Thread: Show off your sharpening tools

We all love sharpening and we all have a set of sharpening tools. How many water stones do you have?

This is thread is about sharpening so I am expecting > 10 pages.

I've got three waterstones, some cheap diamond plates, three sharpening jigs, a bench grinder and a horizontal grinder I made.

I'm going to start one on drill bits

A bench grinder, a large sheet of thick glass and sheets of various grades of wet and dry papers. Oh and a can of spray glue to make it work.

Ross

G'day

Grinder and makita wet sharpener
diamond plate, five waterstones
veritas honing jig, and one for japanese blades.
veritas scraper sharpening set
one of those long float glass thingies
honing compound, leather pad,mdf strip
angle gauge, and gauge for setting jointer blades
cheers

I brought a jig at the Bris ww show not cheap but best thing since sliced bread.
lets you sharpen tool upside down with tool fixed. You move diamond / stone / sandpaper etc. Even does scrub plane blade perfect.
Sharpening is now no longer a frustrating science every tool at right ( my right ) angle every time. Can just throw chisel on mid job with ease.
will take pics and post
rod

Bin full of worn wet and dry doesn't make much of a pic.

For plane irons and chisels, what would be an economical step up from 'scary sharp'? Got a grinder for shaping, so a couple of waterstones?

3 sheets of glass and a heap of wet and dry - again not much to look at. Almost forgot, a hairless left forearm from checking how sharp my chisels are. If they don't shave they aint sharp enough.

Three Shaptons (2K, 5K and 8K), three Kings (800, 1,200, 6K - only use the 1,200 occasionally since getting the Shaptons), Shapton's Kubo diamond reference lapping plate (awesome beast), Veritas Mk1 sharpening jig (no longer used), pump pressure container, and an old battered bucket. Also a Ryobi 8" grinder.

All my sharpening is done on the garage floor on two blocks of wood.

Des

I have as follows
8"makita bench grinder with a carbatec angle plate
6" makita bench grinder
sheet of hardened glass (side window from a Toyota troopie)
lots of different grades of wet and dry paper and crocus cloth
Five or six caborundum stones ,different sizes and grades
a couple of slip stones
one round double sided axe stone
two washita stones
one leather straight razor strop
bald left forearm

Thanks to some very good advice from DC. I have 800, 1200, 6,000 King waterstones, Veritas MKII honing guide, a piece of 10mm plate glass and plasterers sanding mesh. My chisels will shave the hair off the dogs tail without waking her.

I guess at some point I will need a grinder but cant decide which.

Originally Posted by rodp

I brought a jig at the Bris ww show not cheap but best thing since sliced bread.
Sharpening is now no longer a frustrating science every tool at right ( my right ) angle every time. Can just throw chisel on mid job with ease.
will take pics and post
rod

Look forward to seeing that Rod,

I like to keep sharpening as simple as possible because I really hate it so. But, in my eforts to develop an efficient system, I have tried just about all methods. At the end of the day I have three separate systems, which does not take into account the alternative systems (when I get bored or want to experiment as I am curious as well as lazy).

System 1

For bevel down planes and most chisels (excluding mortice, Japanese and lathe), I grind a hollow on the blade using a 6" high speed grinder.

I set the bevel angle using the Tormek jig as grinding is followed by freehand honing on waterstones. Until recently I was using King 800, 1200 and 8000. I am now using Shapton 1000, 5000 and 8000. The Shaptons are ceramic-based and required just a little water as lubricant. They remain flat very long.



I will keep them flat with a DMT coarse diamond stone (this is being delivered - they are that new). At present I use a 240 grit belt on glass. This has the advantage of being washable so that grit is not cross contaminated.



System 2

For bevel up planes (where a microbevel is used to create the cutting angle) and Japanese chisels (where the bevel face is flat), I grind on a belt sander (search for details):

This is used with a Tormek-type blade holder, but I have also recently been using a honing guide directly on the turning belt:



The next step for plane blades is a Veritas honing guide (MkII) on waterstones to create a microbevel. Here I am honing a fine camber for a smoother.

For Japanese chisels I just freehand on waterstones.

System 3

This is the use of a disk sander for honing lathe chisels. If I need to grind I use a 80 or 120 grit disk. Honing on a 240 grit disk is usually enough for most wood. Occasionally I add a leather strop with Veritas green rouge (.5 microns).

Other

These include a hard felt wheel with Veritas green rouge (see grinder above)...

Diamond pastes of 40, 10, 1, and 0.5 microns used on Jarrah scrap



... a leather strop with Veritas rouge, and another used plain.

... and card scrapers need files and burnishers:

Did you last through that?!

Regards from Perth

Derek

For turning tools I use the tool straight off either an 80 grit white wheel with a Sorby fingernail profile jig or an 80 grit pink wheel with a platform. Plus occasional slipstone or diamond coated rod polishing of the flute with cheap gouges.

Anything finer than that won't last seconds on Aussie hardwoods.