Sharpening???? How often????

[dicklaxt1]

http://wowjoke.com/gif/white/1332.gif Scenario is: making a 6"diameter bowl that is 3" deep. It will be made from any medium hardness stock.
How oftem would you have to sharpen your tools or how many bowls could you make on one set of sharp tools?I assume the sharper the tool the better the cut which means less sanding.

[Limey]

Till it stops cutting ....Duh! +)
Hard to say dick I can usually go three or four bowls before a noticeable difference and then a quick touch on the leather strop and I'm back in business.
But then the sheer exuberance of using a ............(insert "T" word)...... jig makes me anticipate re-grind with enthusiasm rather than trepidation.
Catching the end of the tool on the jaw of the chuck does make this cycle shorter!!!!

Cheers Limey

[Sonny Edmonds]

Dick,
As they say, whenever it needs it.
I tried something off the wall yesterday. I have this little 1" x 30" belt/disk sander. It has a 60 grit belt on it.
I eyeballed the factory angle on the tools, and carefully sanded them using the upper section of the unsupported belt.
I found with a tiny amount of practice I could get a really good grind on the edges.
The handle of the tool being ground is UP with the sharp end pointed DOWN towards the table.
Lightly sanding/grinding the tool to a uniform beveled edge. With a little practice I got really good sharp results. I'd rotate the handle to achieve the arc on them.
Whenever the curls became chips or it felt like the edge was gone or not cutting right, I'd go touch it up.
It would leave a tiny burr to the cutting edge. A couple of licks with a foam sanding pad lightly and the flimsey little flash was gone.
The results speak for themselves, and I rest my case.

Mine is a Delta 1" x 30" belt with a 5" disk. My Bro gave it to me when he got a bigger one for his shop.

Many places I've read that often fellers only grind and don't hone the edge to any sort of "razor edge". My jury is still out on that.
I am beginning to see and feel the "wire" edge works very well for me.
I can pull a long continous string of a shooting curl with it like I've seen pictures of teachers doing, most often when all is working right.

If I can get all the "Honey Do's aside today, I'd like to build a base for an Ellsworth sharpen jig.

Take it slow and steady. There is a learning curve to it. I'm sure you can do it, just don't let it flusterate Ya.
Remember.... Ya cought the big sea trout. You can catch on to this turning BS as well.

:D

Sonny Edmonds
"Precision Firewood Specialist"
http://home.earthlink.net/~sonnypie/
God Bless America !

[SteveF]

I've been experimenting with a 1x30" belt sander for a while now. I use it just like a grinder, with the tool handle down and the shaft sitting on the rest. I have a 150x belt on it and it leaves a mirror finish on the bevel. with a gouge, a quick honing along the flute with a little waterstone and she's ready to go. The only problem is that you go through belts fairly fast and when I did the math, I found it much cheaper to use a grinding wheel. I use it for some tools, though, because it doesn't take the steel off as fast so it gives me a bit more control.

I tend to sharpen my bowl gouge a couple of times during the course of making a bowl. I don't notice it getting dull until it's really dull. I find if I touch it up more often it doesn't take as long for each touch-up and I notice the difference as soon as I start using it again. Obviously it also depends a lot on your wood.

Steve

[bwuest]

On my website http://home.twcny.rr.com/bwuest11/woodworking.htm scroll down to the pictures of what I came up with for sharpening my gouges. You could use the same set up to sharpen just about anything.
My gouge jig isn't adjustable but I've already designed one that excepts various handle thicknesses and adjustes up and down for varying angles. Make sure the 220 belt runs away from you and then buff off the burr you create with a buffing wheel and jeweler's rouge or a couple licks with 600 sand paper.
Bryan
Go to http://home.twcny.rr.com/bwuest11/woodworking.htm
for my wood projects page.
Go to http://home.twcny.rr.com/bwuest11/index.htm to check out my other hobby's web site.

[volleyheads]

When to sharpen?

The way I do it is to start off with a freshly sharpened gouge and rough turn the blank. I may or may not need to resharpen during rough turning, depending on the size of the piece, the hardness of the wood, the presence of bark/dirt etc. In general, for the 6" bowl you describe, I would guess 50/50 whether I would resharpen during roughing the outside. Then, to finish the outside, I would definitely resharpen, to get the smoothest finish cut I can get, by using a fresh edge and a shear cut using the bowl gouge. The to reverse the blank and begin hollowing, I will continue to use the same edge I finished the outside with and likely sharpen it once during the cutting. Then for the final surface cuts, I again resharpen and get as smooth a cut as possible from the tool. I tend not to use a scraper, unless I have to. With this method, I can usually get away with much less sanding and faster work rates.


Best Regards,

Bill

"If it is worth doing, it's worth overdoing"