Need advice sharpening carving tools

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Paul in NJ

>Perhaps you need to increase the angle of your bevels to work with hard maple. I keep a hand strop on my bench to maintain a nice edge and increase the time between honings.

Paul Dzioba

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Rob Lee

>Hi Doug -

I agree - try increasing your angles a bit, before looking at any additional expenditure. One technique that I use for gouges especially is to make a cut in a piece of soft wood (pine or basswood), chalk the cut with chromium oxide compound (the green stuff) and use that as a custom strop - it will be shaped exactly to the profile of the tool that made the cut. You can also take an inverted cut along the edge of a thin board, and make a strop for the inside of the gouge as well - this is where you can take a few passes at a higher angle to strengthen the bevel, conditioning the inside surface at the same time....

Hope it works for you!

Cheers -

Rob

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Doug in KC

>Thanks Rob and Paul. Your advice makes sense. I will give it a try.

Best wishes,

Doug

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Doug,

I use my carving tools on a regular basis, not just for carving but for hogging out wood on kitchen utensils, and I've tried a lot of stropping techniques (hard felt on a grinder, dremel with felt, Lee Valley stropping compound on mdf, on wood, and on leather, etc) and I've had great success stropping with Flexcut yellow stropping compound on leather or directly on wood (maple). The Flexcut compound cuts VERY fast, much faster than any other rouge or stropping compound I've tried. I've found that an occasional touch-up with slipstones and stropping with the Flexcut compound in between is the easiest and fastest way to keep a very keen edge on my carving gouges. It's good to have a flat piece of leather glued to wood for the main bevel, as well as some forms carved or routed in wood to get the inside microbevels (FLexcut sells a block of wood with some routed shapes for the insides of various gouges as well as outside bevels, although I prefer rolling gouges on the leather for rounded outside bevels--relatively cheap and very handy if you don't want to make your own)

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Doug in KC

>Frank,

Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try. I have a thick piece of leather I can use, but I have a dumb question: Do I use the rough side or the smooth side of the leather. I'm guessing rough, but I obviously don't know.

Paul and Rob,

I increased the bevel angle on three gouges. It's better, bt still not great. But I guess there is a reason they call it "Rock" Maple.

Rob,

By the way, I just wanted to let you know that you run one of the best businesses I have ever dealt with. Also, your father's book on sharpening is really great. I guess I better order a copy, rather than just get it from the library!

Thanks to all.

Doug

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Frank D. in Montreal

>The leather on the Flexcut honing block comes rough side up, which works nicely because it holds compound well. If you cut up your own leather and glue it to a board rough side up it also makes the gluing easier (the smooth side hold better). I know a carver however that prefers to hone on the smooth side because he says the bevels don't round over as quickly, although I've tried smooth side up and found it a little slow going. So IMO rough side is best because it's practical, but if you have time eventually it might be worth experimenting a little. I haven't taken a look at the carving board yet, but you might want to heed advice from a more experienced carver than myself (I'm not too experienced...) on this.

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Dan Donaldson

>I have my leather hones set up with the smooth side up. I got some heavy, vegetable tanned leather with no finish on it and use that. Works well for me with the green stuff ;-)

Re: Need advice sharpening carving tools

Doug in KC

>Thanks Guys! *NM*

I've got to tell you...

Victor P

>When I first read this posting the wife and I were talking about thanksgiving and my immediate thought was carving the turkey.:>)

Never mind.