Sharpening Station Setups?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

A hair free patch on my arm is the only requirement I have for a sharpening station. I don't think it matters much what the abrasive is as long as it removes material and goes down (up?) to very fine. Heat needs to be avoided. A strop is very helpful. Wet or dry sandpaper on a pice of glass is part of my Kit too. My little Grizzly was bought on a whim. A $99.00 buy one get one free Christmas gift sale at Grizzlys online store. I am slowly making various tool holders for it. Scissors remain a weak point in my sharpening ability. I can get a dull pair to work with a tiny carborundum scissors stone. If I try to use the Grizzly on scissors I can not make any improvement. The scissors tool holder is one that I plan to buy.
I would love to get a peak inside Bob's Sharpening Service shop in NH. He did a batch of antique saws for us. The list of all the items he sharpens is the biggest I have seen.

Bob's Sharp All

[Christopher Charles]

If only Bob could sharpen minds.

[Scott Winners]

Ease of use and space is one reason I switched to a sandpaper on glass setup.

I used sandpaper on glass for quite a while, but the price of sandpaper eventually made it cost effective for me to move on. I am confident you have really good edges, I did too; but keep an eye on your $ going out the door for sandpaper.

[Richard Hutchings]

Well, after reading all this and seeing how much time and money gets thrown at this, I decided to put most of it aside and try the Cosman 30 seconds to sharp. I don't own a 16000 grit stone so I added the strop step to my process. Another 20 seconds. Still not bad. If I keep this setup on it's own bench, then I may not hesitate to sharpen before a cut.

I decide to test it on the only 5 1/2 I own, the one given to me by Steven Newman, can you believe that!! Anyway, I found I needed to do a lot of work on the back of the blade and spent quite a bit of effort on this along with flattening the chip breaker. I started from scratch on the blade bringing to my high speed grey wheel bench grinder. I free handed the angle, barely generating any heat and I didn't even need to cool it. How about that!

I spent a short time on the 400 grit diamond stone which I shouldn't have to do again for a while. With that done, I'm ready for the Cosman sharpening. Slight lift on the 1200 diamond stone followed by a little more lift on the 8000 grit Shapton and then, just because I don't have a 16000 grit like he does, I added some time on the stop.

I took this to some hard maple, oiled the sole ala Paul and went to town. Once I dialed in the plane, I got a glass smooth surface on the edge of the board. It felt like it was waxed. At this point, I'm pretty much sold but I think I can do better yet with this plane.

2 things needed, check the sole for flatness because I couldn't quite get down to the level of ease I see when Rob does it so I think I need to flatten the sole a little. I also want to square up the side for shooting, only the left side needs to be done, I'm a lefty. I'm not sure what that's going to entail, we'll see when I get there, probably next year in retirement.

If, and that's a big if, I can get this 5 1/2 to do all my smoothing and shooting, I may be selling my Veritas BU at a bargain price to one of our members. I could use the money for wood. Or, I may do a tool swap with someone.

[Nathan Johnson]

Just a tray with shelf liner and stones. Grinder is out in the garage.20201223_191305.jpg

[Phil Gaudio]

My super fancy sharpening setup. Granite tile scraps epoxied to plywood: note the French cleat at the top (hangs on wall when not in use).
3m micro finishing film: post it notes help avoid cross contamination when honing guide is moved from grit to grit. I use a spritz of CMT Bit/Blade cleaner on the film: works great. Also note black bar mat in back: great surface to store various wet sharpening paraphernalia. I should mention I also have a Tormek on another table in the shop.

[IMG][/IMG]

Attachment 509470

[steven c newman]

Happen to have another Stanley No. 5-1/2c..
Thurs. Shoptime, leveling up,down.JPG
Except, this one was in use, today....top of the bench needed a bit of flattening...
Thurs. Shoptime, cleared for action.JPG
A couple knots were acting up, causing speed bumps...all flat, now..

[Richard Hutchings]

Happen to have another Stanley No. 5-1/2c..
Thurs. Shoptime, leveling up,down.JPG
Except, this one was in use, today....top of the bench needed a bit of flattening...
Thurs. Shoptime, cleared for action.JPG
A couple knots were acting up, causing speed bumps...all flat, now..

Here's the one you gave me in action this morning. Not really doing any work but creating shavings in hard maple.

[steven c newman]

Glad you liked it!

[Maurice Mcmurry]

a carefully selected rock.

This rock is a dandy. The area in the circle is a sharpening station. The handyman plane was sharpened on this rock. Pine is not a big challenge. The plane would not cut pine at all before I sharpened it the on the rock.

Screen Shot 2023-11-04 at 7.16.18 AM.jpeg IMG-1546.jpg

[Tom M King]

My Mother used to sharpen her kitchen knives on a brick in the steps into the kitchen. In an 1828 house I worked on, beside the Winter cooking fireplace in the basement, there is one Schist stone laid about chest high in all the other Gneiss stones. There is a lot of wear from sharpening knives on it.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

My Mother used to sharpen her kitchen knives on a brick in the steps into the kitchen. In an 1828 house I worked on, beside the Winter cooking fireplace in the basement, there is one Schist stone laid about chest high in all the other Gneiss stones. There is a lot of wear from sharpening knives on it.

Neat-O!
I get to drive past Whetstone Creek C.A. today. I hope I have time to stop.
Whetstone Creek Conservation Area | Missouri Department of Conservation

[Cameron Wood]

My super fancy sharpening setup. Granite tile scraps epoxied to plywood: note the French cleat at the top (hangs on wall when not in use).
3m micro finishing film: post it notes help avoid cross contamination when honing guide is moved from grit to grit. I use a spritz of CMT Bit/Blade cleaner on the film: works great. Also note black bar mat in back: great surface to store various wet sharpening paraphernalia. I should mention I also have a Tormek on another table in the shop.

[IMG][/IMG]

Attachment 509470

I used a 12" black granite tile like that for years for flattening plane soles, etc.. When I got a precision straight edge and went around checking things,
it turned out that it was not flat at all, but had a dish to the middle.

[Phil Gaudio]

I used a 12" black granite tile like that for years for flattening plane soles, etc.. When I got a precision straight edge and went around checking things,
it turned out that it was not flat at all, but had a dish to the middle.

You know, my scraps might not be flat: I have never even thought to measure them. But as long as I can get sharpening results that let me do this, I really don't care

[IMG][/IMG]

[Rob Luter]

My super fancy sharpening setup. Granite tile scraps epoxied to plywood: note the French cleat at the top (hangs on wall when not in use).
3m micro finishing film: post it notes help avoid cross contamination when honing guide is moved from grit to grit. I use a spritz of CMT Bit/Blade cleaner on the film: works great. Also note black bar mat in back: great surface to store various wet sharpening paraphernalia. I should mention I also have a Tormek on another table in the shop.

[IMG][/IMG]

Attachment 509470

I used this process for years. For me it was 1/4" Plate Glass glued to 3/4" veneered MDF blocks. It worked pretty well for touch ups but the films wore down rather quickly. The film also had trouble with the A2 blade material. Great idea using the post it notes!

I simplified a couple years back and went to the "Cosman" system. It was a good move. It's quicker and takes up less space.