I've cancelled my subsription

[rogxwhit]

The problem is that it used to be simple, easy and everybody did it more or less the same way. But has been largely reinvented in recent years with ever increasing alternative methods, materials, gadgets, theories, terminology. It's a wasteland really and I went back to basics with great relief!

But it's not about craft, is it? It's about shopping!

 

[TRITON]

It's a wasteland really and I went back to basics with great relief!

And what style of 'basic' was this ???

 

[Jacob]

And what style of 'basic' was this ???

Rub up and down on a fine oil stone holding it at about 30º.
Dip slightly as you go for a rounded bevel - it's quicker and you can put more energy into it.
If a burr doesn't come up quickly do the same but on a coarser stone, then go back to the fine. Then take the burr off the face by rubbing it flat on the fine.
Hope that helps!
Actually I do have one OCDC technique - polishing the bevel on a slow revolving mdf disc on my lathe headstock, with Autosol smeared over very thinly. Only takes a few seconds.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I don't care a jot what others do.

 

[TRITON]

Rub up and down on a fine oil stone holding it at about 30º.
Dip slightly as you go for a rounded bevel - it's quicker and you can put more energy into it.
If a burr doesn't come up quickly do the same but on a coarser stone, then go back to the fine. Then take the burr off the face by rubbing it flat on the fine.
Hope that helps!
Actually I do have one OCDC technique - polishing the bevel on a slow revolving mdf disc on my lathe headstock, with Autosol smeared over very thinly. Only takes a few seconds.

Thats sounds really effective. And here's us all thinking you rubbed them down on the edge of that kerbstone outside your house

 

[Jacob]

Thats sounds really effective. And here's us all thinking you rubbed them down on the edge of that kerbstone outside your house

Kerb stone would do if done carefully.

 

[Spectric]

I pay, quite simply because I said many years ago that I did not object to paying a modest amount for something I use so much

Agree, it is hardly a big sum of cash and paying must just help keep it ticking along, plus now it is a really small sum when you think how much a small trolley of shopping cost or filling your tank!

 

[spanner48]

Why not ask something specific, then?

I've been sharpening everything from surgical microtomes to axes, adzes and hoes for over 60 years. The methods vary greatly with what you're sharpening, and how bad the condition. But the basic princiupals are always the same.

 

[D_W]

Rub up and down on a fine oil stone holding it at about 30º.
Dip slightly as you go for a rounded bevel - it's quicker and you can put more energy into it.
If a burr doesn't come up quickly do the same but on a coarser stone, then go back to the fine. Then take the burr off the face by rubbing it flat on the fine.
Hope that helps!
Actually I do have one OCDC technique - polishing the bevel on a slow revolving mdf disc on my lathe headstock, with Autosol smeared over very thinly. Only takes a few seconds.

Doesn't look remotely like what holtzapffel suggests, which I only found yesterday. A 25 degree grind and 5 degree small bevel for softwoods, 10 degree for hardwoods. 25 + 10 for the second bevel on common pitch planes.

They also mention that care needs to be taken to keep stones flat for fine work. 1870 or 1875 edition starting around page 475 and readable by anyone who is willing to travel to google books.

But what did they know compared to a guy who used hand tools from 40 to 30 years ago for rough work?

A couple of days ago, I was testing a new iron made in water hardening steel that's now defunct and only sold in commercial knives. It took me 47 seconds to refresh the plane iron without making a mess of any part of it.....soooooo complicated. Glad to see what I was doing basically described identically in an old text written before work got cheapened.

 

[Jacob]

Why not ask something specific, then?

I've been sharpening everything from surgical microtomes to axes, adzes and hoes for over 60 years. The methods vary greatly with what you're sharpening, and how bad the condition. But the basic princiupals are always the same.

I've just been sharpening a scythe with a dead rough scythe stone. Repeat three strokes on the bottom edge, one on the top. Do it wet if it's very blunt.
Can go a bit OCDC and "pein" the edge, with guess what - a ball pein hammer.

 

[MikeK]

Before this goes further off topic...