sharpening turning tools

An oil stone or water stone (or scary sharp) is safe. But the better the tool, the harder/longer it is to sharpen. A skew would be much easier to sharpen accurately.

Woodcraft has a wet stone sharpener - a cheapo Makita - that is slow cutting and safe. Under $100.

Do you have a slow-speed grinder? Some people swear by a high speed wheel. But high speed is riskier.

Perhaps get a set of cheap tools, like Harbor Freight, and practice your technique with those on your wheel.

Did you get some tools with your lathe? I have two sets now, (not even HSS) and I'd throw them away except for the trauma involved with such an act. I bet you can find a turner that has some cheap.

For another alternative view - I remember reading in an old book that Peter Child only used one carborundrum wheel in his life the one that came with his lathe. Frankly this puzzles me. If he wasn't using HSS, then he should be sharpening more often, and using up more wheels.

You can sharpen your tools with anything that'll remove metal from the tool. The other part of the question is, " do you want to rub your tools on stone all day or turn wood?".

Tools (and stones) should be considered as consummables. If after 5 yrs of turning your gouge is the same length as when you bought it then you did a lot of turning with a dull gouge or you didn't do any turning. Regular size tools are big enough so they won't quickly disappear with grinding.

If cash is tight then try and find some cheapies to practice sharpening. Even with a lot of mistaken grinding it will take you a while to go through a good gouge. I would use a regular grinder if you have one with a white aluminum oxide wheel around 100 grit. I have a 1725 rpm grinder that will be replaced with a regular 3450 rpm when it dies or whatever. You can buy another gouge for the cost of buying a special grinder.

Since the skew is closest to a conventional wood chisel, it can be touched up many times with a stone.

Billh

Use a jig to sharpen. It will minimize the steel lost to the process. Sooner or later a grinder is necessary. With a jig I find that a high speed grinder is fine. See my web site under sharpening for some ideas.

To answer your question, you can, but it takes FOREVER to get the tool sharp. When I do a bowl I frequently have to sharpen 4 times, before rough cut outside, before rough cut inside, and before final cut, both sides. It takes me 45 seconds on a grinder. I'm trying to use a diamond hone to extend the time between sharpenings.

And a skew has to be razor sharp to work. You won't do it on an oil stone unless you are really good.

I use a 3750 rpm grinder, a Veritas tool rest, and an aluminum oxide wheel (80 grit, I think but it's just a bit fine.) When I sharpen my bowl gouge I doubt that I take off more than a millimeter, unless I've screwed up the shape of the gouge.

I liked the answer to practice with cheap tools, if you are concerned with sharpening them away. I suspect I gave away an inch of my gouge to grinding mistakes when I started.

But you will quickly discover what a difference a really sharp tool makes!!! Night and day. The shavings just fly off the end of the tool, and the work piece is smooth. It won't happen with a dull or just barely sharp tool, and if it is a chore to sharpen it, I know that I'd postpone sharpening until I messed up good.

Get someone experienced to stand over your shoulder when you sharpen the first time.

Good Luck,

Walt C

Fortunately, you're not limited to, nor do you necessarily want fine stones for lathe tools. You can use coarser varieties and produce edges suitable for turning fairly quickly. Most of us are just a bit too lazy or impatient, I think.

Professional turners used to work twelve-hour days with carbon steel tools and carborundum stones. They would mount the stone so that it could stand on edge, giving them full view of the contact between tool and stone as they stroked against it, then used a finer stone, if desired, with the tool held steady to hone. You can do the same with sanding belts tightly wrapped around blocks of MDF, if you'd like.

What's your opinion of the Tormek for sharpening lathe tools?

No.

Bill

Scott wrote:

More than you need. Also brings water into the sawdust place, which is about paper-making if you neglect it, or rust....

They have a vocal and loyal following. Suppose if I had spent that much I'd defend my choice, too. I'd also try to find some way to make ice cream or booze with the thing to break even.

I own the Makita wet hone for my planer and jointer knives, have been known to run all my chisels while I had it set up because it does take time to get it ready and clean up afterward. It costs less than half the Tormek, makes a super edge, but it's too slow and messy for turning tools.

Woody... This was covered in a good thread a week or so ago, if you want to search, but a few of us use belt sanders..

I seem to be sort of heavy handed with a grinder, even with a fine wheel..

It's just easier for me to use a 1" sanding/grinding belt... for me, it's not only easier to get an edge without taking off a lot of steel, but I just like the grinding and viewing area better... On a grinding wheel, I tend to either lean to one side or something and the edge just doesn't come out the way I want it... On the belt sander (1" x 42") I just seem to have a better view of the belt meeting the chisel edge and get better results...

As usual, YMMV.. and my opinion, however taken, is not objective... My wife ran a saw & knife sharpening business for years and has a complete set of grinders, etc... She taught me to sharpen on the belt sander.. *g*

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I think Darrell is right a jig is the way to go. I find it interesting that jigs are used all through wood working to do things safely an easier. Books are written about this all the time, but when it comes to sharpening it is just the opposite. The general thread is the you should be able to free hand sharpen and if you can't you have 2 strikes against you. I have watched demos were it is "rock up on the bevel" with plane irons and chisles to sharpen. The same is with turning you have to be able to free hand sharpen. It would be a good skill to have but it takes time to learn and you have to keep at it to stay proficient. I think learning to free hand sharpen is were you are going to loose alot of metal on your tools making mistakes. I am not a profesional turner and do not have alot of time at the lathe, but I still need sharp tools. I use the Wolfveine system with good results and minimum of set up time and it concistant from one sharpening to another. Darrell has information on how to make a sharpening jig plus alot of other good information. It would be worth your time to check it out. Dood luck.

