# Sharpening your tools.



## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

After having my set of chisels for a while and not being happy with how sharp they were, I bought a Veritas honing guide to sharpen them with. I also used it to sharpen my Stanley-Bailey plane.

Here is a slideshow I came up with to show the steps involved.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_judy/sets/72157602037476154/show/

After honing my chisels to just the coarsest grit of paper, I found that they were already sharper than when I bought them. Taking them through the entire sequence brought them all to a razor sharpness.


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## Rolf Maxa (Feb 8, 2005)

Mike that was a great slide show. Sharpening tools is still a mystery for me. I bought a Craftsman Utility Sharpener, I get a usable edge. I never get to the point that you show in your slides. I should try your way.


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Excellent Mike and thanks for that. I was just talking on the phone yesterday with Bob Noles about this very subject. Nice to see it in action! 

Corey


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## S Bolton (Mar 5, 2007)

I also enjoyed your slide show. Which Veritas honing guide did you buy? It appears like it is the one just below the most expensive one. 

Anyone have thoughts on which Veritas honing guide to buy? They offer two with the Veritas® Mk.II Honing Guide being the more expensive of the two. Is it worth the extra money.

Anyway, thanks for the sharpening info.

Steve Bolton


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## Joe Lyddon (Sep 11, 2004)

Mike, that's a super good slide show on he Scary Sharp system...

I love it... it's amazing how sandpaper can work like that...

... and you added a final honing step to top it off!

Thank you for a great show!


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

From what I have read and been told, a basic guide is more than adequate Steve. The Veritas that Mike is using is a good one. 

Corey


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## S Bolton (Mar 5, 2007)

I am embarrassed to ask this, but what type of stone is used in the final process? Arkansas stone? I have read about the scary sharp system, and I am very impressed with it, but I am unfamilar with this final step.

Thanks

Also embarrassed to ask how to spell check things on this forum. I think someone recently told me.

Thanks again.

Steve Bolton


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

S Bolton said:



> Also embarrassed to ask how to spell check things on this forum. I think someone recently told me.
> 
> Thanks again.
> 
> Steve Bolton


No worries Steve. As you are typing and a word comes up underlined in red it is most likely a misspelled word, then right click the mouse on it and a list of possible correct words come up. 

Corey


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## S Bolton (Mar 5, 2007)

My words never come up underlined in red, like they do in Microsoft. I wonder if I can turn something on?

sb


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

Thanks all. I'm glad the slide show was useful. I had spent this weekend learning the process. I started with an old chisel set and was able to get all the nicks from abuse out of them.

The Veritas guide I have is model 05M0201 that I bought at Woodcraft for $38.99. They had the set with the angle jig for twice the price.
http://www.veritastools.com/Products/Page.aspx?p=119 I just cut a piece of oak on the TS to get a 25deg angle as that is the angle of all my blades.
Woodcraft also has the cheaper (Made in China) $15 honing guide, but the roller is very thin. The Veritas (Made in Canada) gives you more stability but it takes a bit more to get the 90deg set on it. It comes with a stick-on pad that prevents slipping of the tool being sharpened. I use that.

The stone I have is a Norton F88 Fine India oil stone. I also have a Norton Hard Arkansas oil stone that I could have used to polish to a mirror finish. I figure that would be going a bit overboard as the chisels already came out so sharp that they are "Scary". The 600 paper already sharpened the blades extremely sharp, and I'm not completely sure the stone helped, but I figured what the heck.

S Bolton, I use Firefox and it spell checks everything you type.


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Good info Mike, thanks. Steve, I am using Firefox as well ( worth the download) and that must be the trick here. 

Corey


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## Ken D (May 20, 2007)

Well fellas, I need tosave time sharppening gouges for the lathe workstones and oil and too much time. My son likes to invest in his future tools bought me the Work Sharp 3000...........Wow, I sharpened six hand tools in less than 5 minutes and back to the lathe. The boy knows toys................See the demo @ work sharpe tools


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

I just installed a large corian counter top in the kitchen and I have the sink cut out piece 33 x 22. I am wondering if a piece of this would work for the scarey sharp system instead of glass? Again it's not granite but corian. 

