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Before I begin this I want to say that I KNOW there are a thousand different styles of tool sharpening and there are many different mechanical system for sharpening. What I am about to post is just my way of doing things.

It's the best way for me because it's the way that I get crisp sharp edges. And what I do is all by hand - good old stones, strops and elbow grease.

So, right off I am asking anyone and everyone here on the message board to PLEASE chip in your comments and methods for sharpening. If you can get photos of your sharpening kit or sharpening system PLEASE post those too! Let us know why you prefer you choosen method and why you avoid other methods.

The more comments, ideas and photos we all share the more we all learn.

Thanks, Susan

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Image1: Here's a sampling of my sharpening stones, strops and rouges.
Working from the bottom up you see:

Japanese coarse man-made stone, very coarse/medium coarse, unknown grit
Japanese water stone 1000/6000 grit
Japanese water stone 800/4000 grit
Brown ceramic stone, 800 grit
White ceramic stone, 8000 grit
Red Oxide rouge
Yellow oxide rouge
Aluminum oxide
Fine grit padded fingernail file
Two leather strops
Very fine grade lubricating oil
Pan of warm water

These are all sitting on top of a 1/2" thick marble tile that has had
1/8" cork board sheeting glued to the back to prevent the tile from
sliding during use.

Not shown in this photo are two pieces of cloth backed 320 grit
sand paper, one piece of 220 grit sandpaper and the Sunday advertisement section of our newspaper.

Image2: I was headed to do a little carving this morning on an oak branch
wood spirit. I don't usually carve large so I don't have a large selection
of mallet tools. Most of my finer quality tools are for hand carving
smaller relief projects. So I grabbed my box of mallet tools to discover ....
Gasps, horrors, unspeakable dire events ... RUST!!!!

So it's time to change directions and get out my sharpening tools.

Image3: The first thing I want to do is work off the rust so that I
am back to clean steel. I grabbed my coarse stone as it is the coarsest
stone in my kit. This is a made-man ceramic style stone that can be used dry or with a few drops of fine quality oil when I do need to use it. It's a very
inexpensive stone that you can commonly find at any hardware store.

This type of situation is the only time I would use my coarse stone
with my good carving tools. It is far too coarse to create the type of edge
that we use in cutting wood but it will eat the rust quite quickly. It is
perfect for my tree pruner and other garden tools. Did you know that you
need to occasionally sharpen your shovel and garden spade?

Image4 and Image5: I'm having one of "Those" mornings ... When I stopped and really looked at this old stone I realized that it was as sway backed as an old mule. The strop is against the medium grit side of the stone.

My coarse stone is so soft that it quickly bellies out from use. As you
sharpen a tool you tend to stay towards the center of the stone. This wears
the center or belly more than the outer edges. That sway or belly will be
transferred directly to your cutting edge of your tool. If I use this stone
as it is the tools edge will become curved to match the curve in the stones
belly.

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The coarse side, dark blue, is even worse ... let's change directions again
and do something about this useless stone.

Image6: I have a 1/2" thick, 12" x 12" marble tile which has a cork board backing. The cork keeps the tile from sliding when I work with it. The tile is large enough and hard enough that it has a pristine flat surface. I need the flatness of the marble to re-establish the flatness of the coarse stone.

Mike is adding here in the background that in the city you can use an area of
your sidewalk or concrete deck in the back yard. Concrete is usually flat
enough to re-establish the stones original profile. Heavy thick safety glass
is excellent as your working surface as glass has a flat, uncupped surface.

I have laid a sheet of cloth backed 320 grit sandpaper on top of the tile. As I rub the stone across the sandpaper the grit of the paper begins to flatten
the stone. You can see the stone dust with just a few rubbings. You want cloth back paper because of the abuse you are about to put it through.

Image7: Well!!!! That's going no where fast so it's time to go bigger. The sandpaper I have now is a strip from our band sander and is 220 grit. I am working on the medium coarse side, light blue, and you can see that the larger grit is moving the stone surface quickly.

