Charles Krug wrote:
Pretty much it. What do you use to sharpen and how do you have it
arranged. I've a couple of Arkansas in boxes that I mostly keep on a
If I had room for it, I just remembered that I have an octagonal glass table
stuff behind some bushes. No use for it, but I'm stupidly sentimental
about one of the first pieces of furniture SWMBO and I bought together.
That would make a kickass sharpening station, because I could put full
sheets of every grit on the thing and leave them there.
Woulda, coulda, shouldda... What I *actually* use is very compact, and
somewhat tedious.
I have 1/3 sheets in 60, 100, 150, 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000
grits in some little flimsy plastic puke bucket SWMBO brought home from the
hospital. I keep the sheets stacked in the correct order, and weight them
down when not in use. Add to the kit a piece of 1/3-sheet sized granite
counter backstop, a Veritas angle guide flummy, a weird little clamp that
used to hold something to a desk, a front vise, and a 4" x 36" belt sander.
* pick and angle, and fix the dull item into the Veritas jig
* determine whether it needs a little or a lot of attention
* if it needs a *lot* of attention (nicks or a total angle change), take it
over to the belt sander... I rigged an angle iron table screwed to the
side of the sander so that I can keep the tool in the same angle guide, and
don't have to screw with the angle setting on the sander table itself. I
grind at 100 grit until I get what I want done.
* if I'm starting from scratch, I'll start with 60 grit. If I've done some
power sanding, I'll start with 150 grit. Either way, pick the low grit,
clamp it in, then slide, slide, slide, slide slide.
* repeat for every grit
For some circumstances I will use an additional clamp on the paper to keep
it from wrinkling up. Depends on what I'm sharpening. If it's a plane
iron or a wide chisel, I sometimes just roll it with one hand, and hold
tension on the paper with the other. For narrow chisels that want to pivot
around, I hold with both hands and use two clamps for those grits that
require it.
Leaves something to be desired (like a big hex glass table with full sheets
of every grit) in terms of convenience and speed, but it gets me there
consistently in minimal space.
--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/