sharpening

[Guest]

I have been doing power carving of animals for quite some time and have recently started doing carving with knives and gouges. My question concerns sharpening. Can anyone recommend a really good book on the subject. Really having trouble with gouges and v-tools. ???

[millhoused]

Re: sharpening

Hi OldBearx2,
I can't recommend a book but I can recommend some web sites that will fix you right up.
http://www.oldjoe.org/ToolSharpening...harpening.html
http://www.woodcarvers.com/SHARPENIN...arp/index.html

These are my favorite sharpening links in no particular order.

Happy Carving,
Don

[Guest]

Re: sharpening

Find about any of Harold Enlows woodcarving books and you will find about as good of instruction as anywhere. Sharpening instructions are always shown at the first of his books.

Make the chips fly and don't cut yourself!!!

[millhoused]

Re: sharpening

I was just reading my 'Carving Magazine' www.carvingmagazine.com and it shows an upcoming issue will have sharpening techniques by Joe Dillett. Also, Big Dog sells sharpening books at:
http://thewoodcraftshop.com/

makin' firewood,
Don

[Plain_Ol_Ed]

Re: sharpening

'Complete guide to Sharpening'
Leonard Lee
$22.95

or

'On the Cutting Edge a Woodcarver's Guide to Sharpening'
Loren Moseley
$12.95

both available from 'Little Shavers'
(206)767-7421

[Guest]

Re: sharpening

There are many good books and websites that cover just about every technique for sharpening. This can actually be even more confusing considering that there are so many ways to achieve the same results.

The best way to learn sharpening is still finding someone with sharp tools and asking them to teach you how they do it and what they use.

Good whittlin, Cliff
Charles City, Iowa
http://cliffordparker.tripod.com

[Guest]

Re: sharpening

Happiness is a sharp chisel !
If it don't cut to da bone.... it ain't sharp !
ol fred

[millhoused]

Re: sharpening

On rare occasions I wish I had dull tools. Cut to da bone hurts. :-[

[carvin_marvin]

Re: sharpening

I bought a wet/dry slow speed grinding sharpener from Sears today for 30.00. I had read somewhere that this was a great poor man's sharpener.

It seems a little hard to get the angle set right but I will have to keep experiment some unless someone has some pointers for using this grinder.

[fred]

[plain_ol_ed]

Re: sharpening

r.e. Sears sharpener ... Picked one up a few weeks ago ... never did try to set the angle just kind of eyeballed it ... don't use it on my carving stuff as I find my normal bench grinder works better and faster (does requre a bit of caution). I too noticed that the stone has cracked. Have not tried to get into the guts of the thing yet. There's got to be a way. It does work good on lawn mower blades, machete's, hoes and other yard tools though.

[Guest]

Re: sharpening

While using a gouge recently I noticed it was not as sharp as it was before. I have stropped it using yellowstone but the edge appears ragged under a magnifying glass.

Is this the time to go back to the stone for some honing?

Should I grind the edge perpendicular to the stone first in an effort to remove the ragged edge or will the honing take care of it?

This is a pfeil gouge and I hate to mess up the bevel and edge with my sharpening skills?

[Guest]

Re: sharpening

You might try this, before going and doing a regrind. Take that gouge and cut a deep groove (all the way to the edge) in a hardwood block. Then glue a piece of fairly thin leather into the groove. Add a bit of your stropping element to the leather and strop the gouge in the groove. This will strop all the bevel on the gouge at the same time, and may solve your problem.

If you don't have, or can't find any leather, just load the wood in the groove with the stropping medium and use the groove itself to do the stropping. Either way should work.

Al

[Guest]

Re: sharpening

Look up 'scary sharp' on google...I use that method, using finer and finer grits of sandpaper and am happy with the results..end up with 2000 grit and it polishes the blade!

[colin_partridge]

Re: sharpening

I agree with Cliff there are many ways to sharpen a knife or chisel and ask 20 different carvers and you will get 20 different ways. I struggled with sharpening for years and finally I have got to where I can sharpen quite well. The key is practice. Take all the instruction you recieve and try it on some cheap tools when you can sharpen those reasonably well then progress to your better tools believe me its all practice and the key is not to burn the cutting edge. If you do then grind it down and start again.
Good luck and let us know how you make out.
Colin
http://www.geocities.com/partridge_ch