Looking at the top side, coarse side, of the stone you can see where the
stone was touching the sandpaper just along the leading edges of the stone's surface. The center area tucked under my hand has not even been touched by the paper yet.

Image8, Image9 and Image10: The medium side of the stone has been returned to flat using the 220 grit sandpaper. Before I go back to the 320 grit I will work down the coarse side of the stone. I also will do all four edges of the stone to re-establish the sharp edge along the corners. Ahh! Much better.

Before I use this stone again I will wash it well. I want to insure that I have
not transferred any coarse grit particles to the medium grit side or vise versa.

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Image11: Yuck! My Japanese water stones were put away dirty ... a most disgusting situation. This type of stone is also man-made and prone to bellying out in the center. Unlike most of my sharpening stones water stones are made of a very soft material and easily damaged. They are worked only when they have been thoroughly saturated with water, in fact carvers that use water stones regularly store the stones submerged in a water bucket to keep them constantly wet.

The black that you see on both stones is the residue left from previous sharpening sessions ... that's a fine layer of metal particles from the carving tools. Since I want to sharpen on the stone not on metal particles I need to clean the stones first.

While I am cleaning I will do a quick flattening as well.

Both water stones have two different grits per stone. The front stone is a 800/4000 grit and the back stone is 1000/6000 grit.

Image12: While the stones soak and get really, really saturated with water I'm gonna slip back into the house and make a fresh pot of coffee ... back in a few minutes.

Image13: I'm back, it's been about 10 minutes. I moved one of the water stones onto a new sheet of 320 grit cloth backed sandpaper. My stone is sitting in a nice deep puddle of water. As I rub the stone across the sandpaper the stone will begin to create a slurry or muddy mix of water and loosened stone grit. Just as with my coarse stone I will work this one against the sandpaper until it is both cleaned of the old sharpening metal particles and has regained it's flat profile.

Image14 and Image15: I have a beautiful muddy slurry going on with the sandpaper and a pristine clean flat surface to my water stone. I am going to work through both stones and all sides of each stone until the set in back to a clean condition. But before I move from one side of the stone to the next I want to clean the sandpaper by pouring a little water onto it. I don't want to transfer one girt to another.

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Image16 and Image17: I have this wonderful sloppy, muddy slurry mix all over my nice flat piece marble at this point in the morning. Being one that does not like missing a fine opportunity I have grabbed my large flat chisel for a quick cleaning.

That slurry is perfect for cleaning the non-cutting surface of my chisel. I have laid my chisel flat against the marble and rub it into the slurry. I then use my finger tips to work the slurry into the curves near the handle. This is just a simple cleaning step but does help to keep your tools in excellent condition beyond the cutting edge.

Image18: While I have my large flat chisel in my hands I am going to give it a quick sharpening. I start with my Japanese water stone, 800 grit. Any stone from 1000 grit down I consider a coarse stone that I use to establish the angle of the cutting surface or cutting face of the tool. Finer stones in the 4000 to 8000 grit range I use to work the cutting edge.

I have the entire face of the tool against the stone, lots of water, and
I rub the tool back and forth in a long stroke. As I pull or push I keep the tool face flat to the stone, I try very hard not to not to lift that tool at the end of each stroke.

On my table I have three stones that meet that grit range of 1000 or less - my 800 grit Japanese water stone, 1000 grit Japanese water stone and my 800 grit ceramic stone. Now, for me, I chose what style of stone I am going to use depending on what type of sharpening I intend to do that day. There are times that I will take my carving time just for sharpening and today looks to be one of those days.

On sharpening days I will set up my table with my stones and strops and that is all that I do. I will work through each tool in my kit. On sharpening days I often start with my water stones and end with my ceramics.

If I am working on a carving and need to reestablish the edge or touch up just one tool then I go directly to my ceramic stones. This set, one brown 800 grit for shaping and one white 8000 grit for the cutting angle, are palm sized and perfect for storing in my carving kit for quick use.

