Sharpening

[Lee, in Calgary]

Greetings all,

I'm interested in sharpening my planes and chisels. Do the experienced folks recommend a system such as those sold by Lee Valley, or would it be better to go with the glass+sandpaper&Veritas jig method?

Lee

[Andy in Georgetown]

Hi Lee,
I bought the veritas system about a year ago and have found it easy to use and get great results from it.
Andy

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=32970&category=1,43072,43085&amp ;abspage=1&ccurrency=1&SID=

[Mike in Ajax]

a while back and after seeing all of the stuff that I would need to buy to handle my sharpening needs ( all I had was an oilstone) and the prices of all this stuff I decided to go all out and bought the veritas Power sharpening system from Lee Valley with the 10% course discount.

This is very pricey but does a great job and you can sharpen stuff in a flash. I don't have the patience to spend 1/2 hour on a chisel to get it properly sharp the first time.

Of course I have cut myself so many times now that my chisels are razor sharp. I now have much more respect for these tools. LOL

[Gary in Niagara]

Lee, I bought the "Veritas Sharpening System" http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...currency=1&SID=
and used if with glass/sand paper and it worked great but it is slow.

Recently I started using a faster that costs less then the Veritas power sharpener or a tormac(sp) system. I bought the delus power sharpening set http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...currency=1&SID= and put the white wheel on one side of my 6" grinder. On the other side a hard felt wheel http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...currency=1&SID= . With this setup you can touch up an edge with the felt wheel and Honing Compound http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...currency=1&SID= . You have to be careful you don't round the cutting edge but with a little practice you get a mirror sharp edge that like the scarry sharp guy you can count your nose hairs in too.

[Roman]

I guess I am somewhat ol fashioned as I use a grider, wet stone and a holding jig

I also at times use a diamond strope and a leather strope. and it only takes a couple of minutes to produce an edge that I can shave with. Sometimes I do shave a portion of my face to prove a point to the young bucks around.

However long it takes and whatever method you choose if its not sharp its somewhat useless.

Cheers

[Darrell & Kathy (]

Lee,

I use sandpaper on glass, with a jig to hold the blade. Some blades you have to do free-hand, like moving filletster irons, but most of them fit in the jig.

Darrell