03-02-2016, 09:00 PM
The club to which I belong, Fox Valley Woodworkers Club, in suburban Chicago is conducting a small-scale study of current sharpening techniques. Basically what we are doing is utilizing the favorite blade honing methods of ten members to prepare a ten-piece set of new Narex chisels for a club raffle. As is typical, each of these guys thinks their method/equipment/skills is the best.
To judge the contest, the club president is utilizing his company's new ($50,000 new) high-resolution microscope to photograph the edges of the chisels. The chisels will then be raffled to a lucky club member and the results of the sharpening marathon will be shown and demonstrated at a club general meeting. I haven't seen the final list of the various sharpening media to be used, but I know that it includes Spyderco ceramics, domestic waterstones, Tormek and Worksharp machines, scary sharp (sandpaper), Shapton Japanese water stones, charged leather strops, Arkansas stones, and diamond plates. All of the participants are skilled, experienced, woodworkers; most of them hand-tool users.
We plan to document the results and perhaps even submit the data to a magazine. If it seems worthwhile, I'll come back to the forum with results.
To judge the contest, the club president is utilizing his company's new ($50,000 new) high-resolution microscope to photograph the edges of the chisels. The chisels will then be raffled to a lucky club member and the results of the sharpening marathon will be shown and demonstrated at a club general meeting. I haven't seen the final list of the various sharpening media to be used, but I know that it includes Spyderco ceramics, domestic waterstones, Tormek and Worksharp machines, scary sharp (sandpaper), Shapton Japanese water stones, charged leather strops, Arkansas stones, and diamond plates. All of the participants are skilled, experienced, woodworkers; most of them hand-tool users.
We plan to document the results and perhaps even submit the data to a magazine. If it seems worthwhile, I'll come back to the forum with results.