sharpening

[scatarie]

Good Morning,
My career as a wood worker began only with in the past 10 years, after the last of my sons left home. My husband and I built our own , where it is more or less a retirement hobby . Even though the shop is ours, I am the one who spends 99% of the time happily working there, building and creating whatever crosses my mind. I have made many things for friends and have been paid, we have a large family and they like the good soldiers they are like my lovingly made hand made gifts.I have been using wood burning to embellish my projects until I took a small wood carving course last fall. Since than I have been bitten by the relief carving bug and can clearly see how I can incorporate this into what I have already been doing. Truly I am a novice, through the advice of a lady carving employed at LeeValley I have the correct carving tools. (All henry Taylor) But and here lies my problem, Sharpening!! I cannot afford a huge expensive sharpening system ( perhaps one day) so I would like to start with sharpening stones. I have honing oil and the honing compound, a leather strop, and some good slips and I found a very old set of Arkansas stones in a box. There are 3 stone 2 of which are in good shape the 3rd not so good. My problem is I do not know what or where to buy, so that I can not only sharpen skews but gouges and parting tools as well. I will welcome any and all advice from someone who knows more than I please and thank you.Sincerely Donna-Marie

[Dicky]

You might want to Google "scary sharp". This is an inexpensive way to sharpen knives and chisels using a piece of glass or MDF or tile and various grades of silicone-carbide sanding paper. The extremely fine grits can be found in the automotive refinishing section of most auto related stores. Hope this helps. I would also investigate getting your Arkansas stones trued up.

[Mitchell]

LOTS of posts on sharpening already:

Try this for some ideas and links to video: sharpening

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

I have diamond stones and Sharpening Tools - Woodcarving Illustrated Classifieds, I use both but prefer the Tomz sharpener.

Dave

[Donsexton]

Sharpening is just another skill that takes practice and time to learn. No tricks no secrets but high quality super fine sand paper is a very nice addition.

[Robson Valley]

You need to know what the bevel angle is on your tool edges. No amount of sharpening products will help if you're always guessing what the angle needs to be to hold the tool.
I've never used HT tools, but I'll venture to guess that the gouges are all 20 degrees.

Ditto Donsexton. Learning took a while, but I sharpen tools for other people now.

Unless you beat the bejeezlies out of your tools (which I doubt), you should not need anything rougher than a 1000 grit water stone. Lee Valley has or had a very convenient 1000/4000 stone that I use and like very much. I see in the Sept.2011 catalog that they (finally) have a good range of water stones.

Safety: Testing a gouge edge on a fingertip is crude, arbitrary and risky. I have a piece of western red cedar, the wood that I most like to carve. Maybe 3/4" x 4" x 16". I have used it for years as my "try" stick. Every tool I own has been tested on the one piece of wood. Otherwise, I can't make comparisons that really matter.

[Claude]

Another way to tell if your tools are sharp: This is described for a knife, but you can do the same for a gouge or V tool

Turn on a light and put your head relatively close to the bulb. Hold the tool horizontally a foot or so below the light, positioned so the flat of the blade is reflecting light into your eyes. Slowly rotate the knife around it's long axis until the cutting edge is up. You should see all reflected light disappear. If you still see some reflected light from the edge and as you slowly rock it back and both, then the blade is not sharp. If you see no reflected light, it's likely sharp. This is also a good way to detect a chipped edge. Try this with one of your kitchen knives - you'll be surprised at how much light gets reflected off the edge...

Claude

[stub]

Claude gave you good advice. I use a fine aand medium diamond stones, various ceramic slips and a strop. No matter how much I worked I could not get
tools as sharp as they should be. I bought a super strong magnifying glass, the kind you wear on your head. Then I was able to see what I was doing wrong.

[riverwood-dan]

Hey there Donna-Marie,
I use arkansas stones for all my sharpening needs as well as a leather strop with honing compound. If you have a surgical stone (black or translucent) as well as the slips you can get you gouges and chisels scary sharp. As far as technicque Everett Ellenwood has a excellent DVD on sharpening with different mediums, India, Arkansas, diamond stones, sandpaper etc. You should be able to get it from your local library or you can buy it. After that it's just a matter of practice. After thirty plus years of working wood and sharpening tools experience is a learning curve that I contuine to be on. Good luck and keep trying you'll get the chisels sharp. Dan

[mchuray]

One of the best discuessions I have ever read on sharpening implements and sharpening carving tools is in 'The Complete Book of Woodcarving" also by Everett Ellenwood at Complete Book of Woodcarving, The That said and as others have said experence is the best teacher. At 66 I'm still learing a lot on how sharpen various tools.
Mark