should i avoid using a grinding wheel on Japanese chisels

[Jacob]

He recommends it but doesn't really "make a case" for it as such.
The only case to be made for it is that it's good advice for a beginner (doing it hand only), without going into complicated details.

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

Wood craftsmen in Japan were largely things like temple builders, shoji screen makers and that ilk. All working on site with no access to mechanical grindstones. They sharpened there tools only with waterstones so hollow grinding was never going to be something done.

Mike.

 

[G S Haydon]

I guess now we have access to grinders then it's ok to use them. A few highly experienced and skilled people use them with success anyway.

 

[Trafalgar]

I'm attempting to give the benefit of the doubt that there could be some actual and tangible advantage during use. All of the explanations are perfectly plausible and I tend to agree with them. Yet, I still wonder...

Otherwise one wonders, too, why wheels gave them so much heartburn. If you're building a temple by hand, you have time to transport a grinding wheel to the jobsite. The time to build a lot of those things was measured in decades I'm sure. Erecting shop fixtures, shelter for the building materials, etc. would be but a speck of time in the total time to build a Japanese temple (have you seen some of these things? they didn't go up overnight). In other words, "we don't have time, energy, manpower, etc. to move a wheel to the site" makes virtually no sense at all. I imagine some craftsmen lived out their entire working lives on no more than one or two projects. Think about it.

They probably built shelters in order to live at the worksite, and certainly other structures, shelters, shanties, and shacks to service the project and its materials, but no time to install a wheel? Frankly, a half dozen or more of them were probably in order.

Sump'n don't gee-haw boys and girls.

Could it be that the rotating grindstone simply never occurred to them? I'm pretty sure there's sandstone in Japan.

 

[Kodama]

Trying to add a modest point of view as it was thought to me by my teacher Kaneko-san.
"..your stone and bevel should be perfectly flat..." (I might add that perfect would be within a visible tolerance which you can see with the naked eye).

It is not always considered 'good practice' but daiku do use grinders. Being very careful not to heat up your tool a hollow is ground in the middle of the bevel. Thereby easing and speeding up the sharpening process which is done freehand. The grind marks are almost completely gone after one or two sharpening sessions.

Since freehand sharpening without a grinder is really fast and efficient a grinder is not that commonly used amongst daiku.

 

[tobytools]

I sold the chisels in question
Im sticking to western style tools from now on apart from saws

TT

 

[Trafalgar]

I sold the chisels in question
Im sticking to western style tools from now on apart from saws

TT

You must not have had to sharpen (or pay to have sharpened) one of your Japanese crosscut or joinery saws yet.

 

[tobytools]

I sold the chisels in question
Im sticking to western style tools from now on apart from saws

TT

You must not have had to sharpen (or pay to have sharpened) one of your Japanese crosscut or joinery saws yet.

nope

TT

 

[lurcher]

i wonder if the japan members of there workshop forum go on about the best way to sharpen a western chisel .
myself i dont hollow grind i just use diamond stones start at the back and as i push forward [ no bevel guide] i lower my hand as i go to far end this works finr for me with chisels and planes then a good strop

 

[tobytools]

More than likely

TT

 

[Trafalgar]

I sold the chisels in question
Im sticking to western style tools from now on apart from saws

TT

You must not have had to sharpen (or pay to have sharpened) one of your Japanese crosscut or joinery saws yet.

nope

TT

We'll be here to welcome you back into the fold when you do.