Sharpening bench

[Mike Brady]

I decided to build a small bench that will be primarily used as a sharpening station.  Lie-Nielsen used to offer one, so I used the design of theirs as inspiration.  The primary purpose is to avoid having to sharpen on a workbench that may be in use for various hand tool operations.  This small sharpening station can be moved to a sink or with a stool for comfort; but the idea is to be able to sharpen when needed without disturbing the work bench.  For the base, I obtained 8/4 Ash.  You might have read my post at the time, commenting on the high price for wood that was being thrown away a few years ago.  Ash worked out well for the bencn in the background of the picture, and has the mass and stiffness to make this smaller bench stable, but moveable.  Lie-Nielsen used granite for their work surface, but the top of mine is cut from a butcher-block kitchen table we got when we were just-married, decades ago.  Everybody is getting cutting boards for their grills this year, whether they need one or not.  The waterproof covering mat is cut from thick shelf-liner material.  I might add a shelf or drawer for sharpening gear.

[Philip1231]

I like it! Wish I had room for something like that. Nice!

[cputnam]

Well done sir! Being space-challenged myself, I would have put stone storage drawers under the top.

[C. in Indy]

It looks very nice, Mike!

For some reason, recent .jpg images you post don't render well on my screen, until after a couple of days.   Before that resolution point, they look stretched-out... a weird computer glitch somewhere 


I'm embarrassed that I'm still on Scary Sharp after years of admiring folks with stone skills.   Although I've added some stropping gadgets,  did some reading on why horse-butt leather is different than other leather, etc.

The Sharpening Bench cover liner reminds me,  I just got a super-duper leather-punch for watch straps, leather belts, etc.  I'm itching to try some sort of leather-stitched project one day too.   But I digress..

Keep up the good postings!
Chris

[AHill]

Very nice. I like the height of the bench. I remember an episode of David Marks' WoodWorks where he built a sharpening station. He used waterstones, so it was much larger and had dedicated soaking ponds for his stones with removable tubs.

[rectangle618]

Very cool, Mike. Nicely done!

[Mike Brady]

I appreciate the comments guys.  Regarding Chris's mention about the rendering of posted photos, if any of you had trouble with the photo not showing properly, please let me know.  When I posted more and regularly showed photos, I could easily transfer them to the computer.   Now, there is almost always a hitch in that process.  Photobucket was so nice to use.  What do you recommend?

[C. in Indy]

Hi Mike,

With regard to the image-rendering... I just checked again.   The laptop browser looks good, but my phone-browser is still showing the elongated image, copied below.

My habits, based on participation in a handful of forums, have been to edit individual images from my camera (using Microsoft Paint or similar viewer), such that they are (re) sized to =< 1000 x 1000 pixels, and then are stored as .jpg images.   It's a little cumbersome, but it's a common denominator method which will work on each of the places I go to.   This method usually results in a file-size of =< 250kByte.    Then I can upload the images directly into web postings, typically utilizing the "insert into post" option.

Good luck... we need to see more of your work!

Chris

   

[Ray Newman]

Agree with others' comments. It is something that makes working in the shop so much more enjoyable. Wish I had some room to do the same, but I am getting to the point that if I want to turn around in my shop, I need to go outside. Again well done.