Thread: New toy, a pullshave. Now how do i sharpen it?

it just looks to be a simple radial grind, do you have any grinders, bench or whetstone, if so find the radius of the blade then make a jig to suit, mount this in a suitable position relative to your sharpening stone, introduce this to a fine to middle stone and find the angle, then gently does it, finish with a buffing compound to a razor edge

I don't have a sharpening grinder or wetstones tho i am planning on buying some at a later date. For now its going to be sandpaper stuck to a sheet of glass.
What would the jig to hold the blade look like? Never having any experence with blade sharpening i'm having trouble imagining what the jig would look like. The jig would have to be able to roll in some sort of an arc in order for the full curve of the blade to stay at the same angle wouldn't it?

G'day mate, nothing complex, it's just a matter of being able to hold the thing at the right angle, possibly just a simple rod bolted through the centre pivot point may suffice, with practice and care you should be able to "grind" an even finish, I would however look into a grinder at some stage then look into sharpening jigs, there are a lot on the net.......this is just one that I found after a simple glance,.........Sharpening Wood Turning Tools: make a jig ............... it does not deal with your particular shape but you get the idea of what I'm talking about, any of these may be adapted to suit a variety of tools including yours, they dont have to be flash or expensive just practical.....

Thanks Dave, thats kind of what i had been tossing round in my head. A simple threaded bolt with locking nuts at the pivot point with a ball or a rounded point at the end of the rod.

I shot a quick email to Veritas regarding how to sharpen this blade, they responded quickly with this email;

"Thank you for contacting Veritas Tools Inc.

Unfortunately we do not have a jig specifically for radiused blades.

The blades can be sharpened free hand on a stone; the technique involves pulling the blade towards you length ways and pivoting the blade as you go. (Image attached)
The blade can also be placed in a vise and a sharpening stone or slip stone can be used along the length of the blade, this time the stone is pivoted.

It is a good idea to make a template from the new blade so you have a reference for the original radius. This can be used in the future to draw the radius on the blade as a guide for regrinding.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

George Hammond.
Veritas Tools Inc."


Surely tho this would be a wildly inaccurate method, how would you get an accurate micro-bevel? Also since the face of the tool is curved i'd imagine that its pretty important for the curve in the blade to match the curve of the face, won't that be pretty difficult by freehand???

yeah although I wouldn't do it this way I'm not about to say what they state to be incorrect, for the majority of the touch ups place the blade on it's back on a sheet of emery or very fine sandpaper and holding it flat work in circles until an edge is attained, if a chip occurs then I'm afraid you will have to deal with grinding/sharpening the radius, not easy, the only way I would do it is with a jig, I have the machinery to make a template which then guides the blade on the grinder, without this specialised machinery I would be very careful in retouching the radius, a jig is called for and plenty of practice