Dry Hand Sharpening Methods

[Mike Holbrook]

Having followed George's thread on sharpening with ceramic stones and no water and having been a fan of Spyderco Ceramic stones for sharpening knives, I recently purchased a few Spyderco bench ceramic stones and a few Eze-Lap diamond plates. My original idea was to have the sharpening tools and skills to "touch up" sharpen at my bench saving a number of trips to the sink & water stones. In the last year I have become interested in green woodworking, resulting in the acquisition of a collection of hand tools with curved blades that I may use further from a water source.These tools were another sharpening challenge I suspected might benefit from the same methods.

There has been a trend back towards older "oil" stones on these pages. I am old enough to have spent many hours trying to sharpen outdoor knives, axes & tools with these older stones. My recollections are a little less nostalgic and a little more related to the frustration of many hours spent without much to show for it. Still I do have all those hours invested in developing the hand/eye coordination necessary to sharpen by hand without a guide. It makes sense to me to do larger amounts of metal removal with diamond stones and polish with ceramics. The Diamond stones are obviously much faster than the old oil stones and I have experienced better results polishing with ceramic stones.

It did not take long for me to convinced myself that I get more work done in less time by touching up the blades I am using at my bench, before they get dull, instead of waiting until the blades become unusable then making the trip to the sink and water stones. The problem I have with going to the sink is a sizable amount of my woodworking time turns into sharpening sessions. I find it too tempting to sharpen too much, while I am there. The trip to the sink winds up breaking the continuity in a project. More touch ups and less long sharpening sessions seems to help me with projects. I spend less total time sharpening and find myself with well sharpened tools more often.

I just recently moved my diamond stones into my hand tool woodworking room too. I am making plans to make a sharpening cabinet and surface, as close as possible to my benches. The issue I have with sharpening at the bench is the bench surface tends to get poached by sharpening tools. I am thinking a simple rubber mat on top of a cabinet or desk containing all my dry sharpening gear. So I am interested in hearing about sharpening station designs.

I know there are quite a few hand sharpening methods and I am interested in hearing which ones other members use and like. I may be a little odd in that I tend to use different methods with different issues at different stages of sharpening. Early into sizable bevel restores I tend to move my blades in an elongated circular or figure eight pattern. As I feel the bevel improving I tend to go to more side sharpening and straight back & forth motion covering the entire stone, as much as possible.

I have been surprised to learn that it is easy to make small to large radiuses on either side of my blades by altering pressure on either side and angling the corners more into the stone. The #4 Stanley SW blade I am just finishing up has just a slight curve or rounding at both corners as compared to my #5 & #6. The no name (similar to a Stanley #51) spokeshave blade I just restored has even smaller radius’ at it’s corners. My magnifying LED floor lamp, next to my bench, comes in handy in conjunction with an engineer's square to reassure myself that bevel shapes are appropriate to the work. Altering the bevels and corner radiuses at the bench by hand, while I am engaged in the work, tends to produce more appropriate bevels and radiuses for the work at hand. Sharpening closer to the work at hand has a tendency to improve both the quality and quantity of my sharpening time.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I like the setup that Paul Sellers uses in his sharpening videos...a single board with three diamond hones mounted to it, that he clamps in his vice. That would be ideal for at-the-bench retouches that you are talking about.

The key for making sharpening quick is basically to limit the area being honed. You can do that with various methods...secondary bevels (I try to keep mine about 1/16 wide) or hollow grinding, for example. For that it's useful to have a grinder or belt sander (I use the latter).

I also have multiple planes I can use, typically. For smoothing or general work I have two #4s, one Stanley and one LN. So I can smooth until both of those are dull, which takes a while normally.

As far as hand motions on the stones, I don't think it really matters except if a certain motion helps you maintain better control. The only thing is when you want to get rid of the burr, edge-leading strokes tend to do that better. So I normally use a back-and-forth motion (I'm limited to this by the honing jig, but circular or figure 8 or whatever will work too) for most of my time on a given stone, then I take a few very light edge leading passes (no backstroke) and alternate these strokes with some on the back of the blade. I try to get rid of the burr before moving on to the next stone.

[David Weaver]

There has been a trend back towards older "oil" stones on these pages. I am old enough to have spent many hours trying to sharpen outdoor knives, axes & tools with these older stones. My recollections are a little less nostalgic and a little more related to the frustration of many hours spent without much to show for it. Still I do have all those hours invested in developing the hand/eye coordination necessary to sharpen by hand without a guide. It makes sense to me to do larger amounts of metal removal with diamond stones and polish with ceramics. The Diamond stones are obviously much faster than the old oil stones and I have experienced better results polishing with ceramic stones.

