sharpening turning tools

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There is another compelling reason for using a jig - economy. Why wear away a forty, fifty quid or more tool two or three times faster than you need to? If your grinder is mounted to a bench or board, find the perfect grind ......... your perfect grind, not someone else's ......... and glue a block at the required setting length. One gentle pass across the wheel and the job's done - the angle is exactly the same as it was before. You remove next to nothing. You might be the g.o.a.t. freehand grinder, but you cannot do that.
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Agreed. I usually wipe the end of the tool with a marker pen, and then a quick pass on the (in my case) Pro-Edge shows I've removed the smallest amount of material sufficient to sharpen the tool, and back to the lathe.

Or it would be... if I'd had time to use the lathe in the last few years...
 
..... One gentle pass across the wheel and the job's done - the angle is exactly the same as it was before. You remove next to nothing. You might be the g.o.a.t. freehand grinder, but you cannot do that......
Why not?
Couple of sideways sweeps and twists of gouge over the stone at the right angle, no prob. Skew chisels even easier.
You get into the habit of doing it exactly the same way every time and it's much quicker.

PS I don't understand why freehand sharpening has become so difficult for so many, considering that people have been doing it since the stone age, quite happily, just using a wheel for major reshaping - if available that is - not essential.
 
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..and in the meantime I have been doing a bit of turning and my stash of indian clubs is growing. Haven't yet felt the need to dash out and spend £1000 on sharpening machines and gadgets. I wonder how long I can hold it off?
I have splashed out on a two prong drive centre - the better to hold rough bits of hardwood. Also a skew/rebate chisel, 2nd hand and really badly ground on a small wheel, so had to reshape it as per R Findley vid, except it's all near convex bevels, not just the heel.

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I don't understand why freehand sharpening has become so difficult for so many, considering that people have been doing it since the stone age, quite happily, just using a wheel for major reshaping - if available that is - not essential.

I don't remember anyone on this thread saying they had difficulty sharpening, it's your old oft trotted out phrase, broken record style.

There are countless methods and practices in all walks of life that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, it doesn't mean they haven't evolved into better more efficient alternatives. If you really believe that isn't so then maybe you should ask the doc to do some blood letting next time you are ill or swap your bike for a penny farthing, start your car with a handl;e through the bumper and maybe throw away your laptop and go back to a BBC-b or Sinclair ZX80 with no internet. Actually that might be an improvement - would give the rest of us a break. ;):D
 
I don't remember anyone on this thread saying they had difficulty sharpening, it's your old oft trotted out phrase, broken record style.

There are countless methods and practices in all walks of life that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, it doesn't mean they haven't evolved into better more efficient alternatives. If you really believe that isn't so then maybe you should ask the doc to do some blood letting next time you are ill or swap your bike for a penny farthing, start your car with a handl;e through the bumper and maybe throw away your laptop and go back to a BBC-b or Sinclair ZX80 with no internet. Actually that might be an improvement - would give the rest of us a break. ;):D
So you would never attempt simple maths, with a pencil, on the back of an envelope, you'd rather wait until you had got back to your Sinclair ZX80? :LOL:
 
Exactly and that goes for some of the resin blanks as well. (y)
There are times when scrapers need to be used and a fresh edge needed every few minutes so the cut rather than tear, try doing those quickly on an oil stone or diamond plate. Using a grinder or pro-edge takes a couple of seconds.
No need for anyone to spend hundreds on a pro-edge if the budget doesn't allow (though I think they're worth it and wouldn't part with mine). Get a s/h belt sander and make up a stand and rest or if the lathe has an outboard facility on the headstock stick on a faceplate with abrasive,
Totally impossible on an oil stone to quickly put an edge on a scraper every few minutes! I can do on a 600 grit wheel with my jig in less than 30 seconds. And every edge is identical.
 
I don't remember anyone on this thread saying they had difficulty sharpening, it's your old oft trotted out phrase, broken record style.

