[ahapguy]

I started carving about 16 years ago. I haven't carved in about 15 years. I'm trying to get back into it again. When I was carving back then I only used a carving knife, actually 3 of them. I can sharpen those allright, I mean how sharp is sharp? The main wood I would use is basswood. I made some carvings from a magazine from Rick Butz. I tried releif carving and did I guess allright!!...But when it came to sharpening my gouges, and veiners, I didn't do so well!!.
Can anybody tell me how a sharpened gouge or veiner is supposed to perform??Or a whittling knife for that matter? And can anyone tell me if there are any really great books or dvds on sharpening? I would spend hours and hours on my knives to get them what I thought was sharp...my gouges and veiners and I have some micro tools....Forget about it!...I can't get them sharp.
Any input would help
Thanks

[BRIAN D]

First of all, the old story if you think you can't, your beat! Start with new thinking, you learn to carve, you can learn to sharpen! I used to think my tools were pretty sharp, then I learned somemore. Take an old sawsall blade wrap tape around one half the other end is going to become a new knife (now practice your sharpening)You can always start over again. Did you ever make carvings into firewood, like they say practice, practice, practice! Take a piece of pipe angle cut with hacksaw to the end, it just became your new gouge, now like they say practice, practice, practice!
Your carvings will reflect your sharpe tools. Mark Yundt just posted excellent points on sharpening a gouge. Chris Pye (do a GOOGLE for his web site) has layed it out, these are Master Craftsman who are very willing to teach, tap the knowledge, their willing to share. I enjoy carving, but most of all the challenge,& the skill you develope! Hope I've helped. Have fun! Brian D

Further, here is links I just ran into http://www.woodsmithshop.com/guide/d...ndpapersharpen clean cuts = curved edge

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

take a look at www.littleshavers.com Rick has lots of info on there..and he is an expert at sharpening! Also, go to "scary sharp" on google.....great way to learn and cheap to start out with.

[AlArchie]

Brian is absolutely rigfht about the "Practice" part, but make sure you are practicing correctly. If you are practicing wrong techniques, you will get the "cues" you are using incorrectly into your habits.

First let's deal with your knives. Most of the problems with knives are in the angle of the bevel (that part of the blade that tapers down to the edge). Most forlding pocket knives, utility knives, bench knives etc, are sharpened from the factory with a general "utility" edge. That means the very edge may be sharp, but the bevel back from the edge is rather steep to accomodate rough general cutting duties. A comparison can be made with felling axes vs splitting mauls.

A felling axe has a shallow bevel, designed to slice into the trunk, and remove a chip; a splitting maul (just a heavy axe, really) has a sharp edge with a steep taper back to a fairly thick, wedge shaped blade. This is designed to force it's way into end grain and split with a wedging action. Excellent for it's purpose but try to cut a log or tree trunk with that and even though it's shapened to a raazor's edge, you will wear out the wood rather than cutting it.

If you look at the side of your knife blade, you are apt to see that this bevel only goes back toward the blade's spine by about 1/16" or maybe a bit more; a rather steep angle. Depending on the thickness of the blade you will want to get that bevel back to 3/16" to 1/4". And if your knife has a blade that's tapered all the way back to ther spine, you will want to maintain this angle. For this type, just lay the blade flat on the stone when you sharpen.

For the blade with the really short bevel, lay the blade flat on the stone and then raise the spine up about the thickness of a dime. Here's where practice comes in......you will have to train your hands to hold the stone and knife at these relative angles ALL the time. Once your hand has learned the grips, sharpening becomes automatic.

Now with either blade type, stroke forward with the blade on the stone as if you are trying to take a tiny slice off the stone. Ten stroke on one side of the blade, then flip it over and take 9 strokes on the other (maintain that same angle on both sides.) OK, then 8 strokes on the first side, 7 on the other etc on downb to one stroke per side. You might have to run this procedure several times to get that steep angle redefined, but once it is there, a few strokes on either side, along with stropping should keep your blade "whittlin'" keen!

Check with that suggested Chris Pye site for sharpening gouges, but pretty much the same technique will follow.

Al