Tool sharpening 101, the white line

[nadcarves]

Tool sharpening is removing the dullness,visible as a white line at the cutting edge of your tool. Starting with a knife,and a bright light source, reflect the light off the cutting edge.If dull,you will see a broad band of white light reflected.The more narrow the band the less dull, So if we take a stone/,240 grit paper(on a hard flat surface),and sharpen, the line will narrow. and eventually vanish.Once the white line gets down to being virtually nil, get a HARD piece of leather,and some abrasive compound and strop. If you have a glass, see if you can still find the line(not sharp) The trick is learning to spot the line,or patches of it on the cutting edge.Once you can do that with facility,you are ahead of the majority of the worlds carvers . After a few knives,you are ready to take on the #1 chisel,and, #2 skew. Going back, hard leather is used so you don't roll the edge of your tool.Also don't use power until you have mastered the basics of hand sharpening.next the v tool ?'s [email protected]

[rob_tassie]

(cheers) GO NAD!!! A nice simple explanation. I dont know jack about carving so lemme know if this is incorrect application but, take it to the next step and use a 600 grade paper. You will need less time on the strop and get a finer edge. That can be a problem in some applications as a fine edge is less resiliant.

Continue this with 1200 and you almost wont need to strop.

Finish off with 1600 and a 2000 to polist the surface and your tool will seem to just glide through the wood. Dont tap these edges on anything as they are fragile and will dint and deform easily.

They also blunt quickly. That is a relative statement I can assure you, as a super fine edge, when mildly blunt becomes a fine edge.

A quick slip across the 2000 grade paper as you put the chisel away and it will always be ready for next time.

[nadcarves]

The origional intent was to make you aware that you could see the dullness of a tool before you used it. When sharpening, I can't afford to mess around.I pay some $1200. us in prescriptions to keep my gal going, my carving rate hain't all that good,so while I agree that you can get there with increasingly finer grits of sand paper,there are more simple, less time eating ways to get the carvers edge.First of all ,,a lot of crap is being sold in the name of sharpening,guides,hollow felt wheels,umpteen million dollar grinding machines. And it all comes down to you and the tool doing the wood, or they doing you. So, here is about what I do. To square an edge ,medium wheel (stone)90 weight oil on tool.. To rough the bevel, old belt sander 110 grind,light oil on belt,or stropping compound,,,,just do the heel, and only work part way to edge.You have by now noticed that I am keeping the tools COOL. Power not only cuts,it burns the steel.I go to a hard paper wheel, with the paste that knife sharpeners use. Paper is the hardest honing wheel,harder than leather and hard french felt,so it can make yer bevel concave. I use it holding the tool at an angle,With a bit of practice you can do gouges as well as flat tools. The paste builds up on the inside edge of the tool when sharp. For gouges, I will zap them on a hard felt wheel looking for the bead.Always use a rest, small gouges a leather wheel like the power strop with cooling paste.When I say zap,if you say" screw thee," the tool should have the bead. I am also talking a rest and pressure. Anything less than a hard felt wheel,forget,will sharpen,but round your edges. The angle of attack goes up, along with effort. And, there is always an exception..... short bent gouges, rounding the edge helps you dig in easier,however, a lot of work for such a small hole. Doing relief, go the easy route to dig holes, use a long bent gouge. Probably confused the hell out of you all. Been thinking about doing an article on sharpening for Chip Chats.I know how to send word imperfect as an e mail, but not the pictures,so we'll go from there, as usual, thank you for taking the time to read my material ,nad

[BrianR]

Very interesting nadcarves. Appreciate the hints.