By
R. Adam Blake, Editor
Betterway
Woodworking Books
If you ask ten woodworkers, "How do you sharpen a tool?" You will
undoubtably get ten different answers. There are as many "sharpening
systems" for woodworkers on the market today as there are different types
of tools that need sharpened. A woodworker looking for the answer to the
above question can quickly find himself lost in a sea of wet grinders,
wet-dry grinders, diamond stones, Washita, Arkansas, Ohio, Japanese,
man-made and natural stones, silicon carbide--the list goes on.
Whenever someone asks my opinion about "sharpening systems" the image of my
Grandfather, "Pop" we all called him, always comes to mind.
Whetstone is plentiful where I grew up in Ohio. That is
where Pop's "sharpening system" came from. We would find
smooth, fairly flat stones down in the creek behind his
house. I can distinctly remember him whittling away on the
model sailboats he used to make for us kids. The model making
required very sharp carving knives (which we weren't allowed
to touch) and precise fittings. I would watch intently as
Pop would spit into a small, flat piece of whetstone, rub
it around with his finger and proceed to draw one of his
knives across it slowly and evenly, switching one side then
another.
I would count out twenty strokes then hold out my arm. Pop would smile and
carefully draw the knife across my forearm, shaving a spot bare, "Yup," he
would say, "sharp as your Granma's tongue."
There is a moral to this story. You can get just as sharp an edge from a
$300.00 "sharpening system" as you can from my Pop's whetstone and spittle.
I have watched in amazement while a woodworker sharpened a chisel using
nothing more than a piece of plate glass, water, and a sheet of automotive
sandpaper. It is not the money you spend that will get your tools sharp,
it is the skills you acquire learning how to sharpen and care for your
tools properly.
Here are some basic's to help you get the best results from your sharpening
efforts:
- Protect sharpened edges. A pile of chisels in a tool box will not stay
sharp. Edges should be individually protected.
- Use some form of wash to draw spent abrasive away when sharpening. Use
water with natural stones, honing oil with synthetic abrasives.
- With stones, you want to use the entire surface when honing. Keep from
putting grooves in the stone.
- Keep your sharpening stones, wheels, abrasives, whatever you use free of
dirt and dust. Keep them closed in a container and out of the way when not
in use. Oil stones can be stored submersed in oil. Water stones should be
stored dry.