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Image19: I will do about four or five push/pulls on the cutting face then flip the chisel over for one run across the back face of the tool. I don't want to bevel the back side of my chisel but I do want to begin loosening the tin edge immediately. You can see the slurry on the back side of the chisel from the last flip.

When I work the back of a chisel I keep the face as flat to the stone as possible. I don't want an angle of the back side of my edge. Tin edge??? As you work the tool across a stone the steel at the leading edge begins to thin into a wire fine strip of metal. You can't see it but you can feel it if you run your finger from the back towards the edge of the tool.

For a good sharpening you want to first create that tin edge then loosen it until it is removed. Flipping the tool over occasionally folds the tin edge from the front to the back side, weakening the joint at the very tip of your cutting edge.

Image20: Here's the photo that we have been working towards! I have had my chisel on my 800 grit water stone for a few minutes and then I clean the tool with a little water to check my progress. Notice that the tool has two shines on the cutting face at this moment. The dull shine is along the outer edge of that face. This is where the tool has fully met the surface of the stone. The shiny, bright area in the center of the tool is where the tool
has not yet been touched by the stone.

Why??? Because there is still a little bit of belly left in water stone!!!
And this is why I didn't get to carve today and ended up instead reshaping my sharpening stones.

A curved belly in a sharpening stone gives you a curved surface to your tool face and tool edge! OK ... so I am going to stop here for a bit, get out my sand paper again and retouch this stone for a flatter surfacing. Back to Image 13 for me ...

Image21: I'm back ... I've done a little more reshaping of my water stone on the 320 grit sandpaper and you can see that now the entire face of the tool is being worked by the stone. Much, much better.

Image22: I have worked the 800 grit water stone for a while and now have moved to the coarse 1000 grit stone. I work this second coarse stone until the entire face has an even level of shine ... no belly areas ... and until I know I have the start of a tin edge.

The tin edge is checked by running my finger from the back of the tool towards the cutting edge, feeling for a thin lip of metal. That tin edge folds or bends along the cutting edge so check both sides of your tool.
I could have done these last couple of steps using my 800 grit ceramic stone instead of the water stones. I chose the water stones in this instance because of the size of my chisel face.

My water stones are about 6" long and give me plenty of room for a good pull stroke. My ceramic stones are about 4" long and perfect for my smaller hand carving tools.

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Image23: I have moved onto my 4000 grit water stone to start the work on my cutting edge angle. You can see in the box in this image that it's the very edge, the cutting edge, of the tool that I am working. Instead of dropping the tool flat against the stone I have now lifted it slightly up and off of the stone just a few degrees.

For a sharp cutting surface I will end up with two angles to the face ... one for the main area of the tool's face and the second for just the edge. I can see that I don't have that edge sharpened all the way to the corners so I have some more work to do.

A note here ... I always work up in grit, never back. So I am not going to move on to my 800 grit ceramic stone! Although my ceramic stone has a harder surface it also has to coarser grit than the stone that I just used. So since I moved from the 800 grit water stone to the 1000 grit water stone going to my 800 grit ceramic stone would destroy the work that I just did.

I want to add to the polish and sharpness of my tool not take away.

One of the mistakes that new carvers make is to over use their coarse stones and therefore destroy the fine cutting edge angle of the tool. I use my coarse stones only when I need to completely re-establish the cutting face and use my finer grit stones when I need to re-establish the cutting edge angle. An easy way to check is to look for dings or dents along the tool's edge.

If you see one go to the coarse grits first. If you don't then go to your finer grits to give your tool back it's sharp edge.

Image24: Sorry it's out of focus ... But you can see that I now have the entire edge, corner to corner, worked down.

Image25: My finest grit stone is my white 8000 grit ceramic stone. This is my finishing stone. The brown stone in the background is my 800 grit coarse ceramic stone. I will work the tool first on the entire face, flat against the stone to add polish to the face. Then I will lift the tool slightly, just a few degrees, onto the cutting edge to finish off that area.

The number of degrees, the angle of your cutting edge, depends upon the wood that you will be carving. Hardwoods as oak and maple usually get a wider angle then softwoods as basswood or butternut. The higher you lift the tool upon it's edge the wider angle you create.

