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On my recent visit to Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking, in Berea, Ky., Larry Williams of Old Street Tool took a few minutes away from his planemaking students to show me how he hones the 30° secondary bevel on a chisel – no fuss, no honing jig. And without the talking and my making him stop for a few pictures, it takes him less than a minute. Larry says that most people spend too much time on sharpening. If you learn to recognize when an edge is not performing as well as you’d like, that’s when to stop using it and head for the stones. The longer you wait, the more work needs to be done on the cutting edge – and that’s a waste of time. If it needs sharpening, just do it. And don’t be too long about it.
Larry uses oilstones (he recommends Dan’s Whetstone, in Pearcy, Ark,), and prefers WD-40 to other oils (it’s cheap, easy to find and it works) – but he’ll use whatever is available. After honing, to remove the wire edge, he takes a few passes on a leather strop charged with yellowstone or green compound. And done.
• For in-depth sharpening instruction for all sorts of edge tools, check out Christopher Schwarz’s DVD “The Last Word on Sharpening.”
• If you want to learn more about steel and sharpening than you could shake a (sharp) stick at, read Ron Hock’s “The Perfect Edge.”
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Check out Paul Sellers sharpening methods on youtube. He does chisels and plane irons freehand start to finish in about a minute. I have used his technique and it works well (with practice).
Sometimes, less is more…..
Ooooo – I should have mentioned that after honing, he does take a few passes on a leather strop charged with either yellowstone or green compound, to remove the wire edge. And I’ll add that above.
That’s very similar to what I’ve come up with for sharpening. Quick and easy, no jigs or fussing with things. I get it nice and sharp and touch it up with the Oilstone, and strop it.
Done.