Does anyone know if this stuff can be cut with a carbide tipped blade on the table saw? Some one told me he thought it needed to be cut with water and I think he is probably right. Just wondering. 

Corey


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## Joe Lyddon (Sep 11, 2004)

Corey, I know it can be cut with good router bits...

Yes, it would make a great base for the Scary sandpaper... although, not that much would be required... 

NICE stuff!


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Yeah, I thought it would be worth a shot for sharpening on and that's why I need to cut it cause it's a large piece. I know they use router bits on it but was thinking they use water jets with it but maybe not. I know it can be turned easily on a lathe as well with normal tools. People make pens out of it all the time too. 

Corey


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

I too use the spell-check in Firefox but it only underlines the miss spelt word so I also have FreeSpell 4.2 which is a freebie as reccomended by Bj.


Mike, thanks for that first class shoot on sharpening, it's never been my strong point.


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## dirkost (Jul 8, 2009)

Hi Ho: Just bought the Veritas Mark II jig today and used it with sandpaper on a flat surface. It works great and takes care of the problem with setting the angle and the alignment of the tool. I used it with chisels from 1/4 inch to plane irons 2 inches wide.

It makes a geat addition to my 90 rpm wet grinding system. It takes only a couple of minutes per item. I ended up looking for more things to sharpen.

I think my water stones and oil stones are just paper weights now.

Dirk


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## awoodnut (May 2, 2009)

great slide show, thanks.

what do you use to glue the paper down so it is smooth? 

Also I see you change the angle at the end to get a cutting edge. Does this mean you don't need the slight concave grind in the blade? Thats how I learned on the grinder but never got a consistant result.

I need to sharpen a couple of old planes I got and this looks very easy to do.

Mike
I made it work with some sticky sandpaper I had and my router table top. I used a piece of wood and a clamp to hold the 400 & 600 that wasn't sticky.
I don't have a jig so I did it by hand. Worked good as far as the angle but aparently was rocking just a little as the edges where down a little more. Any suggestions on controling the rocking and keeping the edge dead square? Agean I am just holding the blade and pushing down with the other hand.

I did get some nice shavings once it was done but I assume the piece will be slightly concave if the edges are in a little.

Thanks 
Mike


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

Some have cut a block of wood at the correct angle and hold the blade to that. Never tried it that way, so I have no idea how it would work.
Woodcraft has a honing guide for cheap. It holds the blade by the edges, which some prefer over the Veritas method.
Buy Honing Guide at Woodcraft.com


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

"what do you use to glue the paper down so it is smooth?"

Some use aerosol glue, I use the wife's hairspray (lacquer).


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

I've seen 3m Spray 77 adhesive mentioned in some of the Scairy Sharp articles.n


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

I've tried the spray on adhesives and honestly.. I think they don't leave a very smooth surface to be running the edge over. PSA sandpaper is available and works great. Once you get your edges to where you want them, its pretty easy to maintain em. I've tried oil stones, water stones, scary sharp system and the worksharp..IMHO..water stones are by far the best, but time consuming.. The scary sharp system is the most practile/affordable way to go and produces a mighty fine edge. the WorkSharp is affordable, and does one heck of a job. spend a couple extra bucks and get extra glass mounting plates....


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

Titus A Duxass said:


> "what do you use to glue the paper down so it is smooth?"
> 
> Some use aerosol glue, I use the wife's hairspray (lacquer).


I use any spray adhesive I have handy. A light coat is all you need. Too much and it starts to work its way out from under the edges.

Once you start using it, the paper will smooth itself out.


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## Titus A Duxass (Jan 6, 2010)

"I've tried the spray on adhesives and honestly.. I think they don't leave a very smooth surface to be running the edge over."

That's why I use hairspray, it gives a perfectly level surface.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

hairspray.... now whodda thunk it....*S*...definately going to get the glass back out...

thanks guys...


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