best sharpening jig?

[nkforster]

Saw this one one YouTube and I've made one for the workshop. Great!

http://www.theluthierblog.com/articles/sharpening-jig/

Which is your favourite?

nigel
www.theluthierblog.com
www.nkforsterguitars.com/luthier-book/

[Stephen Perry]

Well, I use green chrome stuff on a leather wheel or a strop (very hard one) for constant touchup, but the jig part I never did get happy with. This looks awesome. Thanks

[Folkmusician.com]

I have this and a Japanese water stone which gives great results:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...72,43078,51868

The truth is, I rarely take the time to use it...
I keep a diamond sharpening stone on the bench and give whatever I am using a few swipes and call it good.

That is a cool jig though!

[Marty Jacobson]

Interesting, Nigel. Reminds me of the Lansky knife sharpening jigs. Maybe that's where they got the inspiration.

[Steve Sorensen]

Simple and effective. Thanks.
Steve

[BJ O'Day]

Nigel,
I assume it hones it to a curved shape. Does it change a flat chisel into a gouge?

BJ

[barney 59]

Nigel,
I assume it hones it to a curved shape. Does it change a flat chisel into a gouge?

BJ

My thoughts as well. In time it would have to. I like crispy sharp right angle corners on my chisels. The set up for doing the back is pretty good though. I have that Lee Valley jig as well and it does a pretty good job especially when your truing up the angle ( like when you want to take the curve back out after a bunch of honings with your Japanese circle maker jig) but it shortens a stone by quite a bit and is a little tedious on short chisels or very narrow chisels. I find I only need to use that after a long time and I just use my eye and some good stones and leather strob. I have some machines that I can use as well but on the really best stuff I do it by hand. The machines are great until you goof --I keep a bunch of "beater" chisels close by so I use those for all the terrible things one tends to do to a chisel --the machines are great for those.

[Folkmusician.com]

-I keep a bunch of "beater" chisels close by so I use those for all the terrible things one tends to do to a chisel

I am harsh on chisels. The worst being, they make great scrapers! Cleaning glue, carving bone parts, picking at things with the corner, etc... But they do it so well!

[Charles E.]

Sure takes up a lot of space. I use a hollow grind and my hands to get my chisels nice and sharp, no jig required.

[barney 59]

I am harsh on chisels. The worst being, they make great scrapers! Cleaning glue, carving bone parts, picking at things with the corner, etc... But they do it so well!

Yah, takes glue off the work bench real good! I have a set of Berg Chisels that I guard with my life--they only are in sight when I'm doing the fine woodworking. At this point pretty much all my chisels would be considered good or even very good chisels but the Bergs are pretty special!
I hollow grind a lot of my stuff just for the time factor. PLane blades and best chisels I prefer flat,maybe it's only aesthetics I don't know, they all get sharp in the end. I have so many edge tools that keeping them in tip top condition could be a full time job just in itself.

[Tim S]

Tormek

[Larry Simonson]

Hi Barney 59, I think you are right about it putting some curvature into a flat chisel because the edges of the chisel have a larger radius of curvature than the center of the chisel, so they would be traveling the greatest arc and thus get the most metal removed. However with a large radius of curvature the effect diminishes.

[CedarSlayer]

My simple jig is 2 part. First a flat fairly wide block for each stone height that is a bit longer than the longest stone. Second a block with an angle on it that is the same length as the flat block. Lay the flat block next to the stone, put the angle block on top of it. And run the chisel, or plane blade along the angled block where the bevel contacts the stone. You can move the angle block around to use more of the stone.

If you sharpen on sandpaper, you don't even need the flat blocks.

Bob

[HoGo]

The chisels do a circular motion but that doesn't mean they get sharpened to convex shape. If you hjold them flat against the stone at all times they will be as flat as the surface of teh stone allows (notice the two small chisels sharpened at once). The stick just helps keep correct angle.
I don't like this setup as it wears the stone unevenly and soon you'll have to flatten the stone again.
Hollow gring has one big advantage that you are not sharpening the whole surface at once but just the bevel at the very edge. If you have good hollow you can touch up slightly blunt edge by few strokes on fine stone or 1200/2000 grit paper.

[nkforster]

Nigel,
I assume it hones it to a curved shape. Does it change a flat chisel into a gouge?

BJ

It doesn't! I thought that at first. It hones flat. When I first found this video on a forum there was about two pages of folk arguing about wether it grinds flat or curved.

It grinds flat. Promise.

nigel
www.theluthierblog.com

[nkforster]

I don't like this setup as it wears the stone unevenly and soon you'll have to flatten the stone again.

It only wears unevenly if you don't move the stone which you can as often as you like without disturbing the angle. In general hollow grinding Japanese blades isn't done, and that's what I use.

n
www.theluthierblog.com

[nkforster]

As a follow up to the original post, here is my variation on the design:

http://www.theluthierblog.com/articl...the-world-pt2/

nigel

[fox]

I made one up this morning, works great but I am getting a round profile!
It shows up more on large blades, I wonder about a few things that might avoid this happening ....
Maybe a longer arm and a loose fit on the pole would give more control at the sharpening end?
That idea might seem the wrong way to go but I think I have to close a fit on the pole, I will try a few mods tomorrow....

[nkforster]

I made one up this morning, works great but I am getting a round profile!
It shows up more on large blades, I wonder about a few things that might avoid this happening ....
Maybe a longer arm and a loose fit on the pole would give more control at the sharpening end?
That idea might seem the wrong way to go but I think I have to close a fit on the pole, I will try a few mods tomorrow....

Mmm, not sure how you're managing that, can you post a picture of your set up? I've had no issues at all.

It could be possible to introduce rocking especially if the "eye" over the pole is too tight. Mine is really loose. Works a treat.

n
http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/luthier-book/