New sharpening box
BarbS, Wenatchee WA
>Without a lot of time for woodworking these days, I'm glad to have completed this simple box for my Arkansas stones. It serves to keep most of my materials in one place and dust-free. All are removable from the inner frame if I need to clean them or turn them.
I took these pictures months ago to send them as an article to AJ Hamler, but that didn't work out and I haven't sent it anywhere else yet. I'm partial to Arkansas stones for my handtools, both carving and for flat work. This box is about 17"x13"x2" and will slide onto a shelf below my small benchtop. Opening the pressure-fit lid creates a tray to keep things in order and prevent tools from rolling away.
Most of these are from Joel Moskowitz at toolsforworkingwood.com, and from the right are: hard transluscent arkansas 8"x3", soft arkansas 8"x2", steel flattening plate for use with the diamond paste in the upper tool well (or with sandpaper), and a very large 12"x3" clear creek stone from Garrett Wade, a rough stone for brutal sharpening, used so far on hoes and hatchets. Above them is Joel's horse butt leather strop, a very nice 3"x15" that I had to cut to fit to the box width. There is also a carver's translucent slip in the well. All I did was trace and cut out an inner frame of plywood and glue it down to the 1/4" ply bottom piece, with the mitered frame routed in 1/4" grooves to receive the cherry ply top and bottom. Fun project. It's somewhat heavy, but nice to have everything but the rags all together in one place to choose from. -BarbS.