Chisel sharpening

[No skills]

Hi folks!

For general purpose wood working (door hanging/general joinery I spose) how far or fine do you go with your chisel sharpening?
I'm assuming for delicate furniture work you would just sharpen as best you can given the stones/grits that you have available to get best edge possible (?), for more rough and ready work what sort of grit would you stop at?
I know "sharper the better" but there must be a trade off point somewhere for time spent v tool edge life time v quality of cut needed - or am I wrong ??? (often!!).

Do any of you have any quick 'standards' to refer to after sharpening a chisel to say 'yes thats good enough' or 'cant split an atom with that so back to the bench', or do you just rely on the work results to judge how well your doing?

Thanks for any input!!!

 

[bugbear]

Hi folks!

For general purpose wood working (door hanging/general joinery I spose) how far or fine do you go with your chisel sharpening?
I'm assuming for delicate furniture work you would just sharpen as best you can given the stones/grits that you have available to get best edge possible (?), for more rough and ready work what sort of grit would you stop at?
I know "sharper the better" but there must be a trade off point somewhere for time spent v tool edge life time v quality of cut needed - or am I wrong ??? (often!!).

Do any of you have any quick 'standards' to refer to after sharpening a chisel to say 'yes thats good enough' or 'cant split an atom with that so back to the bench', or do you just rely on the work results to judge how well your doing?

Thanks for any input!!!

For site work, it's more a question of how many stones you can be bothered to carry, assuming your shop created edges don't last the day out.

In the shop, I find that once I've started sharpening a tool (i.e. stopped cutting wood, moved to the sharpening area, and am commited to cleaning my hands and the tool afterwards etc), the overhead is high enough that the momentary time spent on the finer stones (4-7 strokes each, at a guess) is comfortably justified by the nicer to use and longer lasting edge that results.

OTOH, I am an amateur, and the pleasure of the job is as important as efficiency. I imagine that if I were a professional rushing to meet a weekend deadline late on a Friday, idealism might suffer.

BugBear

 

[Pete W]

Like Bugbear I'm an amateur, and I don't work on site but if I did I think I'd carry a combination coarse/fine stone (either oilstone or diamond) and aim for regular touch-ups on the fine side to prolong the edge.

There may be someone along shortly who can speak from experience

 

[bosshogg]

Like Bugbear I'm an amateur, and I don't work on site but if I did I think I'd carry a combination coarse/fine stone (either oilstone or diamond) and aim for regular touch-ups on the fine side to prolong the edge.

There may be someone along shortly who can speak from experience

Combination stone and some oil, from the heating engineer, if lucky, otherwise spit. Normally I could getaway with sharpening once a day (diner time, anything else cost time and time was money) if cutting out hinge pockets, that would be with my 1", I also kept a very sharp 1" for pairing the hinge pockets in the door posts when hanging, this allowed for fine adjustment if the doors did not have a 1/8" all round when closed. In my prime I could cut the hinge pockets and hang 18 doors or so, a day, depending how heavy and whether it was a pair or a pair and a half, hinges per door.
Because I seldom saw a workshop, when I did the bevel on the bashing chisel was ground low to give easy sharpening on the oilstone, because you stroked the back of the blade first, to get some oil on the honing bevel, then you lifted the bevel on the stone until you saw some squeeze out, lift a little further and hone the edge, problem was you would heightened the angle every time, rounding the edge eventually until you get near a grindstone to repeat the process all over again...bosshogg

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
T. S. Eliot (hammer)

 

[No skills]

Gentlemen, thanks for your replys. Interesting to see what fellow 'amateurs' think (dont think I'm at that level yet ).

I'm assuming the combination stones mentioned are like the 'India' stones? which I think have a fine grit of 220 ish ????
I ask because I took the time to try and sharpen my work chisels 'properly' this weekend as I have a door to hang in a job this week, they get used very rarely as I do very little skilled woodwork at work (mostly stud work and lining it after). Normaly a 'sharpen' for them is a quick buzz on an upside down angle grinder, this time I used a cheapo multi grit diamond stone (200 to 600 grit) and worked my way up the grits after flattening the backs a bit first.

If site chippys are using 200 odd grit to get a good enough edge to earn a living then the 600 should be fine (no pun intended!!), assuming my sharpening technique (sp?) is any good. I was sharpening by hand (no guides handy) and tried to copy the angle that was already on the chisel. I'll find out if their any good tommorrow

Bosshogg
Did that 18 doors include include the furniture as well?? even if not thats still pretty impressive :shock:

 

[bosshogg]

Oh no not + furniture, I wasn't that good. Hing em & and swing em, that was sufficient for one day...bosshogg