Sharpening...yeah, everyone has to do it.

So here is a quick little note about what I do with sharpening. I figured since I got to experience it first hand (pun kind of intended), I would spend a few minutes on it. It seems like everyone does, so why not. In general, the method that I currently use is sandpaper. It works, and to start out, it's nice and inexpensive. In the long run...not so much. My more permanent method will likely include diamond stones, but I still have about 6 months of good paper left to use, so until that time, no life-altering decision required.

I keep all my sharpening supplies in a little cabinet I made when I first started a little over a year ago. It is actually the only thing I've made out of plywood. It keeps all my sharpening tools clean, organized, and near-to-hand. It's not perfect in form, but its function is spot on.

There are three removable trays sitting on guide rails that contain all of my grits glued to sheets of glass and mounted on 3/8" plywood. At the top is a removable drawer that holds my sharpening jig, polishing compound, a small screwdriver for removing cap irons and tightening iron in the jig.

I also set up a jig to maintain consistent angles when sharpening. This makes sharpening sessions repeatable which is incredibly important. I have one station set up for establishing a primary bevel on planes. Another station sets the secondary bevel, and the final station is for chisels. I do the secondary bevel on chisels by hand. This is on the right in the picture, held in place by the holdfast.

Someone may want to know how often I sharpen...well, that depends on the tool, the type of wood you're working with, how much you used the tool, and how hard you are on the tools and the tasks being performed. My chisels I sharpen constantly. No, I do not start at 220 up to 2500 and then polishing on the strop every time. Instead, I keep the strop handy, and when I start to feel a difference in the chisel, I polish it. A couple quick swipes is generally all I need. When more than that is needed, I'll usually start around 1000 and work my way up 2 grits to the 2500 and then polish. You'll find that sharpening can be super fast if you stay on top of it. The more dull the tool is, the more time it takes to get it sharp again because you have to start at lower grits to reestablish the bevel edge.

All together, my 4 Stanley plane irons and 5 chisels take about 45 minutes for me to sharpen. If I've got some heavy sharpening to do, that could easily double my time (nicks or establishing a new bevel). This is why I generally sharpen before any project begins or when I can notice a difference in the working of the tool--I don't like to spend a lot of time sharpening. A good time for me is at the end of a project. Since I pull my irons and clean all the shavings and dust out of my planes, 1/3 of the job s already started. Keeping everything pretty sharp and never letting my tools get dull means I am not forced to spend a lot of time mid-project on re-sharpening. Cleaning an edge up a little? Sure. Not full-on sharpening, though.

So, I guess that's about all I can think of right now on this subject, unless someone asks me something that I missed. Oh, what is sharp? It changes the more you do it. The better I get at sharpening, my mark for sharp tools keeps moving up. I have a feeling it will keep doing that.

Until the next one,
Josh

Well...huh...oops.

I know it's been a little quiet lately, and for that I apologize, as that was not the original intent. Fortunately, it's been an eventful Holiday season, but unfortunately I had a fairly severe workshop accident as well a day or too prior to Christmas. I was paring some end grain when I shifted just wrong and my knee gave out. I moved my off hand from over the blade to out in front to try and catch myself on the bench. Sadly, not all my muscles did the same thing at the same time and there was still a little forward momentum on the chisel. To summarize, instead of dropping the tool, I "decided" to stick it into my finger, severing two tendons and a nerve in my index finger. Oops.

After 3-4 hrs in the ER (drove myself) I got a couple stitches, a surgery scheduled, and a compliment on how sharp my tools were. No marks on the cartilage or bone, meaning there wasn't a whole lot of momentum, just sharp. Good job I guess?

Word to anyone out there: Tools are replaceable. Try to drop them rather hurt yourself. I know there's usually not enough time to think and act, but if for some reason there is, just let go.

So enough about that. It interrupted things for a few hours, but accidents do happen and unfortunately, this was one of those that I'm not sure if I could have avoided, other than sitting for some of the finer chisel work. My knee evidently cannot be trusted.

And here is the project I'd been working on. It is a drink carrier for a good friend of mine.

It's made completely of oak and in a future picture will be finished with a semi-gloss poly to protect it from the mild moisture from whatever drinks may find themselves in the carrier. Yes, there was blood on one end, but a scraper plane and some mineral spirits took care of most of it. Here are some pics from along the way:

The ends hold the 2 pieces of loose 1/4" oak that make up the bottom of the holder. The bottom will be contained by the sides of the holder.

