Thread: Who can sharpen my Chisels / Plane blades in Canberra?

not sure in Canberra mate but look up in the Yellow pages! In Brissy we have Peacocks but to be honest I would not let them touch my chiesels, most industrial sharpening places have no idea how to hollow grind and hone.

My advice would be get some plate glass ( check its flat!) get some wet and dry sand paper, get a stanley guide (bunnings) and sharpen by hand....it is not hard just take your time. There are so many articles on the net regarding this method and they work. If you can get access to a grinder then even better, once again plenty of articles on youtube how to do it, even on a high speed grinder if you go slow you can hollow grind.

Otherwise I am sure a fellow woodworker in Canberra can help!

Good luck!

Bryan

Depending on what you are doing you may need to sharpen several times just for one project. You would be much better off waiting for your own sharpening gear to arrive. I don't think it would be cheap either to have someone else sharpen for you.
Some wet and dry sand paper and a piece of glass will get you sharp enough to start off. And a cheap honing guide will make it much easier.

I'll do them dude... As long as you mean a "few" and not five dozen.

Just did my new 65mm Japanese kana last night. Man o MAN is this plane awesome. Sooooo sooooooooooo sharp when done to 13000.

Drop them around and I'll get them up to scratch. I'll show you my collection and the process I use.

Need them for a day or 3 as I take my time (about an hour per item).

Ev.

I was at Combined Electrical asking about resharpening the blades of my Festool circ saw and they recommended Fitch Sharpening and Tools.

They might do chisels and planes.

It's in fyshwick....18 whyalla st.

E

Haha yeah i do only have a few. They are only cheap Stanley's at the moment but yeah just need them sharp and one Stanley smoothing plane blade. I just don't have a grinder or my stones yet. Yeah no probs with timing as I usually get to the garage on weekends so no major rush.

Good to know about fyshwick as i'm out there a bit fir work at the moment. I'll check them out

If I lived there, I'd offer to tune up your edges. I'd ask so much money that you would get annoyed and learn to do it your self. The hell of it is, sharpening is a serious part of any sort of wood working. It is NOT rocket science.

The deal is, in the middle of a job, you can tell that the planes/what ever just get tough to push. Stuff is slowing down. The only fix is a bit of a hone to restore than woodworking sharp edge. I do carving-sharp edges. They are different.
In common, I can fix that stuff at 2AM and keep going.

When you're hot, you're hot.
When you're not, you're not (and should be in the sack.)

Originally Posted by Evanism

I was at Combined Electrical asking about resharpening the blades of my Festool circ saw and they recommended Fitch Sharpening and Tools.

They might do chisels and planes.

It's in fyshwick....18 whyalla st.

E

A reliable company I trust with my power tools reccomending another old established and reliable company I do my one sharpening)

I thought of Fitch as soon as I saw the post

Completely agree with you Robson valley once I am kitted out with my stones I'd be doing it myself and offering others that are in need of assistance also

Just need a little sharp edge to keep me going until I am setup. I'll check out Fitch also as I have an old Sheffield steel tenon saw i want to get sharpen up also

Thanks for all the replies. Very helpful

If I was to get anything sharpened in Canberra I would be very careful to ensure I was not engaging the same contractor who sharpens Julia Gillard's wit. I am sure that he would not do the job to my satisfaction.

Originally Posted by delbs

Anyone know of a company or person that i can pay to sharpen my chisels and plane blades In Canberra? I dont own a set of sharpening stones just yet ( they arent far off) but i need to drop them off somewhere, Now that i have cleaned up a few second hand planes i bought from all the rust and now look quite good, i just need the blades done so i can really get stuck into using them.

Anyone recommend a place at all? Thanks!

personally I wouldn't trust a sparpening service with a plane iron or chisel.

You have to remember that time is money and to make money a sharpening service would need to charge around $60 to $100 per hour

a properly sharp plane blade has a flat polished back -- a machinist of the caliber of Chris Vesper using a pecking hammer and surface grinder can probably get the back flat in less than 30 mins, by hand it might take well over an hour.
With a chisel, it's critical that the back be flat or possibly ever so slightly hollow ground. Getting to that stage can be a lot of work with even a new tool.

If I were giving you a quote, the cost per chisel would, in all probability be several times more than what you paid for the chisel.

