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View Full Version : Give it a try... you might like it



MathewA
12th March 2005, 03:47 PM
I've attached a pic of my main sharpening machine for most of my turning chisels. "That's a buffing wheel" you say. Yup! it is. All of my turning tools except the scrapers are sharpend on this. This thread is related to the one I just posted in general woodworking showing my grinding rig.

For me the formula of how I sharpen my gouges, square end chisels and skews is: I grind once and buff 10 or 15 times before I retouch up the tip on the grinder. The trick is not to buff the bevel side. Easy when its a gouge, I even buff the roughing gouge. For the square end chisel I have one side marked, so that side is always up. I know to buff the bevel only on that side leaving the bevel clean and crisp on the other side. I rarely use the skew, and only for getting into a very tight spot so if the bevel isn't real crisp it doesn't matter.

The buffing compound is aluminium oxide. It's the most aggesive I could find easily, works well with high carbon steel and tool steels.

Once I have the basic grind on a gouge I buff the flute to a razor edge and when it get a bit dull I rebuff the flute again up to 15 times or so. It take far less time than to regrind. It takes me longer to walk over to the buffer than it takes to actually resharpen a gouge. If you have never tried buffing a roughing gouge try it it's amazing what you can actually do with a razor sharp rouging gouge.

The edge tends to last longer also because you are removing the fragile saw tooth edge left by a grinder.

Something for ya to try

rsser
12th March 2005, 04:22 PM
Thanks for this MathewA.

Good point. I think that many turners don't take care of the flute side of their gouges enough - after all, it takes two to tango ;-}

I use a paddle style diamond hone to refresh the bevel edge on my tools, and a slip stone or diamond rod on the flute after each regrind.

But for medium density woods I like to use a tool with the burr left by the grinder.