About Harrelson Stanley?

Be careful...

Schtoo

Bill wrote;

"Guidance- Professionals making stuff don't do much fretting over sharpening. Nor do they sharpen to the standards often discussed on this Forum nor with devices at the standards discussed on this Forum. If the tool does the job it is good enough if the focus is on using the tool. "

Not true. Not even close.

Admittedly, some folks who are hands-on and making a crust off their hand work do just enough to get the job done and not much more. Some of them are at the top of the game too, so someone who simply 'gets the job done' isn't just some kind of hack.

But there are plenty of those making items from wood who do take the time and put in the effort to lift their game above 'just good enough'. And they do get very particular about not only their tools and sharpening gear, but also about how they go about getting the work done.

Perhaps you've never met them or seen their work, but they're out there. Just because you don't know any of them does not mean they don't exist nor does it mean they're wrong.

Stu.

Re: Another trick...

Pam Niedermayer

Of course, one has to wonder why anyone would write to resist refutation, particularly in a woodworking forum. I mean, this isn't a defense of a philosophy thesis.

Pam

Re: Another trick...

Bruce, a MN Galoot

Not having read that much Mills, he still seems a piker compared to Weber, specifically The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

At least Mills can be followed; Weber, not so much.

Re: Another trick...

roger lance

David....not being able to keep it up in matters of love could be problematic.

Woodworking polemics and the War of Jenkins' Ear

David Barnett

Well, I could tell you that I'm descended from Capt. Thomas Phillips, commander of the Hannibal, and on my other side from survivors of the Donner Party, and that my Jesuitical schooling in apologetics prepared me to polemically defend with equal fervor anything and everything from Counter-Reformation Futurism to the best recipe for Bundt cake, none of which is true, however.

Rather, I was, as I'm sure you know, Pam, speaking facetiously and in mock seriousness on vigorously debated woodworking issues, especially those concerning sharpening, which affords me no small measure of amusement. Oh, I'm entirely serious in my opinions on such matters, from honing praxis to alternate vuvuzela tunings, but would not likely defend them to the death, despite my upbringing which placed a high value in sticking to one's guns to the bitter end.

Maybe I should have said dissertation? 

German historian-economist-philosophers always win

David Barnett

"...specifically The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism."

The most labyrinthine Calvinist-Puritanical economics exposition that could drive the reader to Wittgenstein if not suicide. Damn Talcott Parsons for translating it and not allowing my ignorance of German to save me from it before the Sparknotes were published.

You sir, have Lanced my double entendre...

David Barnett

... like a festering carbuncle, revealing to one and all my seemingly-innocent carefully-worded lexical petard, in short, exposing me to censure.

You Sir are a Wordsmith of the highest order!!

Thank you, but let's get one thing straight

David Barnett

"Short words are best and old short words are best of all." -- Winston Churchill

This is how one should write; without pretense. Wm. Zinsser wrote:

"The English language is derived from two main sources. One is Latin, the florid language of ancient Rome. The other is Anglo-Saxon, the plain languages of England and northern Europe. The words derived from Latin are the enemy—they will strangle and suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free."

So I'll tell you, when I write as I have in this thread, it is because I can and because it's fun. Yes, I mean what I say, but I could write better to be better understood.

Want to read really good writing on Wood Central? Read again what Bill Tindall wrote:

"Use what you already have until you find the result unsatisfactory for making stuff for some reason. If you identify some place where improvement is desirable, get clear in your mind what you want to improve. Only then start asking how this factor could be improved in the context of how you intend to use the tool (making stuff, sharpening research, etc.)"

Now that's good as it gets; clear, concise, unadorned and free of clutter. Count the adjectives. I wrote what I did to honor not only Bill's thought but his craft in saying it, and poke not a little fun at myself.

Re: Thank you, but let's get one thing straight

roger lance

Every once in awhile Bill hits it (the nail) on the head....and I have told him that....I could tell you were having fun and I (and others) had fun reading it.

Re: Agree....I had no idea

TomD

6K. That should get it hair popping though. Even King will do that.

Re: Futility against the juggernaut

TomD

It has already been done, the Japanese have replaceable blade tools in all the major categories and many of them are pretty good. There are replaceable blade western planes and saws, chisels I see from time to time, but I don't have much experience of them.

Re: To clarify

TomD

You should be able to run a shaving of say 4/10 thou with the stones you have and the correct set-up on your wooden plane. You can get that with a narrow mouth, a flat sole and an 8K sharpen. This will make pine shavings, say look like spider web, but hang together as a shaving. Of course the wood has to be flat also or the plane will ride periodically above it's surface. You don't have to have perfection, you have to have those 4 things in good order.

Re: Woodworking polemics and the War of Jenkins' E

TomD

So as to the first part, the non-verbose version is that you don't play well with the other children.

As to the second, when exactly could we expect the bitter end to make an appearance.

"Even his friends don't like him."

David Barnett

"As to the second, when exactly could we expect the bitter end to make an appearance."

LOL! Bravo! Well-done!

Not to seem churlish, I simply don't know so can't yet say exactly, but setting aside Mayan eschatology, having outlived my looks, my teeth and my welcome, and choosing not to outlive my eyes, let's review it another year or so.

Re: "Even his friends don't like him."

TomD

Bravo you took it in the spirit intended. In my case I would have to say "what friends?".

Re: Agree....I had no idea

David Weaver

Definitely, and if the stone is allowed to dry a little, it can make a brightly polished very sharp edge. But even without that and without regard to pressure, I don't get tearout on anything like that. Either with a bench plane or a tight mouthed single-iron infill, which I'll use right up to the point they're not cutting sometimes.

Re: To clarify

eliot d

Your response seems closest to what I need at this stage of my experience. Thanks. I did get the Harrelson

Stanley video on Side Sharpening using Shapton stones and found it very informative. I talked to Mr. Stanley for a while on the phone, also, and found him generous with his time and advice. What I plan to do now is build a modest glass-bottomed sharpening station and more or less follow his methods using my Norton and Spyderco stones. Perhaps later, I will move up in the world to something better. I'll have to see how what I have with some new knowledge works out.