop. People volunteered to demo various sharpening methods - oilstones, water stones, diamonds, Tormek etc.

It was a thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable session.

You can read about it here, though sadly without many of the photos.

ukw-sharpening-bonanza-get-together-t67911.html