[Bob Ramsey]

Hello fellow woodcarvers, my name is Bob Ramsey. My wife Shirley and I are retired and live in Colorado. I've been carving for about two months doing mostly wood spirits and caricatures in aspen and cottonwood bark.

I find carving is a good way to relax and get a feeling of accomplishment. Keeping sharp tools is going to be a real challenge until I can get enough practice to do it right. I've been honing my new tools to keep them sharp as long as possible but I know sooner or later I'll need to do some grinding to bring the edges back to the correct angles. It seems to me that a power sharpening system would be the way to proceed, rather than trying to maintain correct angles on stones. Especially when sharpening gouges.

I would appreciate any and all suggestions you folks can give me regarding sharpening or anything else that has to do with carving.

Thank you and may we all have many hours of good carving.

Once again, hello and I'm glad to be a member your woodcarving community.

[Muircheartach]

Hi Bob and welcome!

I'm new to this site too, but wanted to wish you the best. I have a number of bookmarks on one of my home PCs concerning sharpening stones and guides for wheel grinders - to sharpen almost any blade you can think of - and I'll send you some things when I get home tonight. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a whole forum around here somewhere on sharpening techniques and tools.

I sharpen nearly 90% of my tools on a fine grinding wheel using a store-bought guide, with the final lapping on stones. With the advent of "gouge stones" that have the same curvature as the gouge's cutting surface, it makes short work of something that I used to dread doing on a flat stone! I hope that other folks more knowledgable than I reply to your post and point you in the right direction!

[BobT]

Welcome Bob, where in Colorado? If I am close enough, perhaps I can lend a hand.
BobT

[Irishman]

Hello and welcome,

I still use my Japanese wet stones if I get some nicks but power honing or stroping usually keeps the edge. I have a slow horizontal rotating wet stone but I only use it to change the bevel or to fix up a bad nick. Caution as power stones can remove a lot of metal.
Patrick

[Tom H]

Welcome Bob. I am not the best one to even mention sharpening, but you are right in wanting to learn to do it correctly. I can handle the knives, and sometimes struggle with the gouges and V tools. I strop quite often in hopes of not being faced with the process of actually sharpening, and the use of stones. I have come up with a reasonable solution to sharpening. I use this excuse to my wife, to go to carving round ups and shows. All of these events have the best tool sharpeners around, that will resharpen your tools for a very modest price. Some even will do it for nothing, especially if it's their tool you have bought. So far my wife has bought this reason for me to go to the carving round ups and shows. Again, welcome to this Board/Forum.

Tom H

[GeorgiaCarver]

Welcome to carving and the forum. You have received some good advice!

Greg

[Iowa Carver]

Welcome to the WCI !

Corey

[DanBillings]

i spit on my stone and if the spit comes off the stone when you move your knife you have the rite angle.

[Muircheartach]

Hello again Bob,

As promised, I got on a computer at home and found the Web site of the place that I purchased my current sharpening system.

Although I can recommend Woodcraft for their helpfulness, you might find better prices for equipment somewhere else. Tom H had a recommendation about trade shows that I would never have thought of, but I think it's brilliant!

Anyway, here's the link to a page I found that had the oar sharpening jib and the water stones: Oar Sharpener - Woodcraft.com

Good luck - if nothing else, I was right about more knowledgable folks giving you great advice!

[Peter Lux]

welcome Bob Ramsey & wife Shirley.... I too haven't sharpened my tools yet..I kind of break them before i get to sharpen them...I gotta invest in a good set this winter...