dayum hard wood!!!!

[hughbie]

i just made a new pen, sierra in blk ti and plat. the wood i decided to use was included in a 'beginners package' sent to me by Nolan. i'm beginning to believe he put the Hondurus rosewood just for fun. now, i dont have scary sharp tools but i do keep as edge on the and hon them regulary. but when i put the blades to this rosewood.....it was like trying to turn....hell, i don't know....this was the hardest and most difficult to turn. but when it was finished it turned out great.

i'm sorry for the slight delay, l still need to take a pic of this and show everyone. maybe tomorrow.....stay tuned if for updates

and thank you thank you go to Nolan. that man has some great lumber...doesn't he?

 

[JayDevin]

you need to have sharp tools always. a dull one is a dangerous one!

 

[stevers]

I don't have a "sharpening system", but I do have my disc sander directly next to my lathe work area. I turn and touch up my skew as it needs it. Maybe as many as a half dozen times in one pen job. Depends on the material. It's easy to tell when it gets "less" than sharp and only takes me a few seconds to fix it.

 

[gketell]

Hardest wood I've run across so far is the Hala wood from Kalai! It makes the Honduran Rosewood seem like cutting clay. But it is purty. I'll post pics when I finish the pen.

GK

 

[redfishsc]

The hardest (meaning: difficult and density) wood I have turned, at least by my wood hardness skew-o-meter, was a 45* bias cut tigerwood, aka, goncalo alves. I blew three blanks before giving up on the skew and using a small bowl gouge, which didn't cut quite as flat as the skew (leaving ridges) but it didn't tear out the grain at all and the pen turned out lovely. I wish I had a pic[V]

 

[Rifleman1776]

Originally posted by stevers
<br />I don't have a "sharpening system", but I do have my disc sander directly next to my lathe work area. I turn and touch up my skew as it needs it. Maybe as many as a half dozen times in one pen job. Depends on the material. It's easy to tell when it gets "less" than sharp and only takes me a few seconds to fix it.

Unless your skew is made of lead, six times for one pen is a sign something is wrong. Methinks you might have the wrong angle on the edge and cheap steel in your tool. While the rosewoods are hard, generally they are not difficult to turn. BTW, the disk sander should be OK for your skew sharpening needs. But do check your angle and maybe adjust.

 

[stevers]

Thanks Frank, I will.

 

[les-smith]

So how do you know you've got the right angle? I use the Chisel Mate from PSI on my lathe to sharpen and I use my tool rest to set my angle. I just set it up so when I'm grinding it looks like I'm grinding at the same angle as what was on the chisel. Is there a correct angle or a rule of thumb for the angle we need when we sharpen our chisel?