Another sharpening thread (sandstone grinder and renovation)

[DennisCA]

Well, just making this to show what I dragged home, an old sandstone grinder, working and with a 10x50cm wheel. For 50 euros I couldn't say no:

A pretty cool multiple pulley system here to keep the size down.

So now here's a sharpening system! At least for setting bevels and such. The plan is to refurbish it, add castor wheels, a tool rest that's compatible with tormek style jigs and true the stone. And a cover for the wheel when it's not in use.

We made a small mini vacation trip of this, though it wasn't far, maybe 50-60km, out in the archipelago in western finland. Pretty country out there, and connected with the longest suspension bridge in Finland I believe at a little over a kilometer:

 

[DTR]

What beautiful scenery

 

[DennisCA]

Well I've spent some time rebuilding the grinder, taking it apart and cleaning and repainting everything. I thought the grinder was quite slow for such a small pulley system, but when I removed the cover I found a nice multiple pulley reductions to give a nice slow speed without being bulky:

I did some research into the stone and this stone based on it's appearance seems to be mined in the Orsa region in Sweden. Considered the second best place for grindstones, but still an excellent material. The best stones are said to come from Gotland and they are gray in color. One might consider this the grandfather of all Tormeks who also come from sweden.

But what really makes a tormek are the jigs and the tool rest. So I made my own universal support copy, except roughly twice as big. Now is a good time to own a metal lathe and a welder.

After painting and reassembly:

I've freehand sharpened some moraknives and puukos on it and while my unsteady hand produces an ugly grind it was easy to get hair shaving sharpness after a few strokes on a hone (diamond or oil stone) after grinding it. The hollow ground profile makes honing quick and easy, I have come to like the hollow grind more lately.

Truing the stone, it was oval and uneven so I had to remove a lot of material. Still nearly 50cm in diameter though, twice as large as a tormek stone.

Started jig building, the chisel jig is so simple it's hardly worth showing:

Axe jig was a bit more complicated:

 

[AndyT]

What a great find!

Are you using it dry?
I thought you had to run a sandstone wheel wet, but maybe some photos are before it was all assembled?

 

[DennisCA]

I am using it wet, it has a trough to keep the water in. I just took the pictures to demonstrate the jigs with the wheel dry. In the picture where I trued it you can see the stone is wet, but I removed the trough before taking the picture and left the stone to dry out.

It's important to never let it sit in the water, it will swell and go oval in shape then. And ideally you should rotate it 180 degrees a few times when drying to prevent all the water from collecting at the bottom of the grindstone as that too can cause an oval shape. Natural stones are a bit more finicky I guess.

 

[Harbo]

How would you grade it’s “coarseness”?

Rod

 

[adidat]

nice find!!

adidat

 

[DennisCA]

How would you grade it’s “coarseness”?

Rod

Hard to say, this is what the grind looked like when I tried sharpening this chisel, the wheel wasn't trued and I had disassembled the grinder so i had to hold the chisel with one hand, pull the wheel with one hand and I held a garden hose between my knees to squirt water on the stone

The shiny part is after honing on a 10€ diamond plate.

 

[John15]

Congratulations. Very interesting. You've done an excellent restoration job. Reminds me of the ones I used to see many decades ago

John

 

[DennisCA]

They are quite common over here, I saw just a stone being sold for 20€ just now. Every farm used to have one of these things, though mostly they where wife or child powered :mrgreen:

 

[AndyT]

... wife or child powered :mrgreen:

Like this!

(From a 1902 Charles Nurse catalogue available here taths.org.uk/reading/taths-free-e-books/279-charles-nurse-catalogue-1902)

 

[custard]

From a 1902 Charles Nurse catalogue

Amazing, a photo of Jacob and Phil!

 

[Beau]

Cant be Jacob as there some sort of guide on the stone.

Nice Job Dennis and looks like you live in a beautiful part of the world.

 

[Bm101]

Right. Bear with me. i I feel a story coming on.
When I was young (younger ) and a fair bit wilder tbh I used to partner up with some green woodworker mates who would do a display thing at Glastonbury festival in the greenfields. Charcoal burning, pole lathes, all pretty skilled woodworkers to a standard. On the back of them I used to run an 'stall' called DIY- Didges. It was schemed up one booze fuelled night in the pub to get us free access to the festival but still get all our gear in so we lived like kings lol. 8)
The USP to Pilton Farm before the festival. : I'd sell people a cleaved log and some tutoring (really) and they could spend 2 days making a didgeridoo. Of course. No one in their right mind is going to actually do it. So I'd just sit about having a craic. Young and free and full of beans. And .... mushrooms usually. I can still remember going to see Banco De Gaia in some tent and some girl wandering in and asking me 'is this where Father Christmas is?' :| Yes love. :|

But. Getting to the point.
There used to be this old hippy fella. He ride his bike up.
'Need anything sharpened?'
He'd flip his bike over or up on a stand, I don't remember (can you fathom it?) whip a wheel off and put on a stone. Then he'd peddle away and grind/hone off everyones tools. He'd do this for an exchange mind. No money. A can or two, some dinner. He was a hippy not the wolf of wall street. I've wondered about replicating it several times. The slow speed is attractive. I find myself 'touching up' by hand as the blade slows on my record grinder after the stop button has been pushed. Surely it can't just be me? I (still) fancy replicating it at some point.

Great post Dennis! Thanks for sharing. Much appreciated. Look forward to updates . =D>

 

[AndyT]

Great story Chris!

You may like this old thread, and the links in the 12th post...

wet-grind-stone-t51379.html

 

[Robbo3]

Right. Bear with me. i I feel a story coming on.
There used to be this old hippy fella. He ride his bike up.
'Need anything sharpened?'
He'd flip his bike over or up on a stand, I don't remember (can you fathom it?) whip a wheel off and put on a stone. Then he'd peddle away and grind/hone off everyones tools. He'd do this for an exchange mind. No money. A can or two, some dinner. He was a hippy not the wolf of wall street. I've wondered about replicating it several times. The slow speed is attractive. I find myself 'touching up' by hand as the blade slows on my record grinder after the stop button has been pushed. Surely it can't just be me? I (still) fancy replicating it at some point.

I thought we were going to get the story of the late Ray Reardon who had a pedal powered tricycle lathe. His three tools, Stumpy, Dumpy and Skinny Milliney are still produced by Ashley Isles.
Edit: Phil Reardon (not Ray Reardon the snooker player).

 

[Bm101]

Great story Chris!

You may like this old thread, and the links in the 12th post...

wet-grind-stone-t51379.html

Thanks Andy, I'll take a look now. Much appreciated.
Gotta wonder. Change the seating position from bent to straight back. Weld some tube, a seat stem, some cheap pedals and gears even.... You should really be able to get a very small footprint multi (variations of slow) speed grinder from mostly scrap. Get away with no bike and just redesign it better. Two handed seated leg powered grinding wheel. :shock:
tik tok tik tok

 

[Bm101]

I thought we were going to get the story of the late Ray Reardon who had a pedal powered tricycle lathe. His three tools, Stumpy, Dumpy and Skinny Milliney are still produced by Ashley Isles.

I'm sorry Robbo. I have no idea could you share?

 

[Robbo3]

First, apologies - it was Phil Reardon, not Ray.
I've searched for an article on Phil but came up empty, so from memory ..... I believe Phil was something to do with Craft Supplies in the UK.
He was a woodturner toymaker who would demonstrate on his specially adapted lathe tricycle at wood working shows.

As mentioned previously, 3 of his tools are still made by Ashly Iles & some of his toys were a snake, cat, loco, car, turtle & Whip ma Whap ma men.