Affording good sharpening stones

[Robin Dobbie]

As far as a jig, have you seen the sharp skate? It's down to 190 from 300. Still too much for me, for being hand powered.

Now, the inventer does a weird thing I haven't seen before in this video 



around the 2:22 mark. He calls it jointing the edge. Is this a common technique? I just haven't seen it.

[msweig]

Caveat: I glanced at the 2:22 mark, but didn't watch the whole video.

I've never seen that technique before. My guess is he is using it to take off the burr. Oddball way to do it, and would require more sharpening after that (which he does), but it might give you a more controlled release of the burr, as opposed to a large burr pulling a chunk out when it comes off. That said, I'm not sure I'd even try the technique as I've never had issues with the burr before.

Or maybe he has another reason to do it. Strikes me as undoing part of your work. But then again I haven't tried it.

[Robin Dobbie]

Oddball way to do it, and would require more sharpening after that (which he does)

Does he? Looks like the bevel is up. I suppose that doesn't necessarily preclude the possibility of sharpening or honing from happening, but in that short amount of time I have doubts. If he were employing the ruler trick, maybe? I agree, it seems undoing. He does it so casually and doesn't mention anything more about it. And he doesn't explain it in his other videos. Maybe one would have to book one of his sharpening classes to which he charges $385 for 3 hours. Seems to be about cutlery, though.

[Rob Young]

Norton combo India stone : https://www.amazon.com/Norton-6146368556...679&sr=8-4

(This is probably the most expensive I've seen them. I've bought several in the past as gifts for around $20 and the 1x8 size. And never has one come damaged in shipping. What kind of bad juju yall have I can't begin to fathom.)

Make the honing oil instead of buying pre-mixed. Since man-made stones tend to be a bit porous, I mix about 50/50 baby oil and kerosene. For natural oil stones you can just use straight kerosene. But the baby oil smells a little nicer. Got a bottle of baby oil from the Dollar Store for $1. Gallon of kerosene from hardware store is of course more expensive than $1.

Make a strop. Can be as simple as just MDF with compound on it. The green crayon stuff is fine but something like AutoSol is better. Or do hard butt leather on a rigid substrate for flat blades and keep a few pieces around loose to curve and shape for other blades. 

Don't absolutely NEED a honing guide but sometimes they do help. The $10 (probably $15 now) Eclipse knockoffs are fine for most straight blades. But learn to work without one. Faster. 

Make a wooden case for the stone so it doesn't get damaged. 

I've not had any issues with any steel I've tried (O1, A2, rando chinese, vintage laminated stuff, W1, T10, D2 -- but haven't tried powdered metals) getting a burr quickly and efficiently on the India stone. Move to a strop and done. I do have various natural Arkansas stones and those also work well but usually I just move strait from the India stone to a strop. Full disclosure, often a power strop. But 40 or 50 strokes on a piece of leather on MDF will do the job.

Reasonably cheap, certainly under $50 all in. Leaving a bit for purchasing some coarse sand paper and a 12x12 tile to use in lieu of a grinder for the really tough work.

[Jim Waldron]

Some highly regarded folks have found the Spyderco ceramics to be fine performers. And they can be had at pretty good prices, too.

i use diamond for coarse work (when needed), followed by a medium and then an ultra fine Spyderco. The ultra fine makes stropping pointless.

Take a look: https://spyderco.com/catalog/category/sharpeners

[Robin Dobbie]

Good suggestions from everyone. Thanks! to be clear, again, I bought some shaptons and a diamond plate a while back. I just happened to see the pricing bug shown in the screenshot in the first post and thought it was worth a laugh.

I actually did buy the cheap Norton combo stone with my very first block plane. I think it was 7" rather than 8, and possibly black and grey? Less than $10. Opened the package and it looked bad. I probably could have just rubbed it on a cinderblock or something, maybe sandpaper on tile, but I just returned it. Along with the plane that had a massively twisted lever cap. Do I have bad juju, or am I just picky and cheap or is quality control and packing ethic things that don't exist?

The spyderco looks neat. I like the dry aspect of it. No oil no water. I read the first part of a sharpening book that advocated for that. The 8x3 is getting up there in price, though.

[Robin Dobbie]

Found another video of the same guy on a different channel doing the weird burr removal with a chef knife. 

mentions it at 0:42. Does both bevels which I would feel a lot better about than what happened with the plane iron.

[wmickley]

Found another video of the same guy on a different channel doing the weird burr removal with a chef knife. 

mentions it at 0:42. Does both bevels which I would feel a lot better about than what happened with the plane iron.

Harrelson Stanley (in your videos) is the the one who invented the "sharp skate" and originally promoted and sold Shapton stones.

I met Harrelson in 2009 at woodworking fair. I was looking at his jig and he came over to me and told me I would never be able to get a good edge without using his jig. It was all I could do to keep from laughing in his face. I had been sharpening freehand for quite a while. When I went home I looked up Harrelson's age: I was trained to sharpen freehand before he was born. I was an expert when little Harry was in diapers. Anything to sell product.

I would say Shapton stones are a poor choice because they are very harsh. They were designed to work quickly at a given grit, but the downside is they also leave a rough edge that performs poorly at that grit. Gaudy numbers, but poor quality.

[mound]

I'd email and see if they'd take $1,297,000,000,000,000

seems reasonable!

[Timberwolf]

Harrelson Stanley (in your videos) is the the one who invented the "sharp skate" and originally promoted and sold Shapton stones.

I met Harrelson in 2009 at woodworking fair. I was looking at his jig and he came over to me and told me I would never be able to get a good edge without using his jig. It was all I could do to keep from laughing in his face. I had been sharpening freehand for quite a while. When I went home I looked up Harrelson's age: I was trained to sharpen freehand before he was born. I was an expert when little Harry was in diapers. Anything to sell product.

I would say Shapton stones are a poor choice because they are very harsh. They were designed to work quickly at a given grit, but the downside is they also leave a rough edge that performs poorly at that grit. Gaudy numbers, but poor quality.

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Karl Holtey, who IMO, knows something about planes and sharpening, was selling his irons back in 1995 when I purchased one from Woodcraft...It was "side sharpened" and without a microbevel. This makes me think that Stanley did not "originate" the concept. I read somewhere that when Holtey was asked why he did not micro bevel, he said something to the effect ..."when you have good steel, properly hardened and sharpened, there is no need to "blunt the edge" to maintain it....


http://www.holteyplanes.com/blog/