Small-scale sharpening study

[Mike Brady]

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.

[Daniel S]

The results may not cause me to change how I sharpen in the near future, but I would love to hear how it goes. If the images are available, that would be neat as well.

[Timberwolf]

Me too!!

[DaveParkis]

I'd also love to know the results.

[bennybmn]

Sounds like a fun study! We have guys in our club that swear by one method or another. Nobody is likely to change their tune seeing another method, but these types of head to head comparisons are great for folks just getting into it who don't have a preferred method yet.

[eg54string]

Sounds great. It should be very informative.

Eric.

[Mike Brady]

I already have worked on some chisels for the study and am putting together the notes as I proceed. The guy who was to do the Spyderco ceramic stones is away so I am using his three stones on a chisel and I am doing two others with media I have. I am sure we will get objections because there are a handful of individuals doing the sharpening, but remember they were chosen from a group of over one hundred members and each has a bunch of experience with his media. For example, the Tormek guy is a machinist by trade. You wouldn't want me on the Tormek or even a grinding wheel.

[AHill]

I'm guessing what you'll discover has nothing to do with the media and everything to do with the final grit chosen, but I too, am very interested. If you can get pics, I'd love to see you post them.

It would be interesting to see the same test applied to a set of chisels with one of the more tougher steels, e.g. A2 or PM-V11. But, that would be a more expensive test, wouldn't it? For those steels, I think the media would make a significant difference - at least in time to get a decent edge.

[Peter Tremblay]

Wouldn't the entire method be finally judged by the quality of the craftsman and [more importantly] the grit size of the last step? Assuming that you are all working at the same bevel angle?

Aren't all sharpening steps aimed at getting to the honing step which is where "sharp" really happens?

I'm thinking that this will really be about the last medium and the amount of time, pressure, and grit size that was the last step

I could be wrong.

[Mike Brady]

Peter, I agree that the final grit is the key, but the grit before that one must be fine enough that your last step is able to remove the effects of the prior one. The Craftsman's skill is an obvious variable.

Our goal is to see what the results are and compare them. It may be eye-opening. One thing sure is that up to that moment, each sharpening regime will be the best .