Originally Posted by
Allen Jordan
I recently bought a few large gouges off ebay. One thing you have to consider is sharpening on the inside of the curve... not really possible with standard flat stones. I ended up buying some fine abrasive PSA-backed paper from lee valley which I plan on sticking to some curved hardwood forms. Hopefully I can use the gouges themselves to make the forms the perfect shape.
Lee Valley sells carver's slip water stones up to an 8000 grit. At about the same time an 8000 water stone slip was bought from Lee Valley, a translucent Arkansas slip stone was bought from Dan's Whetstone Co.
A 1000 and 4000 water slip stone had already been bought years ago from Woodcraft. A grey slip oilstone and a fine India slip stone had already found their way into my accumulation from places unknown.
The hardwood forms have worked for me. The big problem is making them for each gouge can be time consuming. The easy way is to make an indention with the intended gouge in the end of the blank and then use a block plane to come close. If the gouge isn't too dull you may be able to use it to pare the shape a little. As the gouge gets sharper, it will be easier to use for refining the forms shape.
Different sized dowels can also help when using abrasive sheets.
Some of the gouges that came to me sharpened in cannel are being converted a sharpening at a time to being out cannel. Mostly this is being done with duplicates if there isn't already and out cannel of the same size and sweep.
For stropping I have a piece of very supple leather. It can be laid over a form or held in hand.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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