There are countless methods and practices in all walks of life that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, it doesn't mean they haven't evolved into better more efficient alternatives. If you really believe that isn't so then maybe you should ask the doc to do some blood letting next time you are ill or swap your bike for a penny farthing, start your car with a handl;e through the bumper and maybe throw away your laptop and go back to a BBC-b or Sinclair ZX80 with no internet. Actually that might be an improvement - would give the rest of us a break. ;):D
You do know every walk of life and forum has a Jacob. What you have to do is get on ignore. Then you can finally get back to your iTunes rather sitting having to skip over the broken scratched , out of date record that keeps getting played on the old gramophone!
 
I just knew you'd be the only person in the world capable of that.
But Phil, what Jacob keeps saying is he is stuck on the old stuff, yes people in the Stone Age always rubbed two sticks together to start a fire. It's easy, there are sticks every where. Jacob can show you how. It's easy. But I just use a match I'm to lazy! I keep up with technology. Thinks move on because they get quicker. As per doing math on a piece of paper, I still do it when my iPhone is dead!
 
So you would never attempt simple maths, with a pencil, on the back of an envelope, you'd rather wait until you had got back to your Sinclair ZX80? :LOL:
Never had a Sinclair, did have a Commodore 64 though but of course I use a pencil and paper that's recycled, don't need envelopes however the humble pencil was a vast improvement over the previous sharpened charred sticks or bits of stone used to write on clay so your logic says you shouldn't be using anything as modern as a mass produced pencil. As they were first mass produced in the 1600s they've stood the test of time, not everything has. :sneaky:
I still have a hoard of Ikea pencils if you want a few. :ROFLMAO:
 
You do know every walk of life and forum has a Jacob. What you have to do is get on ignore. Then you can finally get back to your iTunes rather sitting having to skip over the broken scratched , out of date record that keeps getting played on the old gramophone!
Hi Lefley, I know all about Jacob, I've been a member on here quite a long time. It's just fun pulling the tail of the old goat occasionally, easily done on a couple of his pet subjects. :ROFLMAO:
 
Do you lot ever do any turning or do you just rabbit on about your expensive sharpening gadgets? :unsure:
 
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The movement at the wheel to grind a "lady-finger" profile on a gouge is not unlike the movements required to use one to turn elements on a turning blank. They're very similar. If you can turn with a gouge, grinding one un-jigged shouldn't be a problem.
 
I've recently acquired some turning tools (Ashley Iles, mostly) which need a bit of tlc. I'm a beginner at turning so any advice about sharpening them to the best angles would be appreciated
If they are genuine Ashley, Isle tools give the factory a ring and I think they sharpen the tools to the grind or angle of grind when they were sold from the factory FOC depending how far away you live from Ashley Isles Factory which is just north of Boston Lincolnshire, you could take them in there
 
If they are genuine Ashley, Isle tools give the factory a ring and I think they sharpen the tools to the grind or angle of grind when they were sold from the factory FOC depending how far away you live from Ashley Isles Factory which is just north of Boston Lincolnshire, you could take them in there
Rules of thumb and easiest to remember is 60º+ for scrapers and bowl gouges, 45º for spindle roughing out gouges, 45º included angle (i.e. 22.5º each side) for skew chisels, 30º for spindle gouges with a curved edge, but there's lots of variations and other ways and it's easy to get confused!.
https://www.woodcraft.com
 
Exactly and that goes for some of the resin blanks as well. (y)
There are times when scrapers need to be used and a fresh edge needed every few minutes so the cut rather than tear, try doing those quickly on an oil stone or diamond plate. Using a grinder or pro-edge takes a couple of seconds.
No need for anyone to spend hundreds on a pro-edge if the budget doesn't allow (though I think they're worth it and wouldn't part with mine). Get a s/h belt sander and make up a stand and rest or if the lathe has an outboard facility on the headstock stick on a faceplate with abrasive,
It seems many use the tungsten inert tips for resin which are really scrapers as they don’t use the bevel but probably required for resin or the other popular turning of end grain now. Fashions change.
 

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