Go to Masters or Bunnings, buy yourself a combination oil stone Stone Sharpening Norton 200x50x25 B/cmb Al/ox Be173304 - Bunnings Warehouse some light machine oil (Singer sewing machine oil) or kerosene and a honing guide

Originally Posted by ian

If I were giving you a quote, the cost per chisel would, in all probability be several times more than what you paid for the chisel.

Go to Masters or Bunnings, buy yourself a combination oil stone Stone Sharpening Norton 200x50x25 B/cmb Al/ox Be173304 - Bunnings Warehouse some light machine oil (Singer sewing machine oil) or kerosene and a honing guide

If you are at all even half serious about woodworking, eventually you will have to bite the bullet and learn to sharpen things yourself. You wont want to stop half way through a job and wait for someone to sharpen it for you. I used to use oilstones, but since the first time I used a Japanese waterstone I have not used an oilstone and probably never will again.

There are good DVd's one by Frank Klausz and one by Chris Schwartz on using waterstones to sharpen tools, particularly planes. I prefer the method put forward by Schwartz personally. It is not difficult to get great results once you understand the basics.

The added bonus is that I can modify the same techniques to sharpen kitchen knives, scissors etc and many of my non-woodworking friends benefit from this. I get approaches from friends who want to know if I can sharpen their friend's kitchen knives almost every day, after experiencing knives I have sharpened. I help out where I can and am often well rewarded for doing so. I wont sharpen $h!t knives like wiltshire staysharp or other similar carp but if its good quality steel like victorinox, mundial or some of those japanese knives that are becoming popular, I am happy to do it.

Doug

Brothers, Delbs is a fellow and asked for advice. He is getting into the craft and the agro is a bit much. Cool it.

Over the last few months we have met and swapped and he is getting into the groove. Neither of us is Pecaso, but we are giving it a crack.

Sharpening is an art.

All arts are worth learning and all things take time, even the collection of stones.

One of the things I have found FRUSTRATIING about our sport is the astronomical collections of crap we accumulate. Add t up. Those sharpening stones at 30 or 20 or 10... Opps I have 7 grades of them, plus shipping on each.... Loosen. Up.

I looked at mine after I offered Delbs to do his. Wanted to ensure they are flat. I have 7 premium stones, all jap, a "station" plus a veritas.... Heck, that's $500 without blinking..... It's just the way.

Delbs, mate, bring em around and over 6 beers each we can sharpen those bastards to with a few angstroms each. (and a taxi for you!)

Mine are perfect (ah, except for 3 which I mashed only today).

Doug, thanks for the reply and info I appreciate it but I feel you digress from the point just a tad. This is not a question of my seriousness about woodworking as I dedicate nearly any spare time i have to it and not to mention my garage that's suppose to be for cars but yet since I've bought the house not one set of wheels have been on the slab. Only the wheels of my saws and thicknesser, jointer etc etc

All im asking is while I wait for my stones arrive I'm asking for a one off favour or business i can pay to help get them sharp and then I'm sure by the time thry need it again ill have my jap stones.

So thanks to all the replies but i now know fyshwick has a great company that can do it or plenty of beers at Evans house. Cheers mare ill give you a call and organise it as soon as I'm off oncall

Originally Posted by Evanism

Brothers, Delbs is a fellow and asked for advice. He is getting into the craft and the agro is a bit much. Cool it.

OK

Sharpening is an art.
All arts are worth learning and all things take time, even the collection of stones.

agree about how essential an art learning to sharpen is, but not sure I agree with postponing the learning till the "ideal" collection of stones arrives.
hence my

Go to Masters or Bunnings, buy yourself a combination oil stone Stone Sharpening Norton 200x50x25 B/cmb Al/ox Be173304 - Bunnings Warehouse some light machine oil (Singer sewing machine oil) or kerosene and a honing guide

IMO this is the lowest cost option to get started on learning to sharpen and being an oil stone it's very hard and thus hard to dish

the added advantage is that the fine side is fine enough to use to freshen an edge while you're working so unlike a water stone, it can live on your bench.

in my case, I use water stones to do the initial sharpening and edge preparation and major edge maintenance, but while I'm working if an edge needs to be freshened up, it's much faster to use a fine oil stone

Originally Posted by delbs

All im asking is while I wait for my stones to arrive I'm asking for a one off favour or business i can pay to help get them sharp and then I'm sure by the time thry need it again ill have my jap stones.

Delbs, mate, bring em around and over 6 beers each we can sharpen those bastards to with a few angstroms each. (and a taxi for you!)

this is the way to go Delbs.