Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Begin Woodworking - Part 2 Sharpening

If you are going to begin woodworking, you'll need to have the ability to sharpen your tools. New chisels and planes do not come ready to use out of the box. Part 2 of Begin Woodworking, gets you started into sharpening. Water stones cut faster than oil, and between the diamond stone, and 2 Norton water stones I show you, sharpening is just an edge away. Jump in and if you have any questions contact me at askneil@furnitology.com Life is fun when you can make stuff, especially out of wood.

9 comments:

Neil....a Furnitologist said...

David........that's a super suggestion with the oversize try.
Water and wood are such an odd couple.

Luis said...

Hey Neil,

Where's the link to download the QuickTime file? Watching live on the website is a real pain with my limited bandwidth.

Take care,
Luis

Neil....a Furnitologist said...

Hi Luis.....glad to heard from you.....to be honest not sure why quicktime is not there. I downloaded as I have in the past.

Next download I'll see if I need to check a box.

You can see the episode over at itunes if that helps you.

How are you????.......Neil

The Don of Time said...

Absolutely fantastic information.
I've done about seven years of set construction for theatre, and a little television set construction, but I've never owned/used my own tools, I always used the shop's provided tools; so I've never had to to sharpen my equipment.
this summer I intend to build travel guitars, and have been looking for quality information on sharpening, and your video helped set me straight. I was about to buy a 30 dollar sharpening kit until I saw this, now I'm going to save up and buy waterstones. Yes, I'm with you in that I don't want water in my shop, but it's almost worth it if you have a a separate station for your sharpening.
Thank you!

TheApprenticeandTheJourneyman said...

Neil,
Great to see you back at it. I've missed your enthusiasm and your knowledge of the craft. (not necessarily in that order)...35 years ago I was taught how to sharpen chisels and plane irons. While watching your demonstration I learned something new. Stay strong. You were missed.

Vic Hubbard said...

Neil!! I so happy to see you casting again! I'm enjoying catching up. I really like your interviews with the up and coming talents.

Ronaldo said...

Hi Neil

good to see you on video again ;)
just a few comments that seemed a bit overlooked: you use the rough stones to raise the burr all over the edge, then you just polish the edge (of the bevel) on the finer stones, no need to raise it again, so you have to apply just a very little pressure at the final strokes. The back of the chisel (or plane blade) after being flattened and polished for the 1st time should only touch the finest stone afterwards.

-Rondo

Neil....a Furnitologist said...

Hey Rondo....thanks for posting over here. You get around. Did you notice the bookends come up on the 207....I haven't followed up with the 207, you and I may come up with our own "shippable design". The Call for Entires should be out tenetative next week (7/24/2010), probably need a change or 2, then you'll have a better idea of a time frame and fitting a small object into your plans. I'm going to see a laser cutter next week. Hudson Valley Inlay....I'm still not visualizing my motiff and it's getting late.

As for the sharpening-

Ronaldo, you are absolutely correct after flattening the back. BUT in my case and for those who are impatient like me, the back of my chisels are all at different degrees of flatteness...I get too antsy and use the chisel before the back is "perfectly" flat.

My rational here is that over time I with continue to work the back of the chisel until it is "perfect", then like you say just touch it with the fine. I also left out my strop which I'll go to before pulling out my wet stones.....I view sharpening as a means to get to my end.

THANKS Rondo....I appreciate yout time.

Ronaldo said...

hey Neil

I've been following your blog since the Mollino table, and yes I do get around ;)

about the back, you just need to flatten it once, going back to coarser stones everytime and re-polishing it takes much more time than doing it once for good
(should be "lightining" quick with diamond stones, comparing to waterstones.)

I'll try to contact you on the bookend, as I got a vacuum pump
(19cfm, 300€ a steal!!) I was
thinking about something molded,
but the setup is far from complete...

-Rondo

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