micro bevels

[Ken S]

For many years I followed the standard practice of adding a micro bevel during initial sharpening of my bench chisels. The concept was logical; creating a micro bevel means only having to sharpen a small fraction of the bevel during subsequent sharpening, a definite labor saver when using oil or water stones.

When I purchased my Tormek in 2009, I switched to the recommended Tormek practice of sharpening the entire bevel with no micro or secondary bevel. I still do this. In the back of my mind, I thought I might add a micro bevel if I ever sharpened chisels for other people who might have to resharpen with bench stones. I now think that if someone prefers to resharpen (without having a Tormek), the first resharpening can serve as adding the initial micro bevel. I would discuss this beforehand with the customer.

What about the "two step" approach of having an initial bevel with a secondary bevel ground to the desired bevel angle? For my own chisels, I would use my Tormek to create my desired single bevel. The Tormek does the heavy lifting. I would discuss this beforehand if I was sharpening for another woodworker.

Thoughts?

Ken

[RichColvin]

Ken,

I use micro bevels for sharpening certain tools, but not for all.  The places I find it most useful are:

• Chisels and planes (as you noted),
• Knives, especially pocket knives,
• Tools with carbide inserts (for both wood and metal lathes), and
• Fly cutters, especially as the metal is so hard!

With certain lathe tools, especially the bowl gouge, I find that a relief grind is needed to prevent bruising the wood as I traverse the concave curve.  This works like a micro bevel in that it is also faster to resharpen.

I documented my findings here, including outlining the angle delta I use for the micro- / secondary bevel.  http://sharpeninghandbook.info/MicroBevels.html

Where I find it does not work well is for tools that need to use the full surface.  One example of that is the wood lathe skew.

Kind regards,
Rich

[Ken S]

Rich,

To quote CB's wise comment (in knife sharpening today), "There are many paths".

Ken