As you all know I'm perfectly happy with the edge I get off my Sigma 6000 stone. I've never seen the need to go to a really high grit but I recently bought a Japanese natural stone from a Dutch site (I'm Dutch) that sells second hand tools. It was only €70 (that 78USD) so I thought, what the heck, lets see what this thing does to my knives. It's a hard stone and somewhere in the 12.000 grit range, that's even higher than my coticules. I took it with me to work today just to try it out on my chisels and well, I'm converted. You were right Derek, it does indeed make a difference. I'm going to keep the stone with me at work and use it as the final step after the Sigma 6000.
Tried a 12.000 grit stone.
- Thread starter Lemwise
- Start date
derekcohen
Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
- Messages
- 922
RussellS said:
While it is nice to be right, it is even better that this has worked out for you. Enjoy!
Regards from Perth
Derek
ear3
Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2014
- Messages
- 4,341
[member=60576]Lemwise[/member] So you are currently stepping up from 6000 to 12000?
I end at 8000 on my Shapton glass stone, but then use a 1 micron abrasive paste on a piece of maple for the final polishing. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I don't really have anything to compare it to, since I've been seriously sharpening for only about 6 months, and I'd be curious if I could get an even keener edge with a higher grit stone.
I end at 8000 on my Shapton glass stone, but then use a 1 micron abrasive paste on a piece of maple for the final polishing. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I don't really have anything to compare it to, since I've been seriously sharpening for only about 6 months, and I'd be curious if I could get an even keener edge with a higher grit stone.
Based on research online, books I've read (including from Christopher Schwarz), and various Fine Woodworking videos, materials, and podcasts, I went with the 8000 as the final stone (in this case a Shapton GlassStone). That works well with the second to last stone a 4000 Shapton stone. Everything I've sharpened since I bought these 2 stones has been much sharper than anything I've done previously and more than satisfactory for my work.
Considering that his sharpening techniques work and give top notch results, I'd say that he's a credible source. Read his sharpening stuff and, if it doesn't work, I'd say practice is required. If you have better techniques, by all means, use them. Whatever works for you is the most important thing.
Lemwise said:
Since his Workbenches book is one of the best books of its type (historical background, instructional, etc.) I have read in a while, I take his advice in other fields more serious than before. He IS a guy who has been in and around woodworking for a long time and he has had opportunity to talk to and learn from lots of exceptional woodworkers — that must have rubbed off some, right?
HarveyWildes
Member
- Joined
- May 3, 2016
- Messages
- 984
Bert Vanderveen said:
There are a lot of smart, talented woodworkers out there who have contributed in some way or another to how I do woodworking. Schwarz is one of them. There is not a single woodworker out there who I want to slavishly copy. One of the fun aspects of woodworking is talking over a problem with other woodworkers and seeing what kinds of solutions come out of the weeds, then adapting the suggestions to my particular problem, given my skills and available resources. I took some woodworking classes at Red Rocks Community College in Denver a while back, and I took away more from the discussion with the instructors and other students than any of the lectures. The lectures set some expectations for the basics, but finessing the problems happened in the shop when people discussed issues with their projects. FOG is a good forum for learning from the experience of other craftsmen, but we all sift through the feedback and use what makes the most sense to us.
That said, I've used almost every sharpening technique out there (except for diamond paste
), and read all sorts of books and articles, and gotten advice from a lot of sources, and while my sharpening skills are good enough for government work (I can get paper thin shavings from straight grain cherry if I put my mind to it), I still am not entirely happy with what I'm doing and I'm still experimenting. I think many other woodworkers must feel the same way I do or there would not be such a big variety of sharpening tools and jigs out there, not to mention the variety of steel alloys. And by the way, I'm just talking sharpening for basic chisels and plane blades, not even carving or turning tools. At some point when my edges are good enough, I just put the sharpening tools away because if I didn't, I'd wear my chisels down to nubs and still not have gotten any work done.
derekcohen
Member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2008
- Messages
- 922
More important than the equipment and the stones for sharpening is the development of a sharpening strategy that you feel comfortable with and believe in. Everything is then a progression from this.
For myself, for BD planes and bench chisels, I hollow grind at 30 degrees, and freehand on the hollow.
In sharpening, I consider the quality of the hollow to lay the foundation for everything that follows. With a minimal amount of steel to sharpen, it is possible to get away with just about any sharpening media, simply because there is so little steel to hone.
A sharpening strategy is equally about re-sharpening. It is a simple matter to hone a blade to a sharp edge, but can you re-sharpen it quickly, or must you start from scratch? Again, a good hollow enables the most re-sharpening from a single grind.
This is a 1" Veritas PM-V11 chisel honed to .5 microns. Full hollow with co-planar microbevel. I should be able to re-sharpen this many times before re-grinding. Importantly, each sharpening session takes, from beginning to end, about 30 seconds. Really.
My sharpening system:http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/UltimateGrindingSharpeningSetUp.html
Regards from Perth
Derek
For myself, for BD planes and bench chisels, I hollow grind at 30 degrees, and freehand on the hollow.
In sharpening, I consider the quality of the hollow to lay the foundation for everything that follows. With a minimal amount of steel to sharpen, it is possible to get away with just about any sharpening media, simply because there is so little steel to hone.
A sharpening strategy is equally about re-sharpening. It is a simple matter to hone a blade to a sharp edge, but can you re-sharpen it quickly, or must you start from scratch? Again, a good hollow enables the most re-sharpening from a single grind.
This is a 1" Veritas PM-V11 chisel honed to .5 microns. Full hollow with co-planar microbevel. I should be able to re-sharpen this many times before re-grinding. Importantly, each sharpening session takes, from beginning to end, about 30 seconds. Really.
My sharpening system:http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/UltimateGrindingSharpeningSetUp.html
Regards from Perth
Derek