The card scraper did a wonderful job after I trimmed down the dowels. Everything nice and even. For some reason it was actually easier with only 1.5 hands, and I'm not sure why.

And yes, I couldn't stay out of the shop after the accident. The same day I actually finished up what I'd been working on...

and the poly...

Overall, I thought it turned out great. The project was done just in time, even with the interruption, and seemed to go over very well. So now it's on to the new projects. I also have quite a bit more to share from the last couple weeks, but those will be on other posts. 

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Josh

Whew! Made It!

And here we are, one final day with the Christmas gifts. All in all, everything turned out pretty well. I grabbed some sanding sponges from the box store (after seeing several posts on them this week touting their ability and length of service) and went to work. I did notice one thing though...the simpler the shape, it was much simpler to sand, that's for sure. But, as I made mention in an earlier post, the goal was to have variety for the gifts, and use a variety of tools and skills in their making. Both were achieved, I believe, and so I'm pretty happy with the results.


It took a bit to get them all sanded down, but a nice smooth surface was finally achieved. There were some tool marks still there, such as where the plane starts on the piece, but those were fine by me. The tough parts were where the rasp and file had left their traces, and those needed to be gone. A little elbow grease, a little coffee, and we were back on track.

Now it was time for finishing. I had several different finishes that I've used in the past with some--more or less--success, but I wasn't quite sure how they'd go on this pine, so we tried some test pieces from the off-cuts (yup, I pulled them from the trashcan under the table, luckily). I rolled out my plastic onto the table (a sliced and diced shower curtain on a gift wrap tube, and went to work.

I forgot to take a picture of how they all turned out, but let's just say there was a clear winner in this race. A little conditioner and some Golden Oak did the trick. For some reason it reminds me of some of the old country furniture I'm used to seeing. It really brought out the grain and added some character that some of the others, like the gel stain, didn't do for me. Some people don't like all the variation on how the wood holds the stains, but I think it gave them some personality. The conditioner did a pretty decent job of keeping it from getting too blotchy or washed out.

And there we have it. Projects complete, with finish. Now I have to decide on wax or a poly to top it off. Either way, I need to wait at least a day before doing anything, but I need to figure it out quick, as shipping day is much closer than I'd like!

Next year I think I'll take Mom's advice and start shopping or making in February. Much less stress.

Josh

Realization

Well, suffice it to say, I have determined that I despise sand paper. I do not like dust. The repetitive motion with super slow results frustrates me. Believing it to be complete, wiping the piece off to admire your work, only to see a non-uniform surface staring back--almost angers me. I really like the planed surfaces, uniform (other than the tool marks, which don't make it look sloppy at all) in appearance and easily left or lightly sanded prior to finishing.


To get rid of the dust was simple enough. I built a sanding station that would keep the dust out of the air and hook up to my nicely muffled shop vacuum. That took about an hour, though most of that time was spent looking for my off-cut of peg board.

And so we have what I have been up to lately. I was able to finish a couple more of the holders, and developed a design that was quite fun to make, used several skills and tools, and also required little sanding. The same blank was used, about 6"x6", and most of the waste was sawed away, and then planed flat. This design was different from the others and a little faster moving so I also used it for a couple more. Overall, a nice little diamond shape when looked at from above. I like it, and it also received the nod of approval from the other half.

Sadly, though, the entire thing came to a crashing halt when I had to dig out the sandpaper to finish the other ones which had been touched with saw, rasp, and file until there was nothing left but smoothing. Ouch. Have I mentioned I do not like this part? I did get to use my new dust sucker though. That worked out quite well. 

So now I have quite the variety sanded, about half of them I'd say, and am procrastinating sanding the other half. Again...I don't enjoy it. Lathe is more fun. Let's do that and get a piece ready.

And then not do anything with it. My flywheel is riding on the headstock because the shaft tightened up more than I guessed it would. Dang it. It's just not my favorite day. We'll clear that out next week. I'm done and need to see my other half for at least dinner...or at least that's what she told me. Be right there!

Josh

Whew! Made It!

No, the title doesn't speak of some grand project completed, but more of my complete avoidance of the cursed Black Friday. Not once did I step foot outside the shop to venture forth into an unknown world of crazier than normal folks. It just didn't sound like a good time to me, so I didn't do it. Nor last year...or the year before that...

I figure I can buy the stuff that others and/or I need at any time, so why would I try to wrap that up all in one day? With thousands of other people--who all want the latest electronic toaster that emails you when the toast is done more than I do--I'm just not sure that I could compete. Oh well...

