A Guide to Honing and Sharpening Woodworking Tools. One of the most important skills a woodworker can acquire is the ability to sharpen tools easily and well. Working with hand tools can be a frustrating experience unless you have sharp tools. The goal of this lesson is, with a mimimum of equipment, is for you to be able to produce razor sharp cutting edges on any tool blade consistently. This lesson focuses on honing. It was written by Maurice Fraser and is based on material and techniques taught in his classes at the Craft Students League in New York City.
Maurice has been teaching woodworking for over 25 years and was a frequent contributor to Fine Woodworking magazine in additon to many other publications. There are three areas of expertise in sharpening: The mechanics of what is a sharp edge. What are sharp tools We could describe a sharp tool as one you can shave with. Click on the picture to enlarge Why Sharpening Guides Make it Harder Jigs and guides do have a place.
Sharpening Wood Turning Tools: make a jig. The carver's razor edge obtained from finer and finer grits of stones followed by a leather strop is not for us. It just does not last. Instead we tend to go from the grinder to the work. Therefore I start with the grinder. My particular sharpening system starts with a typical, mass market tool grinder, 3500 rpm, mounted to a secure stand. My stand has 20 pounds of sand in the bottom to absorb vibration and give stability. I first replace one of the abrasive wheels with an aluminum oxide, 60 grit, soft bond wheel. In order to properly sharpen a tool, the grinder wheel must be round and clean.
I removed the grinding table that came on the grinder and replaced it with a home made sharpening jig. In response to some questions about the procedures on this page I rewrote a lote of the material and added some videos and pictures for greater explanation. If you make one please let me know how it turned out. © 2006 copyright Darrell Feltmate, Around the Woods, Wood Turning Techniques. Router Planer Jig. Woodworking Tips & Tricks. Tips. DIY Help Tips and Advice : Projects and How To Guides | Diy Fix It. Router Thickness "Planer" on the Cheap - by oldskoolmodder. I didn’t have a thickness planer and rarely need one, but once in a while have a need for thinner wood for projects. I was making some cutting boards in early summer and wanted the joined woods to be the same thickness (don’t ask me why), so I thought about making a jog of sorts, based on a picture I saw ages ago. Little did I know that a few days later while at the local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store, I’d by an old magazine that had a router thickness planer article and plans inside.
Mine is slightly different and will accommodate 14” wide by 20” minimum. The underside shows an extra piece of oak, that I had to install after I found out the router wouldn’t go over as far to the left as I needed it to go. One piece is mounted at top of the jig, as a permanent hold, and the bottom piece can be screwed into the 1/2” MDF underneath to hold the project in place, while I plane it to the right thickness. Made of pine, poplar, red oak and 1/2” MDF.