sharpening pages are done (mostly)

I still want to fix a couple of pictures but the sharpening pages are done or redone or whatever. Any comments are welcome.

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______ God bless and safe turning Darrell Feltmate Truro, NS, Canada
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Darrell Feltmate
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Have been meaning to set up some type of system and your post prompted me to get moving. I used your design with a few modifications.

I happened to have a set of strong drawer slides kicking around, and they had a large triangle piece of metal on one end (was used to "hook" the drawer front to the slider). One of these proved perfect as the sliding base of the jig. To lock it in place at the distance from the grinder, used a rubber tipped lockdown clamp that just presses down against the slide. The triangular metal piece on the end worked well to hold the v block in place.

Couple of things I noticed: It is very important to get the V in the holder block to be exactly in the center of the wheel - I was slightly off on my first attempt, and when I sharpened my first gouge, the cutting edge was slightly lower on one side of the concave face. Once I centered this, the cutting face was bang on. Another thing was I used some 3/4 dowels - these were rather large when sitting in the V block, and I found it affected the quality of the cutting face as the "rocking motion " was not consistent - ground down to more of a point where the dowel contacts the V, and it was much easier to achieve a consistent face.

Last, but not least was my grinding wheel - I had picked up new one at the local borg, simply marked as "Fine". Well, its not fine enough, I find the edge is still a bit rough and I really need to get a better wheel to achieve a smoother cutting face.

By the way, the one thing I really wanted to find an answer for was the proper way to sharpen a bowl gouge that I have, it has the swept back wings and I have been afraid to attempt to sharpen it for fear of losing the face. I got a kick out of the fact the One picture you did not have was of this gouge being sharpened! : )

All that said, your page was very informative and I don't think I would have attempted the jig had it not been for the pictures you have of your setup - I find I am more inclined to understand something visually than written, and your page provided the perfect instructions for me.

Well Done, and Thank You!

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xcaper

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Darrell Feltmate

Darrell

Have just looked through all the instructions and video. You make i look very easy to the point that i will have a go this weekend. Jus need to buy some dowel. I brought a very cheap wet grinder with a normal grinding whee attached. Up to now i have been free handing on the wet grinder, m spindle and bowl gouges tend to be sharpen to a point, its about time had some conformity of shape which hopefully will cut down on sand pape usage with thanks and keep up the great work ps whats the difference between a finger nail grind and a irish grin please mar

Reply to
Woodborg

Expect some disappointment. Tools don't make the cuts, turners make the cuts. Best way I've found to cut down on sandpaper is to save the best for last. HSS gouges are great hoggers, but I can make my carbon tools sharper faster. Shaping done, the finishing passes are the privilege of the sharp tool.

I'm not good enough at freehand cutting and duplicating my cutting angles on various work to make it worthwhile to jig for a consistent contour, so I use the ABC method. All I have to remember on any tool is that steeper is best for entry and cross-grain cutting, while shallow angles work best for peeling down the grain. If I can't get the angle I need with a particular tool, I select another one which has the proper width, angle of grind and handle length. Once the bevel is supported behind the cut, makes no difference how consistent the form of the gouge is. The wood will teach you how it wishes to be cut, so hold the tool to do it that way, not how you thought you held it last time in similar circumstances or the way you saw turner X do it on a video. If you had an X-Y-Z computer program and consistent material instead of A-B-C and twisted elm, the angle of your tooling would matter a lot more, but even there the choice is often a compromise when the angles vary.

Fingernail is a shorter Irish. The business end looks like an arc of a circle when viewed from the inside. Not sure where the textbook answer resides, but if the edge is back a full radius or beyond, it's not a fingernail in my book. Half radius is a good comfortable peeling contour. Back farther, especially on deeper gouges, where the wing is longer anyway, call it Irish. Then there's another variable in the amount of roll you do (or don't on some gouges) put on the edge, varying the angle of the grind as you draw back the ears, and the width of the nose you leave, where the textbooks are mute on when a pinky fingernail becomes a pointed gouge.

If this sounds vague, it should. Lots of different people grind a lot of different ways to cut the same wood. Rather than change your posture and angle to suit some grind, change your grind to allow you to cut at some angle - the wood will teach you - by getting another gouge to fit in narrower or poke in deeper. I have to laugh at folks leaning out and down, peering inside a bowl as they try to make the latest and most fashionable grind on their long-handled gouge make the turn they need to fair the inside. I'm not proud. If the wood demands it, I'll change gouges in the middle of a finishing pass rather than have to stoop or resort to 100 grit. Buying another tool to grind a different angle, if it lets you keep your face out of danger and your back straight, is well worth the expense.

Reply to
George

Woodborg a fingernail grind is just that, looks like a fingernail shape and is typical used on spindle gouges, but can also be made on a bowl gouge, however the irish grind was devised for the problem we have turning the bottom of deeper bowls, where the gouge's bevel on the straight across grind or fingernail shape can not and does not contact the wood anymore, and turners than used scrapers to take that wood out, making for some real surface problems a lot of times. The irish grind does make it much easier to do this by having the wings of the deep bowl gouge ground back and onto the side of the gouge, and makes it possible to cut the wood all the way from the side down to the very center. Using the jig does not make the profile though, if you grind on the sides you'll end up with a point, you will have to first get the profile right, and then it is much easier to keep that profile with the jig, also less material to grind away so it is much quicker.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Woodborg wrote:

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l.vanderloo

Reply to
Darrell Feltmate

Darrell

I have just made the base part and the arm assembly and now have uniform cut on my roughing gouge and spindle gouge. I use to think tha they had a could even cut when i free handed on the wet stone but afte

2 rotations using the jig i could see area where it hadn't sharpened thus poorly done free hand. After getting a even allround cut on th rough gouge i tested the end and it even felt sharpe. g

I have made one jig part for my bowl gouge, but not having any CA hav had to wait over night for the glue to dry, so shall be trying out th side to side rolling method for the bowl gouge this morning. Shortl followed by turning another peice out of the fire wood pile. At thi rate i hope it its not going to be a cold winter as i will only hav shavings to burn.

It only took 1 hr to make the base and arm. The only thing i had to bu was the dowel £2 for a 4 metre length. I think this works out a lo cheaper than buying a commercial jig. Thanks Darrell for the grea plans Mar

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Woodborg

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Darrell Feltmate

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