Sharpening Question

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yorkie

yorkie

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Joined
Mar 2, 2009
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Charlotte, North Carolina
My knackered old grinder finally bit the dust, toward the end there it had a wobble so I was getting a scalloped edge to my workhorse gouge so, what's next I ask.

I don't want to spend the money on a Tormek; are they good for gouges anyway? What about the Work Sharp 3000? Or, should I just stick with a good quality slow speed or variable speed grinder? I've never been great at sharpening my chisels so this is my chance to be much better at it with the right equipment.

So, cast your vote:

Tormek

Work Sharp 3000

Bench Grinder

Something else??

I don't want a jack-of-all-trades sharpener, I just want to sharpen my gouge and other chisels really sharp and easily.

Thanks a lot, guys.
 
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Here is a video of a home made sharpening station to consider. You could buy a good variable speed grinder and make the jig out of scraps. I personally use a $100 bench top belt sander that has a steel "bed" behind the belt. There was a learning curve because I did have to figure out how to set it up to get consistent results and it works fine for me.
 
I use a variation of this on all my gouges. I think this is one of the best all around turning pages out there, but this sharpening info is priceless. http://aroundthewoods.com/sharpening01.html
For my skew's I use a belt grinder, mostly because i have one setting just down the bench from the bench grinder, and it was easier to set up the belt grinder than make a second jig for the bench grinder and switch back and forth, and also because I suspect that using a belt grinder with a flat surface that is wider than the chisel to make a flat grind on a skew is easier to do consistently than moving the chisel back and forth across the face of the wheel. (I don't grind on the sides of the wheel, I've seen what happens when one blows up because of that). Actually there was no jig to be made on the belt grinder, just a couple of dimples drilled into the edging of my bench the same distance from the sides of the belt at about the spot where they happened to line up when the chisel was eyeball square to the direction of the belt and the existing bevel flat to the belt. I still think that the exact edge and bevel angles are not as important as the fact that they are equal and consistent on both sides, and repeatable every time. YMMV of course.
 
jskeen said:
I use a variation of this on all my gouges. I think this is one of the best all around turning pages out there, but this sharpening info is priceless. http://aroundthewoods.com/sharpening01.html
For my skew's I use a belt grinder, mostly because i have one setting just down the bench from the bench grinder, and it was easier to set up the belt grinder than make a second jig for the bench grinder and switch back and forth, and also because I suspect that using a belt grinder with a flat surface that is wider than the chisel to make a flat grind on a skew is easier to do consistently than moving the chisel back and forth across the face of the wheel. (I don't grind on the sides of the wheel, I've seen what happens when one blows up because of that). Actually there was no jig to be made on the belt grinder, just a couple of dimples drilled into the edging of my bench the same distance from the sides of the belt at about the spot where they happened to line up when the chisel was eyeball square to the direction of the belt and the existing bevel flat to the belt. I still think that the exact edge and bevel angles are not as important as the fact that they are equal and consistent on both sides, and repeatable every time. YMMV of course.
Click to expand...

I had to go to the library to figure out YMMV.:redface:
 
Thanks so much for all yiur help and advice, guys. I have decided to go with the Grizzly 10" slow speed wet grinder and the Tormek jigs for truing and sharpening.

This way, I don't have to spend $600 on a Tormek but if the Grizzly ever breaks I haven't bought jigs I can't use if I choose to upgrade one day. I think I've gone with the best of both worlds, quality and affordability. All in cost $350.

I was doing analysis to paralysis there for a while!
 
I'd re-emphasize what Jskeen said about consistency and repeatability. The wet grinder works slowly, if your jig setup is even a little bit off, you are almost doing a new shaping and it can take FOREVER and remove more steel than necessary.

Nearly all of my sharpening is just two tools- roughing gouge and skew. They both take very different jig setup, so I've bought an extra tool rest. I keep one in the horizontal holder, set to the proper height for my gouge, the other stays in the vertical post, set for my skew. As the jigs are preset, it just takes a quick trip to the wheel to sharpen, so I'm much more likely to do so, especially since there's no chance of a bad setup causing me misery.

I strop by hand because I don't want to mess with the heights on my tool rest, it seems to work fine. I suppose I could buy a third rest and swap them without moving the nut, but that seems excessive.
 
Shock me said:
I'd re-emphasize what Jskeen said about consistency and repeatability. The wet grinder works slowly, if your jig setup is even a little bit off, you are almost doing a new shaping and it can take FOREVER and remove more steel than necessary.
Click to expand...


I have a Wolverine, but whatever jig you may use, I would put a sticky ruler on whatever slides on your setup. Then write the setting on the shaft of the tool. You can mow reset the jig to the same setting the next time you need to sharpen.

PS. I use a diamond hone to hone tools between sharpenings. About 10 hones then resharpen.
 
I have a Craftsman WetSharp Dad found on Craigslist for $20. Works beautifully. A bit of learning curve, but it took maybe 3 sharpenings before I got it exactly where I want it.
 
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