Sharpening System Tradeoffs

[Steve Knight]

I don't remember if I asked harrolson about them. but they are way to spendy for me.

[Mike in Mystic]

I did the sharpy sharp method for awhile. I even bought a nice black granite reference plate for it as un upgrade to the float glass I had. That definitely made a difference and my results were fine. The problem was it still took me quite awhile to do and I would sometimes get variations in my results (due to my own fault, admittedly).

So, I went ahead and bought the Veritas MKII PSS and couldn't be happier. I mean, this has made sharpening my chisels and plane irons SO easy that I actually do it and often (as needed). I get exactly repeatable results and it is extremely fast. I can take a flea market plane iron and flatten the back and hone the bevel in a total of about 10 minutes, maybe 15. For touching up the edge, it takes literally a couple minutes and that's only if you change platters.

You definitely will want a second system for turning tools or carving tools. I'm considering the Tormek just for that, as well as thickness planer blade and jointer blade sharpening ease. At present I use a grinder and the Wolverine jig, which probably is what I'll keep for some time to come.

So, if I were you I'd get the MKII - it really is a brilliant approach to sharpening bevel-edged tools.

Mike

[Steve Knight]

this does not work when working diamonds and steel. the tips of the diamonds wear or break off. so the whole surface cuts slower. this causes the diamonds not to wear and not to expose the fresh ones. I was playing with diamond laps and sharpening and even the expensive ones made to wear and expose new stones never worked any longer on steel. though they did keep working on flattening the makita stone.

[bridger]

Stropping isn't about removing a burr. it's a cushioned burnishing/abrasive process that if done right quickly yields an edge sharp enough to shave with that lasts longer than the edge produced with uncushioned abrasives alone.

[Rick Cook]

Perhaps 'strop' isn't the right word. But fine abrasive compound on leather keeps a keen edge on tools.

--RC

[Rick Cook]

It is also easy to renew on chisels and similar tools. Which means you can keep the edge sharper longer. Planes, now. . .

And Wayne, as a certified (or certifiable) bambusita, I've got to ask. What kind (species of bamboo) do you use to make your rods?

--RC

[CW]

Bare leather has been used for many, many years due to its fine abrasive qualities. Adding an abrasive to it is not necessary. If you do that, you might as well just use a stone. There is a place for abrasive on leather but not for plane blades and then should be fallowed up with bare leather to achieve the best possible edge.

[Prometheus]

I used some stencil adhesive when trying out the scary sharp method, and it worked pretty well- not to mention it was a whole lot cheaper and easier to clean up.

Belt sander is too rough, IMO- I've tried it, and it works nicely for creating the inital profile, but after that I've always had to touch them up on a stone.

I've also seen people use friable grinding wheels to get a concave profile, and that works really nice, though I haven't seen one for sale around me yet.

You forgot the Japan Woodworker-

They've got a good selection of stones as well (not to mention those awesome hand saws and chisels hand-forged by samurai sword makers, *drool*) Looks like they're quite a bit less expensive than the others, but that may be a difference in the size of the stones, and not a discounted price. Lots of planes in there, too.

[Prometheus]

"A good cook changes his chopper once a year, -- because he cuts. An ordinary cook, one a month, -- because he hacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, and although I have cut up many thousand bullocks, its edge is as if fresh from the whetstone. For at the joints there are always interstices, and the edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to insert that which is without thickness into such an interstice. Indeed there is plenty of room for the blade to move about. It is thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years as though fresh from the whetstone.

"Nevertheless, when I come upon a knotty part which is difficult to tackle, I am all caution. Fixing my eye on it, I stay my hand, and gently apply my blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling to the ground. Then I take out my chopper and stand up, and look around, and pause with an air of triumph. Then wiping my chopper, I put it carefully away."

-- Chuang Tzu

[Never Enough Money]

The one problem with scary sharp that I don't think has been mentioned in this thread (my aoplogies if I missed it) is that sometimes I accidentally gouge the paper and if you don't keep the glass clean you get little bumps which can't help....

[snip]

[AAvK]

Exactly right. I use paint thinner and paper towels, thoroughly gets rid if the super

77 adhesive. Alex