Sharpening Woes

It seems like the angle your sharpening at is not correct .

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

That’s the thing though, this is just flattening the back, so there is no angle to screw up.

-- Jeff

Check to with a straight edge and see if the back is flat , If it is not you will need to start with a much courser grit to get it flat .

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Go through the numbers. The coarse are for shaping. The fine grits are for polishing.

If it is not flat I would go down to something coarse (80 -100 grit) and get in the neighborhood (sometimes even coarser!).

Then step 200, 300, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000. Switch when the surface becomes uniform.

If you don’t have it flat at the coarse grit, it is for sure you are not going to make any headway at 1000 grit.

-- Woodworking shouldn't cost a fortune: http://lowbudgetwoodworker.blogspot.com/

Update: put in another hour out in the shop this evening. I decided to try to use the sandpaper more than waterstones and it seemed to help. I suspect my waterstones were not as flat as I thought and I probably created the problem that I am now trying to remedy. So I’m stopping now before I throw something to the floor. Looks like I’ll have to start at the coarse grits and work my way up. I bet you the first few hours that I worked at it I was actually creating the concave back on it, so I say ”$#%#((@( !!”

What do you use to flatten your waterstones? I have a Norton flattening stone but apparently it becomes out of flat fairly rapidly.

I do appreciate the advice guys, sometimes I just need to vent some of my frustration.

-- Jeff

I don’t have any waterstones but I have seen references that say to flatten them with a diamond stone.

-- Woodworking shouldn't cost a fortune: http://lowbudgetwoodworker.blogspot.com/

I’m no sharpening expert, but as a jeweler I have done my fair share of sharpening. You think a chisel needs to be sharp to cut wood, you ought to try sharpening a graver (a hand engraving tool, like a very small chisel) to the point you can push it through gold or even steel.
- I don’t see the need to use any thing other than silicon carbide “sand paper” stuck to a sheet of glass or, more recently, a granite tile. Water stones, arkansas oil stones, hard arkansas oil stones, india stones; I’ve used them all. Most, in my humble opinion, are a huge waste of time and money. I can’t do any thing with any of these stones (with the exception of diamond) that I can’t do just as well with “wet-dry” paper. I do use a diamond card to touch up carbide saw blades and router bits. Diamond powder in a water slurry on a powered felt or leather lap will polish an edge to absolute mirror finish that you can’t get any other way.

As others here have said, you must not start on too fine of a grit. 400 grit is way too fine. That is the beginning of polishing, not useful for flattening. You can do in 10 minutes on 80, 150, 220, 320, 400 grit papers ( about 2 to 3 minutes each) what you would take 10 hours to do starting with 400 grit.

I find it hard to imagine a Lie Nielson chisel needed flattening out of the box. I would have probably have put a thin steel ruler under the back edge (handle end) of the chisel and just touched up the working end a little then lapped. Should have been all it needed.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.

water stones get out of flat really easy. That is why a lot of people don’t like them. Some guys flatten them everytime they use them.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Jeff,

I also use the Norton water stones and found that the flattening stone is practically worthless. As you have found out, it gets out of flat and transfers to the waterstone. I have switched to 220 wet or dry sandpaper on plate glass to flatten my stones and this seems to have solved my problems. I flatten my waterstone after each use and now have good success.

One of the biggest reasons to buy a premium is so you do not have to spend several hours tuning up the tool. I have several LN chisels and needed no flattening at all. After I sharpened them a couple time I check the back on they were still flat.

You should call LN and see what they recommend. You may have a bad tool and it could be replaced.

-- Marc

Jeff,
I love water stones and use mine religiously. Flattening stones on the other hand have never convinced me for all the reasons mentioned above (should we really need something to flatten the flattening stone?). Subsequently, I flatten my water stones with a diamond plate and have never had any problems.

-- Greg, Severn MD

Jeff, I’m no expert either but I have visions in my head of you flattening the back of your Lie Nielsen using real nice sandpaper on a piece of granite from HF. If you use the sandpaper method for 400 grit, then why not keep with the sandpaper method on up? My guess is that the flatness of your granite is not the same as the flatness of your other aparatus. Check them all and report back.

-- Backer boards, stop blocks, build oversized, and never buy a hand plane--

As others have said, LN tools should require no flattening. If you got a bad chisel, call them – they’ll replace it, guaranteed.

Jeff,

I have a lot of chisels, and sharpen them with PSA backed sandpaper on 1/4” glass.
Your LN chisel probably came with a flat back. They are great chisels.
If not, you really need to concentrate on the first inch from the edge, as that’s all you need. If the rest isn’t flat, you can worry about that in 10 years, when you get there.

-- Steve-- http://www.urbanexteriors.biz

Sharpening tools is a skill that took me forever to not master. I am finally at a place where I don’t want to throw the tool across that room when I an done. Maybe in another 20 years I will master it <laugh>

Like they all said before me, flat is key. I went and bought the JET Slow Speed Wet Sharpener System, for the most part (bulk of my work) it works for me.

-- "so much to learn and so little time"..