Warning: Long
A little late getting in on this one, but here goes nonetheless? I researched the sharpening question for what turned out to be ridiculously long time. In the process, I formed the opinion that many people regard their particular sharpening system with a nearly religious devotion. After thorough consideration I finally committed myself last month, sending off a flurry of orders to various catalog outfits. At this point, furniture making and finish carpentry are my pursuits and my basic needs are to sharpen plane irons, chisels, and a few carving knives. I don't do woodturning right now, so gouges are not a consideration. For cutting the basic bevels, I chose a Baldor 7-in slow-speed grinder. I decided on this sometime back, after visiting a good friend at the North Bennett Street School in Boston. I saw several of these units in use during that visit and my friend heartily endorsed this particular tool. I replaced the stock gray wheels with 60-80 and
100-120 grit aluminum oxide wheels by Norton. For anyone contemplating the purchase of a 7-in grinder, go forewarned that the selection of wheels is somewhat limited compared to the 6 and 8-in units. For example, I was unable to source white aluminum oxide wheels and ended up going with tan wheels that have a slightly harder bond. Between the slow speed and light cuts however, I've had no problem so far with overheated edges. This same friend made me feel better about not being able to find the white wheels, when he told me what went on at his school. He said going in, he was a "wheel snob", but once there he watched the craftsmen at North Bennett use great technique to put razor sharp edges on their tools using even the skankiest of gray wheels. As the next component in my "system", I went ahead and replaced the stock Baldor tool rest on my fine wheel with a Veritas adjustable model. This coupled with their sliding tool holder allows more precise control of the basic bevel angles. This is one area I deviated from the "North Bennett" philosophy. My friend advocates both free-hand grinding and honing. Maybe it's the engineer in me, or maybe it's Leonard Lee's sharpening bible, but I just can't give up the idea of using jigs for better control. I just think without jigs, my edges wouldn't be as straight and all my bevels would creep toward some median value that may not be ideal for the particular tool. On the other hand, it's hard to argue with the fantastic work my friend turns out with his "sloppy" edged tools. He also does this stuff for a living, so speed is more of a consideration for him. For me though it's a hobby, so I don't mind taking some time to set up a jig. For truing the grinding wheels, I got a single point diamond dressing stick. Mounted at a negative angle in the Veritas sliding tool rest, this stick makes short work of truing up the wheel. As far as honing goes, I went with Arkansas stones. I lubricate these with a 50/50 mixture of kerosene and commercial honing oil. I chose 8x3 wide bench stones to make it easy to do my largest plane irons. I obtained one each in the Hard and Hard Black (Surgical) varieties. I strongly considered going with water stones, but I guess I'm a traditionalist at heart. Water stones offer greater cutting speed, but as I mentioned this is a hobby for me, so that's not much of a consideration. I like the idea of having stones that will probably outlast me and not having to flatten them as often. Also, putting oil on steel tools makes more sense to me than water. Again for honing, the idea of using a guide appealed to me. I chose the Veritas model along with their nice aluminum angle-setting fixture. This guide fits all the tools I currently own and is pretty easy to set up. I really like the cam-action on the roller that allows you to dial in a 1 or 2-degree micro-bevel. For initial flattening of plane beds, chisel faces, etc, I went with a 9x12 (?) granite surface plate from WoodCraft. This just fits a full sheet of wet-dry sandpaper. Lubricating the paper with that same mixture of cutting oil and kerosene also serves to stick the paper to the granite. The plate quickly get tools pretty flat, but in most cases I've been following up with a little work on the stones for a finer finish. Using this "system", I've been able to tune up my tools and put nice sharp edges on all my blades. I'm sure I still have a ways to go with my technique before my edges are "scary sharp" but so far so good. I don't think I'll have any regrets about the methods I chose. Right now, the grinder and tool-rest are attached to an old scrap of 2x10. All the rest of the stuff is in a box on the shelf. I just move everything to the bench to do my sharpening and put it away when I'm done. The long-term plan is to build a dedicated sharpening bench to eliminate the setup time. The design I'm thinking of would be about 2x4 feet on top and only around two feet tall. This would allow me to pull up a chair and easily get over the work. I plan to mount the grinder facing one of the 2-foot sides and another high-speed grinder/buffer combo at the opposite end. Baldor makes a nice combo unit like this. The second unit would be for coarse work and metal polishing. This should leave just enough room between the grinders to lay out the stones and the surface plate. I plan on having one or two drawers below to help organize and keep clean the various sharpening tools and supplies. Before this bench gets built however, I'd better first turn out some real furniture. My wife has been very patient as I've put together my shop. It wasn't the most direct path. Off and on over the last five years I've restored a 1950's era Craftsman 8-in table saw and 14-in drill press, a 1960's Power-Craft 4-in jointer and 12-in band saw, and another 1950's K-line 12-in surface planer. Each of these was a project in itself. I replaced nearly every bearing and fastener, re-painted most of the castings, and added numerous upgrades along the way. I've rounded out this unusual cadre of vintage tools, with an assortment of newer machines and hand tools as well. Through all this, the shop itself has been the project and now it's time to turn out some "real" work. I'm now well equipped to take on the furniture and carpentry projects I've had in mind all these years. I really think my wife believes this has been one big black hole of time and money. I hope to change her mind when I surprise her with a Greene & Greene inspired full-length mirror this Christmas. Thanks to my newly tuned-up cutting tools, this first "real" furniture project is now nearing completion.
Richard Johnson Camano Island, WA