I agree with your sentiment about the oilstones and the axes. I've been one of the loudest supporters of oilstones, especially certain types, but they are a no go when a substantial amount of work needs to be done on something like the edge of an axe. They shine when the work to be done is little and is more polishing. Even the fanatical japanese users of coarse stones have a carborundum stone in their kit because to my knowledge, there is no natural stone that comes remotely close.

If you have to bring something to your bench to sharpen, knowing how small and thin the ceramics are (which is a benefit -two in a case take up as much space as a single full thickness cased oilstone, I'd just make a simple (as can be) board that you can move quickly to the bench, or use no board at all and use the diamond stone completely dry.

Side sharpening, forward and aft, figure 8s, etc - none of that really makes a difference so you can do whatever you're comfortable with. Even razor sharpeners don't seem to have much agreement ("circles or x strokes to finish"). It just matters that the stone works to the edge and removes whatever the prior stone did.

[Matthew N. Masail]

I've tried almost every sharpening station option you can think of for a shop with no water. I now use oil stones and diamonds, the best for me is just a flat surface with a textured surface (like plastic fake leather) that is wide enough to have my stones stored along the wall ( the cabinet has a built in 'wall' where I hang stuff also). The front edge has a 1/2 tall 1/2 wide wood strip screwed to it to act as a stop in case of a slip and to butt a strop against. Stones are in boxes some with hinged lids so they stay dust free. The bottom if the stone box has a full layer of high friction tape.

[george wilson]

I only ever sharpened axes with a file. In Alaska I did quite a bit of that.

Axes are fairly soft usually,and whacking them into bark,dirt and wood does their overly sharpened edges little good. Therefore,I found a an edge filed sharp was plenty good enough,and a lot faster than stoning them.

[Jim Koepke]

I've tried almost every sharpening station option you can think of for a shop with no water.

A plastic tub and a one gallon milk jug solve the no water in the shop problem for me.

It is also easier to sharpen blades as they need it instead of waiting until they no longer cut. This is one of the love/hate situations with my Hock blades. They seem to keep cutting fairly well as the edge wears.

My old way of doing things was to have multiple blades and change blades as they became dull. Then there would be the line up of tools to be sharpened. Now it seems a lot faster and easier to address the sharpening as a tool begins losing its edge. Especially in some of the soft woods used for my projects.

My lathe tools and gouges tend to be sharpened on oil stones and the water stones are used for plane blades and chisels.

jtk

[Daniel Rode]

I've been following a few threads lately that concern sharpening, especially when to sharpen and how much effort sharpening is.

As a little background, I have a small dedicated sharpening station near my bench and I use diamond plates except for the 15k shapton that is my finishing stone.

I sharpen pretty often, especially chisels. A touch up takes a few seconds, a "full" sharpening, still only takes a minute or less. Plane irons take a little longer because of assembly / dis-assembly and because I use an Eclipse style guide for them (I freehand my chisels).

Even if I have to grind back a micro bevel that's gotten too wide, that adds no more than another 1-2 minutes. My biggest concern is that I may be working a bit too long on each stone or maybe even not letting edges ever start to dull? The only real downside I can see would be having to re-grind more often.

Is this typical or am I doing something wrong like missing some step or skipping something?

It seems to be working really well but I haven't been doing this long and I don't work wood may hours per week like a professional might.

[Mike Holbrook]

I have thought about making something to hold stones. The reason I have not yet is the green wood tools often require the stones to be used at different heights, taken to the tool....I have been thinking about a station more like Matthew mentions above but I am still thinking on it.

I have frequently wondered about all this work to create and remove burrs. I have not typically seen these definable burrs. Now that I am working Stanley plane blades I am finding out where these occur. Wow, a few strokes on those Stanley blades seems to frequently make a sizable burr that may need to be worked from both sides of the blade to remove.

Geroge I have two different classes of axe/hatchets now. The axes and mauls I use for: limbing, splitting firewood and other typical outdoor activities get sharpened with files if I am outside and touched up on a belt sander occasionally if they get badly out of shape. The green woodworking axes get used for finer cuts in: bowls, spoons and small green wood splits too small for a typical froe. The green wood "sculpting" axes are the ones that I may want to sharpen better.

As David mentions trying to sharpen larger, softer hunks of axe steel with small oil stones is an exercise in futility that I learned to avoid years ago. I still have a few old oil stones that I plan to try again but I have grown fond of the ceramics without water for polishing. David also alludes to the fact that oil stones are typically not found in the long thin rod shapes that ceramic stones are available in. I have found the rod shaped ceramics quite handy for touching up curved: drawknives, spokeshaves, inshaves, travishers... blades that often have challenging curves. I even found a 600 grit Eze-Lap diamond rod which fills in between files and ceramic rods.

Jim, most of my water stones are now in a plastic bucket with a lid and handle. I plan to keep the bucket at my sharpening station most of the time too. I think some sort of thin closed cell foam pad on my sharpening station top will allow me to use wet or dry stones as the need arrises. I am thinking the water stones may come out when I have multiple tools to get ready for a new project.

