Sharpening Milestone

As a chef by trade for more than 25 years, I have always sharpened my knives by hand on stones, as I was shown by my father many years ago, using his pen knife as a demonstrator.

When I took up hand tool woodworking, it never occurred to me to sharpen my chisels and plane irons in any other way; I was so inexperienced and ignorant of all the vast amount of sometimes conflicting information to say nothing of the equally vast array of guides and other such sharpening aids that the possibility of other options or methods just didn’t register.

Having said that, I continue to sharpen my tools the same way, by hand and without guides on a five dollar two-sided stone and a broken piece of Carborundum Razor Hone I got as part of a bunch of old (mostly machinist’s) tools that came with an antique tool chest my wife gave me as a present.

I get the same razor sharp edge with these stones that most people wouldn’t even give a second look that I used to get with my very expensive and stolen-several-years-ago set of Norton oilstones.

Like Steve said, I perhaps do not get the microscopically precise edges that are purported to be possible with honing guides and hundreds of dollars of diamond plates, but what I do get is more than good enough for me. My chisels and plane irons will slice paper thin slices of cherry tomato. (go ahead and laugh if you want. My wife does, too 🙂 ) The only thing I have changed is adding the stropping step demonstrated by Paul. I am honestly not sure if it adds anything to the sharpness of the edge or not ( I suspect that it does) but it certainly can’t hurt and I do love the mirror-sheen polish that it gives the bevels of my cutting tools.

All it takes is practice, patience and the confidence that you can achieve such results by hand. Remember, men of many trades have been using such methods for thousands of years.

I suspect the guides *are* helpful for someone who is new to sharpening, to give one the feel of how a blade must move in relation to the stone/plate/etc. but if you have never sharpened without one, don’t be afraid to put it aside and give hand sharpening a try. Technique is more important than the implements; and the only way to acquire and perfect technique is through practice.

Great post!

I have also been sharpening without a guide for the last couple of weeks. While chopping the mortises for the coffee table legs I was sharpening my chisel after every one or two mortises (Narex chisels don’t hold their edge long while chopping oak!), which would have been such a pain if I had to set up a guide each time.

Instead, I’ve been using the super fine diamond stone to get a new edge, stropping, then getting back to work. One minute is all it takes. My technique is still far from perfect and I may have to grind a new bevel on a couple of chisels once the project is finished but I can keep my tools more than sharp enough for the job without a guide this way, and my technique is improving all the time.

George.

Once again we have the old debate of free hand vs honing guides. Nothing wrong with either method, do what works for you. What is wrong is people thinking anyone that dose not use the free hand method is wrong, well its freedom of choice I use a honing guide and the micro bevel, takes me 6 seconds to put a chisel in the jig, I can live with that.

Bottom line freehand, honing guide, makes no difference to me, but I would never knock anyone for doing it different. Do what you want to do and let others do the same.

Cheers 😉

Absolutely, Ken. I hope I didn’t come across as trying to portray the use of guides etc. as “wrong”…I agree completely that everyone should do what works for them.

I guess the point of my rather long-winded response above was merely to encourage anyone who was thinking of trying free hand sharpening and to say there was no reason for anyone to think they *can’t* do it that way…If sharpening with a honing guide was how I originally learned, I’m sure I’d probably favor *that* method, myself.

I use a bit of everything .
I must admit I like sharpening and it dose detract from doing woodworking
I have a Tormek T7 great for getting things to a nice start and even in its own right gives a good edge.
I have diamond plates corse medium and fine. Get a reasonable edge but have never felt that it is super sharp.
I have my old stones had for years I get a pretty good edge with them.
Lastly I have scary sharpening kit must use a guide for this system. Out of all the systems I use I find this to have the sharpest results.
I still would like to try water stones or ceramic.
I would hate to think how long it would take to sharpen all my tools with over 100 different chisels and about 30 odd planes with cutters.
In the end what ever you are happy with.

Don’t get me wrong Robin Diamond plates good enough.
My fine is 15 micron 1000g and I do strop with a polishing compound. I agree super fine may make a little difference. I also do free hand have been doing so for years also using my oil stones.
There is nothing like having a newly ground primary bevel on chisel or iron then putting the first micro bevel on. Then putting a bit of wood in vise pairing chisel on end grain can do for hours or new Iron in plane and getting the finest see through shavings 🙂
This subject will always cause a big debate.
I use more than one method for quickness Diamond plates win keep you woodworking. For the ultimate edge I think other methods are better. Like I said I enjoy sharpening and is a craft in its own right.

Hi,
Until I was able to buy the diamond stones, I followed the sand paper and glass method. It works well. And as seen in the variuos videos here, you really don’t need to sharpen to super high grits. I got nice results using these. Beautiful even shavings.
I first got the coarse diamond stone and continued to use sandpaper for the higher grits.
Later I was able to buy the fine stone.
I now use 2 diamond stones: coarse and fine, with stropping as well.

The superfine stone is still on my list to buy, but will have to wait since there are more essential tools higher up on my list.

Hope this helps…

Marilyn

p.s. I bought the eze lap diamond stones…