Sharpening Hello

[ghansen4]

I am in need of some advice for sharpening skews. My goal is to get to the "scary sharp" range. I have a Rikon slow speed grinder, a 350 grit CBN wheel, a Wolverine jig with skew attachment, and I work with a set of Benjamin Best tools, and a Doug Thompson skew. For the sake of this thread I'm only taking about sharpening the skews.
I color the bevel of the tool with a sharpie, then set the jig so the wheel is making contact with the whole bevel. I lightly touch the tool to the wheel for a few seconds then turn and repeat. This IS sharpening them but not getting them as sharp as I want.

What more should I be doing? Or what an I doing wrong?

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Sounds like you have the stuff to set the bevel right. Suggest you try some finer grits. 350 should get you sharp but if you're looking for scary sharp, you'll need to get to 2000. At least.
For skews, I use a Work Sharp and take it as high as they go - I'm thinking it's 6000 or something like that.

 

[leehljp]

I have had people disagree with me on another forum over this very issue, and while CBNs and Tormeks do super work, the work is not completed until it is honed. Tormeks and CBN wheels do precision SHAPING, and they SHARPEN super well, but there is nothing like the final honing done by hand.

As mentioned, many a bowl turners with some recognizable names will say that that is good enough, but then look at the habits of the best of them and they have the tools and money to buy the best, but they still hand hone to a mirror shaving sharpness. It doesn't take but a single minute to hand hone a correctly sharpened skew or other, but it makes all the difference in the world.

I have the CBN and the Grizzly clone of the Tormek. But I hand hone and keep a .3 and 1 micron sanding pad next to my lathe for taking a swipe or two between cuts to keep it mirror sharp. This is just good practice.

 

[eharri446]

Back in the day when barber shops used straight razors to trim the back of your neck when you got a hair cut, they always hit the razor on the strop hanging on the chair to hone the edge. Otherwise the razor would tend to pull the hair rather than cut it.

 

[Woodchipper]

Back in the day when barber shops used straight razors to trim the back of your neck when you got a hair cut, they always hit the razor on the strop hanging on the chair to hone the edge. Otherwise the razor would tend to pull the hair rather than cut it.

I remember those days. I have an old straight razor and a small strop that belonged to one of my grandmother's ancestors. Don't think I'll try it.

 

[MRDucks2]

I once received an entire haircut with a straight razor and a comb from a Cajun barber in Conroe, TX. It was about 4 years ago.


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[Woodchipper]

There were a couple of styling fads using a comb and razor. Haven't seen them advertised with any barber shop or salon i n years. I believe one was the Roffler style and the other was the Sebring style. Jay Sebring was one of the victims or Charles Manson, if my memory serves me. Correction is welcome. I can take criticism- I've been married over 46 years.

 

[MRDucks2]

Guy said he started at a hospital shaving people for surgery then went into trimming hair at mortuaries/funeral homes before getting the barbershop. I watched him give one haircut before me. Fascinating process and a good haircut but rather slow and expensive as a result. Glad I got it once, but never went back.


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[Charlie_W]

In agreement with Hank....honing after coming off the wheel. I have diamond hones with 1,000 being my finest. After grinding , I usually use the 600, then the 1,000. If I want to go further, I use a honing wheel I made for my lathe. This is simply a piece of 3/4" MDF attached to a faceplate...and turned round...same diameter as your CBN wheel. I simply apply a bit of Tormek honing/ polishing compound to the MDF wheel and run the lathe slowly. The compound ( in a squeeze tube) is rated at about 8,000 grit. It doesn't take much...I just dot the wheel with some compound and smooth with my finger before turning on the lathe.
This takes the honed surface closer to a mirror finish. Always hone with the cutting edge trailing as it is held against the wheel and be careful about heat build up. That is why I mount this on the lathe and run slowly.
I would imagine adding a leather belt would help take it farther to that mirror polish....I have a 1"x30" leather belt but haven't put it on a wheel yet. In time I will get around to that.
A second lathe ( mini lathe) is helpful as you can leave the wheel mounted for quick honing.
Hope this helps.

 

[leehljp]

Honing is not complicated and doesn't take nearly as long as shaping/sharpening does. Below is a link to honing compounds but there are other colors of honing compound such as green that may be more common.
Something like this.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Bar-Buff...:QwYAAOSwopRYkNNt:sc:USPSPriority!38676!US!-1

You can get paste rubbing compound too. Doesn't really matter although there minor differences. Rub some compound on a piece of hard leather and pull your skew across it three or four times on each side of the blade. It really refines the edge.

A Japanese friend gave me a set of chisels and a box with a flat piece of soft wood inside. The wood was about 3 inches wide 8 inches long and 1 inch thick. he had rubbed the top of it with some green cutting/polishing compound (and included the compound in the box). He told me after getting the chisels to shape (ground to the correct angle) to take a few swipes cross the wood board with the compound on it. Did wonders!

The Japanese fellow was a master craftsman and made beautiful work!

 

[GaryMGg]

Best haircuts I've ever had were 100% straight razor cut—of course, that's when I had hair :biggrin: