SharpeningRSS

Sharpening is the gateway skill to getting good results from all of your edge tools – and it’s particularly important to know how to do it right when you start using hand tools. (The expensive handplane or chisel that isn’t performing like you thought it would? It’s probably the blade – and that’s an easy fix.) Here, Popular Woodworking Magazine editors and contributing editors teach you how to sharpen saws, handplane blades, chisels, marking knives and more. Plus, you’ll find reviews books and videos on sharpening, a look a powered sharpening systems and quick fixes for commercial sharpening jigs.

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Tool Test: Lee Valley Mk.II Honing Guide is Near Perfect

By Christopher Schwarz Page: 32 From the October 2005 issue #150 Buy this issue now Allow me to skip to the bottom line here and say that the Veritas Mk.II Honing Guide is the most thoughtful, accurate and well-made honing guide for sharpening chisels and straight plane irons I’ve ever used. If you like honing … Read more »

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Tool Test: Japanese Super Stones Don’t Need Soaking

By Christopher Schwarz Page: 34 From the April 2008 issue #168 Buy this issue now The only thing better than a Japanese waterstone is a Japanese waterstone that doesn’t require 10 minutes of soaking before you begin sharpening. A new line of “Super Stones,” made by Naniwa Abrasives, are priced so that the next time … Read more »

Do You Sharpen Too Much?

When I teach people to sharpen I notice a bad habit that many of them have: They think that rubbing the tool against a stone is sharpening. The more they rub, the sharper it gets, no? Well, no. I think that sharpening is more about seeing and feeling than it is about rubbing. (Snakes alive … Read more »