Messages

Ken,

I agree that practice macks one get much better.   But, perfect practice makes on great.  When practicing, be sure what you are doing everything perfectly.    Slow and perfect will beat out developing muscle memory for doing things wrongly.

Kind regards,
Rich

I don't hone knives :   I use the Japanese waterstone (SJ-250).  It works magic !!

Kind regards,
Rich

I use the BGM-100 to shape them on a dry grinder, & then sharpen them on the Tormek.  Works greatly.

Jan,

I never thought the rusty residue was a problem.  Am I missing something?

One solution by the way :  get an SB wheel (you can't see the rust).

Kind regards,
Rich

Ken,

I usually don't do spindle turning; however that day I was.  I'd started from a piece of wood that was already rounded, and was simply moulding the shape to be what I needed.

I was making handles for my metal lathe's cross slide (the old ones didn't freely rotate as I wanted).  The picture below doesn't show the attempts made with the honed skew; rather they simply show what I made.

Rich

Latest update:   I sharpened my skew using the SJ stone.  The edges were mirrors. 

When I turned a piece of walnut, I saw no real difference in the wood surface.  I did notice the extra time required, and will thusly revert to using the SB stone. 


By the way, I asked on an AAW blog about honing and was overwhelming told that most use a 180 grit CBN wheel.  So, I guess the roughly graded SB or SG stone (220 grit) easily beats that. 

Rich

Jan,

Would a wider Jig like the SVM-140 be better for the knife in the 2d picture? I have an older SVM-100 that I use on similar knives at home.

Kind regards,
Rich

Question for the group :  do you change the way you sharpen your turning tools, based on the wood to be turned ?  What about, based on the the wood's grain orientation ?

It seems to me that there are three choices that could be pursued:

1. sharpen on the SB stone only (I reference the SB stone only due to the fact that most of us use high speed steel tools)
    - resharpen by returning to the SB stone

2. sharpen on the SB stone, and then hone on the leather wheel
    - rehone as often as possible

3. sharpen on the SB stone, then finish the edge on a SJ stone
    - resharpen by returning to the SJ stone stone as often as possible


My thoughts are :

• use option 1 when roughing out a log to shape

Then, based on the wood type :

• really dense wood :  after the shape is pretty well defined, use option 3, especially for the final passes
• less dense wood :  after the shape is pretty well defined, use option 1 or 2.  Depending on the wood and grain direction, you'll probably have to use scrapers and sand a bit, so option 1 may be best.
• soft wood :  stay with option 1 :   You're gonna have to sand lots anyway.

I'm interested in your thoughts.

Well, I tried it and I'm not sold on the idea of honing turning tools.

Today, I rough turned 4 bowls from green, recently harvested apple wood.  These are the issues I noted :

• I have one bowl gouge that has been ground with an Ellsworth shape (JS 6, P 75, hole A).  Because of the long projection (75 mm), I couldn't hone the right wing on the gouge.  As I use both wings whilst turning, this wasn't terribly useful.
• I found that honing took much longer than a quick touch-up on the stone.   I've found that I can get it quickly sharp by two passes on the whole surface, & I'm back to work again.
• I didn't notice a big difference in the surface of the wood for the honed surface over the unhoned one.  I don't hone very often, especially as I now also have an SJ stone, so I may simply be bad at it :  I don't discount that idea.

As I was merely rough turning the bowls to allow them to dry over the coming year, I wasn't terribly concerned with the surface. 

I think that, when I take the bowls down and final-finish them, I might try sharpening the tools on the SJ stone & see how much difference that makes.

Kind regards,
Rich

I just watched the Nick Agar video again.  It's an interesting approach that I'd not considered for turning tools.  I'll be testing that approach tomorrow...

Kind regards,
Rich

Stig,

I just watched the Nick Agar video (https://youtu.be/bpIXozlTJ0E) again, and I stand corrected. 

As I am doing some turning tomorrow I'll follow this sage advice.  I'll let you know how it goes. 

Kind regards,
Rich

Joe,

I'm a turner who has used a Tormek for sharpening for about 15 years. 

I don't hone my turning tools before using them.  I find that the quickness of the resharpening is critical. To also hone would cause too much time to be spent, & would probably make me not sharpen as often as I should.  Remember, when turning you're putting a lot of wood past the tool's cutting edge :  around 1,570 feet/minute.  And, at that speed, the tool dulls quickly.  Better to resharpen often. 

The general approach is to resharpen before the last pass.  It could make sense to hone at this time, but probably not. 

All-in-all, I've not found the need to hone turning tools.

As for the universal rest question, well the stone's size changes as you use it, so the distance would not be consistent.  Better to set the distance to each wheel separately with a jig (like the TTS-100), or make one by hand (like the Ken Jig).

If you've not gotten them yet, invest in the SVD-186 & the SVS-50 jigs

You'll be happy you got the Tormek.  It's worth the investment.  Use it to sharpen often.  It will make the turning easier & far more fun.

Kind regards,
Rich

Ken,

I have a BGM-100 on my 8" bench grinder, & use it very rarely.  Its purpose is for the the initial shaping of new lathe tools (especially the bowl gouge) where a decent amount of metal needs to be taken away.  My reasoning is that it is cheaper than all the wear on the Tormek stone.

It works well, and I have no regrets.  But, I only use it for shaping.  The Tormek is used for sharpening. 

Kind regards,
Rich

I have both style handles and agree with SADW.

If the wheel is removable, how about spinning it at an even rate using a drill ?  That is how I was taught to sharpen a TIG probe for welding.  Here's an example (around 1 minute in) :  https://youtu.be/b9OQYysry1I

This should make the edge consistent.