Bench grinder burning tools.

[Simon C.]

Yes I wondered that too, but thought I might have misunderstood the posters intention. You'll never get a decent edge from a wheel.

[Spamlet]

Your bench grinder is fine for sharpening cold chisels; drills; and plenty of garden tools and implements, and cleaning up numerous other metal objects, prior to welding etc. For precision edges like plane blades and wood chisels, you need proper flat oil stones.

S

[John Rumm]

You will from a Tormek style wheel - but not from a standard high speed bench grinder.

[Andy Dingley]

Back microbevels are evil. Quick fix today, making the problem worse tomorrow. They also screw up the handling of paring chisels. Also what this guy is talking about is a back bevel, not the (smaller) microbevel. What the average DIY sharpener is likely to make is even bigger.

[Mike Halmarack]

What I've been trying to solve here isn't really to do with producing the final cutting edge, which as you point out, should be done on an oil stone or similar. It's the method of hollow grinding the primary

25 degree bevel on the plane iron before then honing the 30 degree cutting edge on a stone (along with variations on this method).

[Mike Halmarack]

Perhaps so. And as with many evils, they have a large and enthusiastic following.

Quick fix when used as a bodge but the equipment, setup and methods described by Brent Beach require some considerable preparation and dedication.

Even the seemingly cruder alternative David Charlesworth method of placing a steel rule under the heel of the plane iron back has a lot of write up and positive response.

There seems to be quite a bit of discussion about that in various forums but the general consensus seems to be that chisels are not suited to the micro-bevel treatment, even though they suffer from the same 'wear bevel' on their 'flat' back as the plane irons do.

I got the impression that he was advocating micro-bevels, albeit a graduated series of them.

Yes, for sure and at present, until I get my grit together, that's the category I fall into.

Trouble is, there's never a definitive, final statement about these methods, just ever deeper and more detailed discussions to get sucked into.

Take this thread for instance. It started off as a d-i-y discussion about the use of a cheap d-i-y bench grinder. :-)

[Dave Osborne]

FWIW, I'm with Andy and John. I wouldn't put a woodworking blade any where near a dry grinding wheel. Even when I bought some second hand ones from eBay that needed a *lot* of fettling, I stuck with a wet wheel for roughing and then a set of diamond stones to finish.

[Andy Dingley]

this?

I've no personal experience but it looks good.

They put grooves in the stone almost as fast as they sharpen the chisel. Although the idea is quite good (I've jigs like this for honing dental tools with Arkansas or Shapton stones), there needs to be a mechanical "dither" in the stone holder to avoid this.

[Mike Halmarack]

I'm with just about all the contributors to this thread, in that there are various ways to reach the desired ends. One consideration is that once a well documented route is selected with its attendant costs, there's some incentive to follow it through to a conclusion, even if that conclusion is a negative one which eventually has me jumping ship before the end of the voyage.

Before I set out on my current grinding project, I saw convincing evidence of woodwork tool dry grinding methods. For example here's a pretty thorough one from what appears to be an expert source.

'm not saying that this info is the be all and end all of woodwork tool grinding but this, along with numerous other references clearly defines the dry grinding method as a common and valid one, employed by many craftsmen.

The fact that I can't currently achieve the desired result without burning the tools might mean that the method is impractical. It also might mean I haven't yet developed sufficient knowledge of and skill in the techniques. I'm still working on it.

[Mike Halmarack]

There's a lot of unused gadgets in my garage/workshop. If I was rich there'd be a lot more of them. But that's no excuse for not being rich. :-)

[Dave]

No you wont. What you have to do is set up the grinding angle for the edge you are trying to recreate. Hononing the edge is done at another angle.

[Mike Halmarack]

OK, thanks, I'll give it a try.

[Spamlet]

I have a handy Eclipse gadget that is like a little vice with a roller on the bottom. It is marked in the inches of overlap you need for the 25 and

30 degree angles. The only niggle about it is that standard sized oil stones are a little too short to get a good rolling distance for the longer blades. The way to remove material more quickly is to find a coarser stone for your first cuts. Typically you only have to make big adjustments once in a blue moon anyway. S

[Andy Dingley]

Another gadget that trashes your stones. The Stanley or Veritas versions use wide roller instead, so don't wear the Eclipse's tramline groove in the stone.

[Andy Burns]

But becomes rather less useful when the plastic flip-up thing you use to set the angle drops off in the bottom of some random toolbox, unless you instinctively know the correct sharpening/honing angles (which I confess, I don't).

[Andy Dingley]

At least Stanley give you the convenient plastic thing. Eclipse and Axminster don't. The Veritas one is a separate gauge.

"correct" angle isn't that important, but following the same angle as last time is a whole lot quicker.

[Rupert Bear]

Nothing like having a good sharp plane or chisel,,, I have one of those eclipse sharpen guides about the place too.... I did not use it much,, in the end sharpened without any guide..

Oilstone mounted in a box and clamped in a high vice,, just a habit of getting something like the right angle.. I found a cheap set of chinese wooden handled chisels from the sunday market beat any of the expesive ones.. What an edge,, these chisels were so easy to sharpen to perfection,,, I reckon it was something to do with the chinese steel.. Used to finish off by stropping the burr of on the palm of me hand,, havent done any woodwork for years now... But i could still go out the shed and sharpen up,, like riding a bike when you get the habit....