David Charlesworth Technique Questions

Re: David Charlesworth Technique Questions

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hi Dave,

I'm not David but I've been using his triple-bevel technique for quite some time now with success. The goal is to reduce sharpening time by reducing the amount of metal you have to take off with the stones.

So first the primary bevel on the grinder at around 23 degrees (I've found this a litte low for shooting tough wood--like tropical hardwood endgrain for example). Do't grind right to the edge; to preserve the blade geometry (squareness, straightness) stop just shy--a hair's width--of the edge. Then you can start on the stones. The first time you sharpen, a very small polished microbevel is all you need. But from the second sharpening on, you will want to "erase" this microbevel when it becomes worn. So you take the 1000 or 4000 and hone a secondary bevel, at say 30�. Then you go to your 8000 and do the third bevel, which is polished and always very small (micro) at 33�.

Each time the edge gets dull, you go back to the 1000 or 4000 and make the secondary bevel a bit bigger in order to erase the third, polished, microbevel. To do this you have very little metal to remove, so it goes much faster than redoing a whole primary bevel. Then you redo the third microbevel on the 8000.

When the secondary bevel gets to about half the thickness of the blade (half the width of the bevel), it starts taking noticeably longer to redo it on stones, so then you go back to the grinder and redo the primary bevel, and start the process over.

The goal is to reduce sharpening time at the stones, and it works since you're doing most of the grunt work at the grinder.

Hope that's clear

PS my summary of his technique is not from his video (which I haven't seen)

Re: David Charlesworth Technique Questions

vlparisian in Houston

>I'm assuming the third stone in his set is his coarse stone. therefore you won't see it used in this method.

Victor

Re: David Charlesworth Technique Questions

Dave C. Brown

>Thanks for that explanation, Frank. What you say makes sense and I plan to try it.

Cheers.

--Dave

Re: David Charlesworth Technique Questions

Bill Murphy/Reading,Pa

>The middle stone is used in the proccess of flattening the backs of chisels instead of using the ruler trick. The ruler trick would ruin the jigging effect of the chisel. He uses the middle stone in his chisel sharpening DVD.

Bill