I am this week sharpening my site chisels which i carry on the van, when working on site it is so easy to ruin the edge of any chisel, it used to cause me so much hassle but now with my new set up it is so much easier to restore their edges so i wanted to show how amazingly effective the Tormek T-8 water cooled sharpening system combined with the Shapton glass stones and Lie nielsen honing guide work together with ease to get your tools to a razor sharp edge again in preparation for woodworking and in such a short time
I did forget to take a shot of one of my chisels which i used to scrape tar from a concrete floor before i started this sequence but believe me it was totally ruined – but hey i have this set up so i didn’t have to worry when i did this harmful task with my chisel !
Photo one – This is my sharpening station laid out so i can access everything easily – on the left is my Tormek T-8 water cooled sharpening station, This is a 1000 grit stone that runs continuously in water so there is never any chance of overheating the steel when sharpening the primary bevel, there are various jigs available for sharpening pretty much every tool you may want to sharpen, i have one chisel already set in the chisel jig between the T8 and Shapton pond
On the right i have a Shapton pond which holds three glass stones – 1000 grit – 3000 grit and 8000 grit each in its own non slip holder – the pond saves any spillage or mess from the sharpening process and is a real help in keeping the area clean and contained, running your finger across even the coarsest stone is like touching glass, you would wonder how they would ever tackle steel but they do it with ease
Above the Shapton stones on the small shelf is my Lie nielsen honing guide, this is simply the best guide i have ever used and is well worth the investment, it is simple to use and so accurate in maintaining the correct angle when sharpening the secondary bevel on blades – i used to do my sharpening freehand but never had good results as when you move back and forth the angle would change and the edge was rounded rather than sharpened
Above that is a diamond flattening stone also made by Shapton, used to keep the glass stones perfectly flat – a quick stroke with this after sharpening ensures any small dip in the stones is flattened back out
Video one – Sharpening with this machine is as simple as you see in this video, back and forth cooled by water as you go and only a few minutes spent gives the result of a perfect primary bevel
Video two – Setting up the honing guide with a measured protrusion past the jaws and simply tighten, that’s it – ready to go
Video three – this is sharpening the secondary bevel and again it is incredibly simple – a spray with the water bottle and off you go with a few strokes on each stone to produce a mirror finish and super sharp blade
Video four – This shows that mirror finish and perfect end result
Video five – I have a piece of Sapele hard wood clamped to the bench – this has weird grain which runs in different directions so is hard to achieve a good result with this species of timber unless you have ultra sharp tools and as you can see – this is made easy after my sharpening process
Sharpening any tool now is simple, quick and a real pleasure and all i wish is that i purchased these tools a long time ago 🙂