Sharpining

[tomy2]

Ok...here is a can of worms I would like to open. What are some of the methods you guys use to sharpen your turning tools? Now remember I am new to this so.........heheheh thanks!

 

[txbob]

I use a 1" x 31" belt sander with a 100 grit blue belt made for grinding metal. Then I hone by hand on a fine diamond plate, a super-fine diamond plate, and a white super-fine ceramic stone. Between grindings I touch up 5 or 6 times on the ceramic stone. If I want really sharp I'll strop on leather to polish the edge.
Happy turning,
Bob S.

 

[Doghouse]

Variable speed grinder 8" and a wolverine jig.

Quick easy and accurate. Just try this cover the bevel with black permanent marker, then touch the tool to the wheel and turn the wheel by hand. it will scrape off some of the marker. If the scrape only covers the tip, you have too much angle. If it only scrapes the ink off the bottom too little angle. If the scrape runs the full length, you have it set up correctly. 2 quick passes and you are sharp again.

 

[fmunday]

Originally posted by tomy2
<br />Ok...here is a can of worms I would like to open. What are some of the methods you guys use to sharpen your turning tools? Now remember I am new to this so.........heheheh thanks!

Well... I was going to put this in another Sharpening topic that I started a while back but work called... again... and I had to pull a couple of Late Nighters with an All Nighter sandwiched in between so I didn't get back to it.[] I use two sharpening methods, freehand and the Wolverine Jig. I started out with the freehand method and still use it on my favorite tools. This can be a tricky method to use because you are depending on being able to maintain the original grind angle of the tool. There are jigs out there for doing plane irons and other straight edged tools. The new jigs (not really freehand) should make it possible to put an exceptional edge on this type of cutting tool. Looks to be pretty simple. Put the tool in the jig, match the bevel angle (by eye or setting gauge), lock it in place and move forward and back on your stone. You need to apply some pressure but not a great deal or so I'm told and I assume that to be correct because it works the same freehanded. You are going to put a burr or wire edge on the back side of the tool. You can lightly work the back side on your stone and remove the burr. Continue on down through the finest grit stone that you have.

Freehand works the same way except you don't rely on a jig to maintain the angle. It is probably a good thing to learn in case you have to resharpen your tools and don't have access to a jig. Practice is usually the best teacher so go to your local HD or other home center and pick up a couple of cheap chisels and a cheap plane iron or two and start working the edge. The goal should be to have the edge mirror polished and sharp enough to shave with.

You will need good quality Diamond/Arkansas/Water stones to accomplish a really good sharpening/honing job. You probably should have some type of strop to finish with. I've never used a strop. I've always used my belt.[] Seems to work for me but a strop should work better. Check out the sharpening topic (next page or so over) for a good looking method that DW uses.

It looks like the jigs, stones and other goodies you might need to do sharpening (non grinder type) will probably run $200 - $250. Maybe a little high for your tastes -- I know it is for mine![] I use either a piece of 1/4" or thicker plate glass or a machinist's flat and successively finer grits of wet/dry sandpaper. Wet the glass or flat lightly and place the paper on the surface with the grit side up. The water tension beneath the paper should keep it in place. Wet the surface of the paper to lubricate and create a slurry as you sharpen. Sharpen as you would with stones. It will polish and give you a spooky sharp edge but you can only get to 2,000 grit (that I'm aware of) but I've never really found the need to go any finer. You can go to 8,000 and 12,000 with water stones if you want to go finer. I've also seen kits that allow you to go much finer than that but I've never used them. Glass or Machinist's Flat and wet/dry is a lot cheaper than expensive stones and provides excellent results.

Wolverine and other grinder jigs seem to work very well for lathe tools. I use a Wolverine jig for all of my day to day skews and gouges. It is quick and sure and gives an acceptable working edge and is great for a quick touch up while turning. If you are so inclined, you can build a similar jig from readily available stock (wood) that should work as well. Do a Google search or checkout Archives and FAQs for articles on these. I'm not going to go into how to ues a Wolverine jig. OneWay has some really good tutorials on this (in RealMedia format I think) on their web site. Watching them is more beneficial than anything I can put down here.

Kinda long but maybe this will help with sharpening issues.

 

[Bev Polmanteer]

This may be a dumb question but I'm lost! I've heard lots about sharpening but don't recall how fast the motor should be if using the wolverine or any other method. I have a washing machine motor that my hubby made into a grinder so I don't know if that is too fast or too slow for sharpening. Any help in that direction would help. Also if I'm going to buy one what speeds should I look for?

 

[RussFairfield]

Bev,
Read Items 6 thru 15 in the following link:

http://www.woodcentral.com/russ/russ5.shtml

It is all you need to know about grinding wheels and sharpening tools. Everything else is personal preference.