doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com honing guide

Anyone use one for sharpening chisels? This one seems to get rave reviews.

https://www.garrettwade.com/kell-british...BIaAkIgEALw_wcB

Considering buying one. I now do it the old fashioned way, by hand, and was going to build one but then saw these.

I used to do it the old fashioned way too. Then I got one of these. Way more convenient than breaking out the stones and oil and jigging up. This is way faster and so I'm a lot more likely to touch up a chisel sooner, rather than waiting and possibly regretting it.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/work-...tUaAvZfEALw_wcB

I got a Jet water wheel from them

The Woodcrafter variation works much better for me because it allows me to easily sharpen odd shaped chisels too. The Garrett-Wade only does flat chisels, so pretty useless for all the odd shapes I own.

The only thing I remember from a woodworking course I took 40 years ago was that to properly sharpen a chisel you must first hollow grind the cutting face on a wheel and then sharpen on a stone. When you're on the stone only the tip and top of the cutting edge contact the stone.

The GW tool would work after hollow grinding but we did it by hand.

OTOH I'm a wood butcher....

I use a old American one, when I need to sharpen a chisel, plane or spoke shave blade. It works the same way as this one( keeps same angle). I think it is a Stanley, but I may be wrong. They work.
Mike

RRob, I think a hollow grind is used so that it's quicker to flat sharpen two narrow strips on either side of the hollow instead of the entire bevel. What ever method, it might not be a bad idea to put a tiny secondary bevel on a sharpened edge.

I personally don't like a guide that rides on the sharpening surface, though it's a preferred system. I think it's easier to ride off the surface and harder to keep the sharpening surface flat if it's a stone. That GW is a fancy and pricey guide, so it probably doesn't matter, but if someone uses sharpening stones, as the size goes up a little, the price goes up exponentially. Only thoughts.

That GW jig would work with wet-dry paper on plate glass.

The Work Sharp machine also used adhesive paper on plate glass disks. You can sharpen things like knives, gouges and other curved implements from the top, but straight edges chisels and plane blades go in from below via that angled surface - that can be adjusted and you can certainly do the secondary micro bevel if you wish, but I find it just wastes too much steel and time.

There're many good reasons to form the micro bevel, and just by the name of it, it doesn't take much time or steel. I would just consider that if someone uses a chisel or gouge without the little bevel, it's difficult to cleanly get out of a cut. Once a pure 'vee' starts into wood, it's tough to keep going without chip out.

I think micro bevels have their place, but I don't think they are worth it, which may reflect my abilities as much as anything. Sooner or later, you have to take the micro bevel off as it becomes ever more macro with repeated stroking. And then you are in for a fair bit of metal removal.

I do it once in a while, and then I wonder why.

I keep maybe 50 chisels on/around my bench, and by far the majority sport "regular" bevels. Certainly my mortising chisels are that way for "beefiness" reasons. If presented with a scenario requiring paring thin slivers off a surface, I'll reach for a hollow ground chisel, touch it up on a stone, and have at it.

I have a table top 1" belt sander on my bench for small sharpening and other uses. I have belts from 60 grit to 1000 grit for it, and it sees a lot of use whenever I'm in the shop.
I "rough grind" chisels to a close finish, and then stone them for the last sharpening. It's always worked best for me, and is the fastest method too. The little 1" belt sander was very inexpensive, and has many other uses also. I have a small gun room and not a lot of bench space, so tools that serve multiple uses are a priority for my use.

One of the most important tools for wood chisels is a strop.
Just a piece of Oak leather glued to a board and a little red rouge.
After the chisel is honed, used about every 10-15 minutes when whittling a stock.
Chuck

The most important thing is to not let a chisel get dull in the first place. Chuckster is right on in that regard, IMO.

I use a Tormek wet sharpening system with three different grits wheels and leather honing wheels. I have two machines so it goes fairly fast. I have about 200 chisels on my shop wall. Everyone has been sharpened or reshaped and sharpened. A surprising number of chisels are improperly ground from the factory. But once ground correctly and sharpened, they require just a little timely touch up. The trick is to never let them get too far from sharp. Touch ups are easy. What I hate are nicks. Those drive me crazy and can only be remover with effort.