[David Weaver]

It seems to be working really well

I wouldn't worry about it then.

If you want to be really cheap with your stones and time, you can just do half as much work as you did before and see if you still get a good edge. If you do too few strokes, you'll have damage or wear left in the edge when you go back to your work and it won't be as sharp. How much and how cheap you get is just a matter of judgement and experience. Sooner or later, laziness will allow you to get to the point where you're getting excellent results as little effort as possible.

[bridger berdel]

I only ever sharpened axes with a file. In Alaska I did quite a bit of that.

Axes are fairly soft usually,and whacking them into bark,dirt and wood does their overly sharpened edges little good. Therefore,I found a an edge filed sharp was plenty good enough,and a lot faster than stoning them.

^ the words of a man who knows his way around an axe....

the curve of diminishing returns for refining the edge of an axe is brutal. if you are using an axe as a carving tool it might make sense to stone the edge, but for limbing and felling it would be a complete waste of time. here in the desert where I live a lot of axes get used as landscape tools- for cutting roots, and other uses too dirty for a chain saw. it's barely worth it to sharpen those at all.

if I'm sharpening an axe in the shop I use an abrasive disk on a mini angle grinder. faster than a file, and coincidentally a sharper edge at the 100 grit or so that the disk carries. in the field, a very coarse stone or better yet, a file.

[David Weaver]

Once an axe is introduced to dirt, all stoning bets are off. There's not much left of non-rusty good axes left around here, but I have snagged a few kelly axes from various places, and gotten some plumb hatchets locally. I'ts nice to stone the edges after filing to use them in the shop, and it might be nice to finish a good clean felling axe with a stone.

But who uses them the way they would've been used 100 years ago felling a tree cleanly up off the ground?

A good file does do an awfully nice job, though, and most axes that I've gotten, even used double bit axes have such a blunt edge that it never would've mattered what the final step was. I guess those were probably from the last users who got a hold of them and either filed them blunt or tried to sharpen them on a bench grinder.

[bridger berdel]

I wouldn't worry about it then.

If you want to be really cheap with your stones and time, you can just do half as much work as you did before and see if you still get a good edge. If you do too few strokes, you'll have damage or wear left in the edge when you go back to your work and it won't be as sharp. How much and how cheap you get is just a matter of judgement and experience. Sooner or later, laziness will allow you to get to the point where you're getting excellent results as little effort as possible.

one way to gauge whether you are done sharpening is to inspect the edge under magnification. when I was getting myself up to speed with straight razors I bought a cheap digital microscope (about $20 on ebay). I keep a 10x loupe at hand for sharpening woodworking tools, though I don't do that kind of inspection of every edge I sharpen. once you know what to look for, by eye with a bright light source is generally adequate.

[David Weaver]

I agree, a loupe is useful, especially. I did the same thing with razors, and for no really good reason, when I was buying japanese natural stones I bought a biological microscope, or whatever you call the low power type that are about 30x.

I suspected that most of the natural stones don't leave an edge as fine on a thick bevel as does something like a shapton 15k pro, and the scope showed that to be true. The types of things you need to do with an iron to get an excellent edge off of a hard natural stone are more the type of thing you would do with a razor than a tool.

(do like the natural stones on razors more, though).

[Curt Putnam]

Let me throw this out: I bought a dish drying mat @ BB&B. I combine that with the slick little tray (Suehiro sp?) that Stu throw in with his 3 stone kit. That combo seems to totally contain any mess at the bench.

What are this group's thought about a diamond 8K (3 micron) stone followed by diamond paste/spray on MDF as a strop? This would be the in process kit - not the complete honing kit. I'm thinking that it would keep things sharp enough for long enough to get the job done. Thinking I would set the stone in the same piece of MDF used for the strop - that way a single lift gets the whole kit on the bench, and then a single lift gets it put away.

[Mike Holbrook]

Bridger, green woodworking, usually small one handed "axes" are a different animal than your typical two handed outdoor axe. Check out guys making cups and bowls on YouTube with these axes. I am amazed at how technical and precise these guys can be with what is usually considered a basic crude tool. I have a Sycamore tree I hope to take down and section for bowls and spoons later today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iGhbxqdgdg

I have around 6 acres of flood plain, in a near tropical rain forest environment, roots infest the top foot of soil very heavily. A reasonably sharp mattock (pickax with an adze and chisel edge) or a heavy grub hoe can work wonders in that kind of soil.

Some green wood hand tools require that each stone be raised a significant distance off the work surface, usually on a block of wood or stone. The bent handles of these tools run ones hands into the work surface if individual stones are not raised. Unless of course one takes the stone/rod to the tool which creates another set of issues. In either case multiple stones attached to a single surface can not be used.