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IntroductionSharpening woodworking tools is a necessary evil. It is difficult to enjoy woodworking with dull tools. In fact, it is also unsafe, a time waster, and often, a waster of good materials. In the machine shop, much of our time was spent sharpening lathe cutters, mill cutters, and drill bits. Same thing in the wood shop. You can spend a considerable amount of time sharpening tools. Tools like the Tormek Supergrind 2004 are popular because they produce easy-to-acheive and consistent results. Such tools are not perfect. For instance, the Tormek is rather slow and tedious to use and is very costly. Furthermore, tools that employ a grinding wheel, like the Tormek, produce a hollow-ground edge whereas many woodworkers prefer a flat-ground edge. Fortunately, with a little practice, you can learn to sharpen your tools rather quickly and effortlessly without spending a ton of money. One bit of advice. It is a lot easier to sharpen your tools if you keep them sharp! Over the next few weeks I plan to complete this page with specific instructions and photos. For now, it provides a few ideas and lots of links to great sites. Sharpening Table Saw BladesI send my sawblades out for sharpening. I have used a variety of services including a local sharpener, Forrest, and Solar-Saw in California. Forrest did the best job, but also charged three times more than the competition. General construction blades can be ground to 400 grit for satisfactory results. Cabinetmaker blades should be ground and hone to 600 grit. Here are links to a few quality sharpening services:
Sharpening HandsawsI have two very nice hand saws and would not consider sharpening them myself. Lie-Nielsen and others provide relatively inexpensive hand saw sharpening services. Here is a link to an excellent primer regarding hand saw sharpening: The Vintage Saw Sharpening Primer Sharpening Hand ToolsLike most woodworkers, I cannot afford (time and money) to send out my hand tools for sharpening. Consequently, I use a variety of flat-ground and hollow-ground techniques to sharpen my own tools. For bench chisels, plane irons, and carving knives, I use a form of the "Scary Sharp", Sand Paper system described at a variety of web sites and in various magazines. Fine WoodWorking, Issue #140, ran an article titled Getting an Edge with Waterstones, Oilstones, and Sandpaper that provides one of the clearest articles on the subject. I follow the procedure with some variation. I use the primary grits described in the article (80,120,320,600) and 1200 for the finest edge. I use a leather strop with compound to obtain a mirror finish. Contrary to the author, I sharpen with the blade perpendicular to the length of sandpaper. Expect to spend approximately $50 to $70 for the glass and the sandpaper, given you do not have them. It's a lot cheaper than buying a dedicated sharpening system like the Tormek or Veritas units and work as well, though the sandpaper on glass system is best suited for flat blades (bench chisels and plane irons). I prefer the flat-ground to hollow-ground cutting edges, primarily because hollow-ground edges seem to nick and dull faster. With that said, I will not argue against hollow-grinding: 1) I hollow-grind my lathe tools, 2) In the machine shop, we sharpened everything using hollow-grinding, 3) Popular sharpening tools such as the Tormek produce a hollow-ground edge. Regardless, I prefer a flat-ground edge for my bench chisels, plane irons, and knives. Here are some useful sharpening links: Fine WoodWorking Issue #140Scary Sharp 1 Scary Sharp 2 Scary Sharp 3 Hock Tools Japan Woodworker Sharpening Lathe Cutting ToolsI currently use a standard bench grinder outfitted with Norton Aluminum Oxide grinding wheels and a Veritas Grinding Guide to sharpen my lathe tools. I have the Oneway Wolverine Grinding Jig but I have not used it for a variety of reasons. I will complete this section in the near future. Sharpening LinksHere are a few links to web sites that offer sharpening tips:
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