I use the rule of thumb of lifting the tool just enough so that I could slide four or five sheets of paper under the tool ... about a 10 to 12 degree angle.
I can count about five or six push/pull strokes across this stone from the dirt lines and you can see how much steel has already been worked.

Image26: Checking for the tin edge. I didn't note it earlier as my ceramic stones are new. Wait ... I have used ceramic stones for years and years ... this set is new! I clean my ceramic stones in the kitchen sink with hot water, Dawn dish washing detergent and a green scrubby!

Image27: The tin edge is very prominent and the face and edge of my tool have a great shine so I am ready to go onto my strops. I have two leather strops on my table today and three compounds ... yellow oxide, red oxide and aluminum oxide. Yellow is the coarsest, red the medium and the
aluminum is very fine.

I start by rubbing the old compound off my strop with a terry cloth
towel. This usually gets most of the build up off. Then I apply a fresh layer of compound.

Here I am using my red oxide - my favorite but I can't tell you why?!?

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Image28: I don't know how it happened but somehow the camera caught the tin edge. Do you see that bright line at the very tip edge of the tool - that's it!

It's showing up because as it bends back and forth with the stropping motion the tin edge is at a different angle to the sunshine then the
tool face. I am going to pull the tool across the strop, working both sides of the tool, until that tin edge breaks off.

I only use a pull stroke on my strops because by now my tool edge is sharp enough to catch and cut into the strop leather.

Image29: I don't know if you can see it but just under the arrow is a very thin curved line ... that's the tin edge that has finally broken free of the tool edge. It's just a very fine thin wire. Every step of this tutorial has been to create then release that tin edge.

Image30: I am ready to put the final polishing onto my tool so I am moving to my second strop and the aluminum oxide powder. This is just tapped onto the strop then the tool is used to work the powder down into the strop. As you work the powder down you are working the entire tool face.

Image31: That's a nice edge ... ... we are looking at the back side of the tool and you can see that the edge is even all across the length of the edge ... heh-heh-heh- big smile.

Image32: And here's the front face of the chisel. I strop during any carving session and I strop often. Usually about every 20 to 30 minutes of work with a tool. Constant stropping keeps the tool edge pristine and does a great deal to avoid needing to redo or retouch cutting edges.

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Image33: Let's look closely for a moment ... you can see that I have a flat even face to my tool's edge. This is because I took the time to flatten my stones. I have a cutting angle along the front edge, the darker area, that is even all across the length of the tool and I have a bright clean leading
edge.

Image34: a few licks across the want ads of the Sunday newspaper gives me that last little bit of polish.

Image35: How do you know when you're done? I hold my tool so that I am looking directly down at the cutting edge. If I can see the actual edge I still have work to do. That cutting edge, the very tip of the blade should not be visible to the eye when you have a sharp tool. Any white shine
means that you still have a dull spot. White spots mean you still have a ding or dent.

Image36: I am rubbing a very thin coating of oil over all of the metal of my tool. This particular chisel has a leather washer between the handle and tools shaft so I am oiling that as well. I will store the tool in an open case wedging the handle area to keep the tool from rolling inside the tool box. I want air movement around my tools to avoid rust. If I am not going to use
the tool for a while I can rub a medium thick coating of Vaseline over the metal then wrap the tool loosely in wax paper to protect it from rust.

So how did my v-gouge get rusted ... easy!!! I had set a card board box out of my way while down in the shop. That out of the way place turned out to be on top of my large tool box. Cardboard is absorbent and so soaked up our Maryland summer humidity enough to trap the moisture inside my large
tool box. I'm off to work down that v-gouge ... maybe I'll get to carve tomorrow.

Anyway ... I do hope that you will join in and share your sharpening techniques, hints, tips and tricks.

Thanks, Susan

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My Mom is peaking over my shoulder as I proof read this and commented that I just love my Japanese water stones because I love any excuse to 'play in the mud' .... AHHH!

Susan