Thread: Keeping chisels and plane irons razor sharp minimum fuss

Well it sounds like you're already taking the blades out of the tool, so why not use waterstones? If you're literally just talking about honing that last little bit of sharpness back onto the blade, buy a 4000/8000 double-sided stone and spend a bit of time learning to hone by hand as not to require a honing guide and, voila, sharp blades in less than a minute. Keep a spray bottle handy and you're set for years with a Norton double-sided stone. Stuff grittier than a 4000 requires considerable wetting or soaking of the stone, but the 4k and up are ready to rock after a few squirts. No Nagura stone required with the Nortons.

Cheers,
Luke

Hair I go again. Diamond paste on mild steel or cast iron blocks is about as quick as I can get. No spillage, no rusty, sharp as you want (up to 100,000), a little bit of black gunk to wipe off with turps or metho, or just a dry cloth even.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Hair I go again. Diamond paste on mild steel or cast iron blocks is about as quick as I can get. No spillage, no rusty, sharp as you want (up to 100,000), a little bit of black gunk to wipe off with turps or metho, or just a dry cloth even.

I noticed that LV are selling these now.

Originally Posted by NCArcher

I noticed that LV are selling these now.

They've actually been around for a least 3 years. Not really all that flat at ± 5 thou - Josh Gardiner reckons they have a different idea of flatness to him.

Originally Posted by Tiger

I get my tools razor sharp and then after a little while they lose that sharpness which I'd like to recover as soon as possible. I use a buffing wheel charged with chromium oxide and that does the job most of the time, sometimes I may go too far and the buffing doesn't recover the original sharpness. I'd like to just keep the tools razor sharp with a minimum of fuss and like the option of not having to turn on the bench grinder to strop as I work inside sometimes and late at night. Any suggestions?

Hi Tiger

I like minimum effort.

I dislike buffing wheels. The problem with the buffing wheel is that one is just as likely to round over the edge. It is a very fine balance between stropping and dubbing. And gradually the bevel begins to round, and then you have to straight or flattening. Sorry, but buffing wheels (been there and done that) are short term gain and long term frustration.

The secret to minimal effort with chisels and plane blades is preparation. Take the time to set the bevel up and you will be rewarded.

My preference is a hollow grind, and this will reduce the amount of steel to hone. Less steel to hone equals less effort to hone. The irony is that if you grind it right, then you do not need to grind again for a very long, long time.

The ideal grinding set up creates a moderately deep hollow as well as one with a smooth and straight edge. Most grinding wheels cannot do this without burning the steel. One can, a CBN wheel. In addition, it does not wear out, maintains its setting and has minimal (if any) maintenance.

Creating a maximum hollow means getting as close to the edge of the blade as possible. The reduces the amount of steel to hone to a minimum. The hollow also enables freehand honing, which is much quicker than setting up a guide, and the hollow is self jigging. This means that the edge you create and hone is always the same angle, and reproducible edges also means more accurate and, therefore, quicker honing. Power stropping is very far from this.

I have a full write up here: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Woodwor...ningSetUp.html

My set up with 180 and 80 grit CBN wheels (you only need the 180 grit) ...





This is the type of edge you can achieve. No more grinding required for a long time. I keep this going on a Medium and Ultra Fine Spyderco stones, which stay flat and may be used dry ..


Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I already hone without a jig, my bench space is limited, I have waterstones up to 8000 just don't like spraying water all over the place particularly when bench space is limited. Had bought Diamond stones thinking they were going to be the answer but one of them seems to have lost its abrasiveness, they're fast but I can't get the ultimate edge with them, i still need to strop. Derek, I do use a concave edge and agree with you about how it makes it much easier to register on the stone when sharpening. It has occurred to me that perhaps I should look at high end chisels with better steel so that they will stay razor sharp for longer, at the moment I have a couple of Bergs, some Stanleys, a couple of Wards and a few Titans.

Tiger, look into the Spyderco stones I mention in the article I linked. These may be used dry.

Regards from Perth

Derek

For 'touch up' honing, I strop using some kangaroo tail leather (very hard) glued to a piece of ply and charged with some fine diamond paste.
The kangaroo tail leather was on fleabay and McJing sell the diamond paste.
I keep the strop hanging on a hook on the side of the bench.
Clean, simple and always ready to go.
If the leather looks a bit 'dry', I just put some paraffin oil on the strop's leather (I use the diamond paste that comes in an oil base, not a water base).
It may not be best, but it's cheap, easy and it works for me.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Tiger, look into the Spyderco stones I mention in the article I linked. These may be used dry.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Yeah I was reading your inthewoodshop comment on them, they sound like a real possibility, pity they don't come flat from the store.

You mentioned stones with better steel

I recently bought a plane with M2 steel and it stays sharp for a LONG time and hones to a fantastic edge similar to O1 steel, which is likely what some of your vintage chisels are made from.

I've got some M2 chisels being made currently, and I'm really excited about them. In the meantime, O1 is my chisel steel of choice because I can get it sharper faster, but M2 shows great promise if the chisels are as good under chopping stress as the plane iron is under planing and scraping stresses.

Carbon steel chisels and two oilstones (the latter being either black or translucent).

If sharp but not sharpest ever is OK, just one stone (vintage washita).

Originally Posted by Tiger

I get my tools razor sharp and then after a little while they lose that sharpness which I'd like to recover as soon as possible. I use a buffing wheel charged with chromium oxide and that does the job most of the time, sometimes I may go too far and the buffing doesn't recover the original sharpness. I'd like to just keep the tools razor sharp with a minimum of fuss and like the option of not having to turn on the bench grinder to strop as I work inside sometimes and late at night. Any suggestions?

By the way, you may get to the point (as do a lot of professional carvers) that you have enough discipline with the buff to keep from advancing the angle of the edge. If that's the case, you may be able to use it indefinitely. AS long as it doesn't leave a wire edge, there's no great reason that you'd have to work the back of a chisel or plane iron (I know that brings up a big debate, but it's the case).

I prefer to work the back of a chisel or iron, but I'm doing so to both remove the wear and weaken/thin the wire edge that oilstones make.

One other suggestions - 1 micron diamonds on steel or cast iron. They will cut anything fast, especially for one micron.

I'm with DW on this one. It was a bit hit and miss for me when I was stropping on a soft wheel. I made up some 300 by 50 laminated cork wheels and that solved the discipline problem for me. I don't run the cork wheels at standard bench grinder speeds ( probably quite dangerous to try that) ...mine run about half that speed....probably a 'clear as mud explanation'! Sorry...I never worked out the final rpm the wheels run at..