Side Sharpening and the Sharp Skate Honing Jig

[János]

Hello,

I have found that side sharpening gaga and this newest incarnation of a jig bullshit. Some woodworkers have too much energy to waste on endless, pointless and fruitless discussions... (and money to burn on things they should never buy)

Manual training and abilities differ from people to people. For example, I have difficulty in grinding and honing a straight edge on narrow blades freehand, so I used a jig to grind these, but I have not found any jig which is really suitable to hone narrow blades, under 6-8 mm or so. So I sharpen these narrow (4 mm and below) blades of mine with slips and stone files, moving the stone instead of the blade. And for producing a heavy chamber on a blade (e.g. a scrub plane iron) I use the same method...

By the way, a mildly chambered blade, or a blade with ground-back corners flattens and smoothes wooden surfaces equally well. But I am bored of this much ado about "flatness", as wood is a resilient and tough material, and wooden members move millimetres or even centimetres with environmental changes. A well tuned smoother takes a shaving 0,05 millimetres thin from your 40 mm thick cherry tabletop, from a tabletop, which will swell about 0,2-0,4 millimetres in your unheated workshop overnight. Who cares then about those 0,05 millimetres deep "ripples"?

Some of you are talking about woodcraft like it was precision engineering, and that is a really serious mistake, and a sure sign, that you do not understand properly the (scientific) background of it...

The Japanese craftsman in that clip uses a simple self-made jig to sharpen a blade, and the jig produces a straight edge, not a chambered one, but perhaps it is possible to twist the blade a little as it comes and goes, to produce mild chambers. The accent is on the sideways movement (as opposed to back and front) of the blade. By the way this mildly arched sweeping movement of the blade recalls/resembles the "removing of the wire edge" in hand sharpening and honing.

Learning and practice are the core of every craft... It is a modern Occidental delusion that you can buy into that...

Have a nice day,

János

 

[Sgian Dubh]

We both teach, and mine are mostly beginners. I feel that it is easier for them to true an edge with the slightly cambered blade.

Mine too David! But I think you're right about it being a bit easier to square an edge with a cambered (curved) cutting edge-- never thought about it really as I just adapt myself to whatever plane is thrown at me if I'm not using my own tools.

Wearing (cambered blade) was taught, just after the war, by the likes of Edward Barnsley and Cecil Gough. I believe Gough was foreman in the famous cotswold workshops where utility furniture was first designed and made. Gordon Russell.

Bob Wearing was one of my teachers, but I don't recall now if he recommended curved or straight cutting edges-- it was a long, long time ago, ha, ha! He was a jig making fiend though: I recall that. He made so many darned jigs he never had time to make any furniture with them.

Do you think that both techniques were in use at the same time or that one was more universally used than the other?

To be honest David, I don't really know if one edge profile was more universal than the other. I was made aware in my early days in the game that some liked a curved cutting edge and some liked a straight edge with rounded corners. It was left up to me then to decide which way to go, although it was a bit confusing when I was glaikit wee laddie because some workers swore by one profile and others swore by the alternative, and some in each each group of adherents told me I was an silly person if I wasn't using their prefered profile.

I've favoured and used both edge profiles over the years: nowadays I put a bit of a curve on all my standard bench plane irons, but I don't try and convince others it's the one and only way. I'm so used to picking up any old plane abused by sharpening averse students I just tend to go with the flow with whatever edge profile I find. I generally only chunter and grumble if the thing's too blunt to even turn over soil, ha, ha.

I guess the truth is that I'm generally pretty relaxed about hand tools, which is probably why I don't get into hand tool forums much and debate the debates. I've always found that most hand tools will work satisfactorily (or better) with a bit of setting up if need be. I generally prefer to use a Clifton or a Lie-Nielsen plane over a Record or a Stanley, but I've used scores of the latter two brands over the years. As long as they're in reasonable shape they can generally be got to work okay, but I've also come across several Stanley and Record stinkers only fit for the scrapyard.

Enjoyed your comments about sanding. The current american obsession with "finishing straight from the plane" seems crazy to me. A little sanding is essential for any finish which will be sanded between coats.

Absolutely-- nobody puts polish on straight after planing, unless they're doing the work for fun, and there's nothing wrong with that. Slainte.

 

[bugbear]

I've always found that most hand tools will work satisfactorily (or better) with a bit of setting up if need be.

"a bit of setting up if need be"

That has to be one of the best cases of British understatement I've seen in a while! Could certainly cover a wide range of possibilities ;-)

BugBear

 

[urbanarcher]

It's the rubbish design I object to wherever it comes from.
Sharp skate is rubbish design - clever but stupid and over engineered
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi1uOISQ ... re=related is inspired brilliant design - highly effective and easily made.
It's a culture clash one way or another.

Well i know what i'll be doing this weekend!

 

[Doug B]

It's the rubbish design I object to wherever it comes from.
Sharp skate is rubbish design - clever but stupid and over engineered
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi1uOISQ ... re=related is inspired brilliant design - highly effective and easily made.
It's a culture clash one way or another.

Well i know what i'll be doing this weekend!

Don`t forget to video it

 

[urbanarcher]

lol I'll have a go maybe pics
my stone selection is a little more random than the ones used in the vid (mostly old oil stones from my grandad and other sources.) so i will have to make some allowances for that! maybe I'll pick up some budget diamond plates, all though i think this jig will work with anything really if its got a flat top.

 

[bugbear]

I was with you in terms of doubting the Sharp Skate's cambering ability.

I camber most of my plane irons, but couldn't see how this jig could possibly follow the camber curve...yet it does.

Maybe there's some give in the wheels or flex in the axles, however selectively applying pressure at either end delivers a uniform burr all around the edge, and then an equally uniform micro bevel.

I've never encountered a jig rigid enough, and with sufficient "authority" than the sort of cambers needed for smoothers, jack and jointers can't be readily obtained.

Even my ridiculous "monster" jig isn't rigid enough to stop me cambering - if I want to.

This fact should be borne in mind by people who want to use their chosen jig when they want a perfectly straight cutting edge.

BugBear

 

[David C]

Thanks Richard,

I assume Wearing liked camber for edges as this is shown and explained in his book "Essential Woodworker".

David

 

[Sgian Dubh]

"a bit of setting up if need be"

That has to be one of the best cases of British understatement I've seen in a while! Could certainly cover a wide range of possibilities ;-) BugBear

A bit of an understatement I agree BugBear, ha, ha. Slainte.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Thanks Richard,

I assume Wearing liked camber for edges as this is shown and explained in his book "Essential Woodworker". David

I don't recall the technique Bob demonstrated to us as students for edge joinery David, nor the profile of the cutting edge. But if he discusses using a curved cutting edge for the task in his book, which I don't have, I can only assume like you that he favoured that profile. Slainte.