Sharpening Jig

by Joe in a Cleveland Suburb

A couple of weeks ago I asked about making your own sharpening jig. You all pointed me to several resources. I put all that together and came up with this version. All I did was take scrap pieces of walnut, a couple cherry plywood shorts, and some scrap poplar, glued and screwed it all together and here it is!

I don't really know how to sharpen yet, but it seems to work. I can adjust it in several different ways, and it holds the gouge well. The best part is it's all from scrap that otherwise was headed for the fire pit. It cost about $2 for the rod. That's it.

Here is the base with the grinder on it.

Here's a shot of the jig that holds the gouge. The thumb screw near my palm pushes up a cradle that holds the gouge in tight.

This is the front.

Here's another. The screw eye tightens to adjust the angle. The plans I saw (and web sites) showed making several different blocks with different angled rods and/or they showed bending the rod. I think making it adjustable works fine.

This is what it looks like in use.