Paul Chapman
Established Member
I think Jim was a bit upset with me when I said I couldn't give a list of the tips I picked up from Garrett Hack and John Lloyd at Westonbirt yesterday. Well, in addition to doing a bit of weeding (I hate weeding :evil: ) I've spent some time today in the workshop experimenting with strops, based on what Garrett does.
I use DMT diamond stones and go from the extra fine stone to a leather strop impregnated with Vaseline and jewellers rouge. While I always get a beautifully polished bevel and back, the level of sharpness is variable. Sometimes super-sharp, sometimes less so. I concluded some time ago that the leather strop is sufficiently compressable that it can just slightly round over the edge even if the blade is held perfectly flat.
What Garrett often does is to finish off his blades on a piece of wood (I think he uses Maple) impregnated with diamond paste. He showed me the piece of wood - nothing to write home about, in fact it looked a bit scruffy, but his blades were super-sharp.
I didn't have any diamond paste so I've been experimenting with Solvol Autosol and oil on a piece of quarter-sawn Mahogany planed dead flat. I used it on the blades in my Clifton Anniversary #4 and my old Record #4 fitted with a Clifton blade and cap iron.
The results have been quite impressive - certainly better than I've been getting with the leather strop. I tried them out on a nasty piece of oak where I was previously getting tear-out unless I used the scraper plane. Absolutely no tear-out and a silky smooth, polished finish.
Next on the agenda is to find who stocks oil-based diamond paste because, having seen Garrett's blades, I know I can get mine better.
Anyway, Jim, I hope that was helpful :wink:
Cheers :wink:
Paul
I use DMT diamond stones and go from the extra fine stone to a leather strop impregnated with Vaseline and jewellers rouge. While I always get a beautifully polished bevel and back, the level of sharpness is variable. Sometimes super-sharp, sometimes less so. I concluded some time ago that the leather strop is sufficiently compressable that it can just slightly round over the edge even if the blade is held perfectly flat.
What Garrett often does is to finish off his blades on a piece of wood (I think he uses Maple) impregnated with diamond paste. He showed me the piece of wood - nothing to write home about, in fact it looked a bit scruffy, but his blades were super-sharp.
I didn't have any diamond paste so I've been experimenting with Solvol Autosol and oil on a piece of quarter-sawn Mahogany planed dead flat. I used it on the blades in my Clifton Anniversary #4 and my old Record #4 fitted with a Clifton blade and cap iron.
The results have been quite impressive - certainly better than I've been getting with the leather strop. I tried them out on a nasty piece of oak where I was previously getting tear-out unless I used the scraper plane. Absolutely no tear-out and a silky smooth, polished finish.
Next on the agenda is to find who stocks oil-based diamond paste because, having seen Garrett's blades, I know I can get mine better.
Anyway, Jim, I hope that was helpful :wink:
Cheers :wink:
Paul