Hello Scott,

I suspect that the majority of people who say the Tormek is no good for sharpening woodturning tools don't own one. I've had a Tormek for over five years now and highly recommend it for sharpening any tool. The Tormek will give you the sharpest edge that you can get onto a woodturning tool and the edge will last somewhat longer that the best edge on a dry grinder. I use both dry grinders with jigs (I have one grinder with the Wolverine system and one with the Woodcut Tru-grind system.) A use all of them from time to time. But when I want a really sharp tool, I sharpen it on the Tormek, but I gough grind it on the dry grinder with the Wolverine system to get the bevel as close to what I want from the Tormek as possible before going to the Tormek. Once you have a sharp tool on the Tormek, make a gauge to set the tool bar spacing from the wheel and mark it for the particular tool. Also mark the jig setting angle and the extension on the spacer. When the tool needs to be resharpened. use the spacer jig, set your angle and tool extension and grind the tool sharp. Generally only takes a few swipes of the wheel to get it very sharp.

Fred Holder

Well, this is always a twitchy subject. I agree with Darrel, and have made an entire shop built grinding configuration similar to the one found on Peter Child's home page. I like mine better as it was made to my design for my long handled tools, and it gives me what I want on the fingernil grinds I like for my spindle and end turning.

I started out feeling like I had too much to learn about sharpening since I had heard that you are less than a real turner if you cannot grind up your tools without a jig.

Then I went to a few demos. Have you seen the grinds those guys get when they are sparking up their tools? One or two have turned out some remarkable grinds.. smooth, exact, and not one facet.

But the other "big name guys" that travel and demo to woodturning clubs just knock off the edges about where they need to be and they are back at the lathe. But for me, I do not get a tool allowance from a manufacturer or supplier.

Make your own jig. Grind a couple of thousandths off the metal at a time, not a few 16ths when you sharpen. Your tools will sharpen better, you will burn up less steel, and the most important thing will be you can practice turning wood, not practice sharpening.

The most important thing of it all is that you will get a repeatable grind you can learn your tools with, not something new everytime you go to the grinder.

Robert

I agree with the jig approach. My setup is homemade but I do use a bought Oneway Varigrind with it. I started by sharpening freehand and got quite good at it. On the recommendation of others I bought the Varigrind and really like using it. The angles are repeatable and I take less metal off. Helped eliminate one ot the variables in the puzzle. billh

My advice is to use Darrell's plans for a sharpening jig. It will give you the same result ( sharp tool ) as a commercial jig. Also, depending on what kind of grinder you have, you may have to build up the base in order to use a store bought jig - like the Wolverine. I have a 6" Delta and 6" Craftsman, and neither would work with the Wolverine out of the box. This is because there is very little clearance beneath the grinding wheel.

So, I used Darrell's plans and built my jig. It was easy, and you're guaranteed that it will work with your grinder - if you build it correctly. You'll notice that I had to build out my arm since the grinder doesn't allow anthing to fit under the wheel.

Also, I used two wingnuts where Darrell used a single bolt. If you use a single bolt, you will need a big washer like he has, otherwise the end of your jig will move if you apply any pressure to it when sharpening. You don't need to apply pressure to sharpen, I just wanted the arm to be secure.

Here is a picture of my jig

Also, you don't need to use IPE like I did. It just happened to be the only scrap piece I had that was big enough. The upside to that is that it will never rot or splinter.

Brad - great picture.

Why is it that other peoples shops are pristine and mine is ankle deep in shavings, all horizontal surfaces covered with half finished turnings and all vertical surfaces covered in dust?

The only time my shop looked like Brad's was for 1 hour after I finished building it.

Am I the only slob reading rcw?

BillR

Bill:

The reason your shop is cluttered is because you are actually doing woodworking and not just using it as a reason to collect tools and setup our own little worlds called our "shops"! I know because I am one of the former. My shop is getting very well organized and neat and prim, with very little real woodworking getting done. I'm always doing little projects for the shop. You are focused on the end result, and others, such as myself, become too focused on the process.

PS: I'm running out of shop projects, so maybe, just maybe I'll do some real honest to goodness woodworking! Lets hope.

BillR wrote:

Brad Nice looking jig. How come people who follow my suggestions end up with better looking results than I ?

PLEASE tell me you don't paint tool silhouettes on your pegboard.

Mine's messy, but I still get accusations of being a collector - right up to the part where they say "I need something like this...."

New job, new tool. Hard and fast rule.

That was a strategically taken picture. If you look closely, you can see a fine layer of MDF dust on everything in site. That is from a couple shelves I made about a month ago.

Look at the bandsaw's mobile base ( on the left ). Plenty of dust on it and the wheels.

The lathe is on the stand in the bottom left of the picture. There are chips from cocobolo and maple scattered about.

That desk on the top right is a mess, but the only visible corner is pretty clean.

I'll have to show my wife your posting when she gets home. She'll get a good laugh out of it.