So instead I puttered around the shop and practiced. I've been somewhat tired of the same projects, so I glued up a couple more and set them aside for the day. Today I was going to practice grooves and dovetails. A box it is then.

I already had some pieces cut from last weekend while I was waiting for the glue to set on the gift projects.

Then marked the grooves that will hold the bottom. I didn't have a grooving plane, so this will all be done by hand.

Chiseled the waste and evened it out by hand to get it close.

Then cleaned it all up with a router plane. Oh, and these are stopped grooves, so nothing shows after the box is assembled.

All four pieces all came out better than I thought they would.

Now it was time for the dovetails. The pins are lying. I actually do tails first, but I forgot to to take the pic, so this was just an afterthought.

They fit together pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised. This was done with the "new" saw I just tried to sharpen. Seems to be working pretty well and I like the way it feels.

And the grooves line up, too, with no major gaps from the inside. Yippee! Two for two!

The rest of the dovetails went pretty well. I noticed my saw has a little wider kerf than I'm used to, so there were some adjustments to be made, and I improved with each cut. I also improved quite a bit on my chiseling. The bed of the tails and pins all came out pretty square and flat. Much better than my last attempts.

Then it was ready for gluing and clamping.

And now it just needs to finish curing and will be ready for planing down the proud pins and tails tomorrow. All-in-all a good day of practice. Even got another of the gifts glued up and ready for shaping tomorrow.

And another Black Friday insanity avoided.

Josh

And Then There Were (almost) 7

As I mentioned in the previous post, the first project is always fun. The second?...not so much, if it is a copy of the first.

To that end--as you can see on the left--I've decided to make them all a little different and using different tools to achieve the end results. to get the basic shapes, I have to admit that the first one was nothing but playing with planes. There was no plan going in, and it seemed to work out pretty well.

For the rest, there has been a little bit more planning, but not a whole lot. There were a couple napkin sketches of the basic shapes, but that was about it. From there it has been pretty much more along the lines of..."I'd like to do some curves"...and so I broke out the coping saw and rasp. Another was "I'd like this one to look like the first one...but rounded..." and so I played with the planes to set the basic shape and then a rasp and file to get it all smoothed out. I have no idea what I was thinking on the others...I'll make something up later...

So here are the basics...I actually remembered to take a few pics along the way...

Sawed all the parts. Surprisingly, my cuts are getting much straighter...








Not all of them were this straight, so I ran most of them across the shooting board...








And I decided one of the projects at the end of this will be a new shooting board...

Then laid them all out and made sure that they would glue up without gaps...then glued them up...

And then sketched out the shape I wanted for this one. This one will be made with the coping saw and rasp...

Started cutting...For some reason I actually be seeming to follow the line...huh...

And then kicked myself for rushing and thinking "oh, it's going so well!"

And after quite a bit of work with the rasp I was able to smooth both sides out...and they even look even...

Oh, and a hand-stitched rasp is now on my list, by the way...

Decided on some harsher angles on this one, so this will be almost all saw work...




Well, that was about it for today. I figured my wife would like me to leave the shop for a bit and unwind a bit since she just got home from work. Overall, not a bad afternoon. I was able to keep the projects interesting and all different enough that they don't look like they rolled off an assembly line, so we'll call it a success! Only a couple more to do...

Josh

And Then There Were More...

Well today was a little more of the same. It's kind of strange doing several projects which are all the same concept. Normally, I have just one project for a specific purpose or person, and then it's on to the next one. I may make another version at some point in the future, but usually there are several projects between. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, so I decided to make it a little more interesting.

These little "vases" are all based off the same basic design and start out just as blocks with a mortise in the middle. This mortise is made during the glue up in order to make it quite a bit simpler and faster to assemble. This gives me a nice quick blank to work with.

The original I made was done with hand planes only and was based on lots of angles. This one starts out exactly the same, and even has the same overall design, but uses curves instead.

I messed up on the glue up...need to do something about that...

The freshly sharpened #4 does quick work with this. Just planed in from both sides.

Sawed the major angles/tapers for each side...

Then marked and planed as much of a curve as I could. 

Then took rasp/file/and sandpaper to move the shape into a nice, smooth curve.

And then took a different approach with the other one...and now have two new thingies...

And now I need to sketch up some more to see what else I can do to keep them interesting...

Until next time...

Josh