# Books on Blade Sharpening: the Good and the Bad



## PurpLev

I agree, 'the perfect edge' was a good read, and covered anything metal/cutter related from the mfg. to hardnesses, and sharpening different types of cutters in any available procedure available today in full depth, including close up shots of finished honed edges with different stones etc which I found very interesting. I have not read the other 2, but anything from Leonard Lee, or LV in general is a good source (veritas related at least).

That said, although I found the book interesting and informative, I didn't find anything NEW in it that I was not already aware of from some simple research on the net. the nice thing with the book though is that it's all concentrated into 1 book which is easier to follow and reference off of.


----------



## dfdye

PurpLev,

You are certainly right-there are a myriad of sources for sharpening information and most of the information in Hock's book is readily available elsewhere, but you highlight an important distinction between intarweb sources and a good reference book: a coherent book complies all of the pertinent information in one place where it is permanently documented and is easy to reference when needed (or to take to the shop!). I, personally, found this to be quite useful and worth the cost of the book, but YMMV, of course!

Thanks, though, for pointing out that folks can find good sharpening information elsewhere!


----------



## PurpLev

dont get me wrong - I find that the book is most definitely worth it's price, and I highly recommend it to anyone that is interested in sharpening, or in the processes that take place from raw material to the finished blade. however, if you already done your research, you may not find any revelations in it thats all.


----------



## dfdye

Ah. I see! You are, of course, 100% correct! (BTW, I was in that "no revelations" camp, but I did still find it useful, and there were definitely some subtle things that I did not know.  )


----------



## TFKeefe

Thanks for the very thoughtful review.

Tom


----------



## Jon_Banquer

Reading The Perfect Edge, the Ultimate Guide to Sharpening for Woodworkers by Ron Hock and The Complete Guide to Sharpening by Leonard Lee made me wish that there was a less messy and faster way to grind and sharpen / hone and that there was a better / more complete machine available for sharpening. To me a better setup would consist of a grinder, which in my opinion is the only practical way to remove a lot of material fast and series of slow turning wet stones. If a series of slow turning wet stones isn't possible than make the wheels easy to change out in seconds.

I'm really not very impressed with the sharpening systems that are currently available as they seem to be much too limited and they don't have an easy / quick way to change wheels or complete fixturing.


----------



## mnguy

I have Leonard Lee's book and I can add my recommendation. I have not read the other books; I had blind faith that Lee's book would be good, and I wasn't disappointed. I agree that there isn't information in this book that can't be found online, but it is nice to have it all in one spot, on the shelf, for reference. Plus, you don't have to spend all that time searching  I would say that sandpaper is one area that Lee doesn't give as much space to as he could.


----------



## dfdye

Jon,

One expensive solution would be to buy multiple machines if changing stones takes too much time for you. Granted, it isn't really cost effective, but it would cut down on your time needed to sharpen.

I personally don't find sharpening to be very time consuming. I grind on a bench grinder if needed and go to sandpaper with an eclipse style guide to hone, building a micro-bevel with 5 and 0.3 micron 3M PSA abrasives. Once I get a good grind, I only need about 10 strokes on each grit, and then about 10 strokes on the 5 and 0.5 to get a razor edge. I am quickly coming to recognize that I would like a set of of the DMT duosharp "stones" to replace my coarse sandpapers since I tend to destroy them with my A2 Cryo plane blades, but I think that the 5 and 0.3 micron papers are as good as it gets for putting a razor edge on tools with minimum effort, so I will keep those in the routine regardless.

Total time from start to finish for sharpening a plane blade, assuming I don't have to have a major re-grind, is about 3 minutes. I am not sure how I could ask for something to go much more quickly than that!

Granted, I built this routine from lots of sources in addition to Hock's and Lee's books, but the basic techniques and theory behind why I do what I do was all in there! Besides, now I know how to sharpen an adze.


----------



## mcase

dfdye,

Thanks for such a thorough post. I certainly want to get a look at this book


----------



## Geedubs

I am just at the front-end of learning about sharpening. Thanks for the insights/reviews…and related comments. I will check out one or more of the above and dig in!


----------



## Jon_Banquer

David,

Thanks for you thoughts and sharing your experience.

I think what I missed in what I initially wrote above is that getting a wheel as flat as a stone isn't possible and that being as flat as possible is a critical factor.

Perhaps the best justification for a wet wheel, slow speed grinder is that it can do a better job than a bench grinder that has a much smaller diameter wheel, spins too fast and isn't wet. By better job I mean quality of grind as obviously it's not anywhere near as fast at removing material as a bench grinder is.

I'm now up to three devices and I wasn't happy with two! ;>)


----------



## mafe

I love that book!
And I love my Sheppach water sharpener (would buy Tormek if I could efford it).
He opened my eyes for shapening, and a perfect edge is what it's all about!
Best thoughts,
MaFe


----------



## dfdye

Jon,

Got it! I personally don't mind the hollow grind that a bench grinder gives since that just means less material for me to remove during honing. Also, the flatness of a grinding wheel has never been an issue for me-even if there are high points in my wheel after I dress it, I use a grinding jig, so the highest point on the wheel is always the deepest cut in the blade since I pass the entire width of the blade along the entire width of the wheel (not sure if this makes sense or not, but it does work). I also completely understand the draw of wet wheels to avoid over-heating blades, but with modern cool grinding wheels (IE not the cheap grey wheels), I haven't had any issues burning blades.

As for your technique, it sounds like you hone the entire surface of your bevel. I know that Japanese blades are traditionally honed/polished along the entire bevel at all grits, but I personally find this extremely time consuming, and I can't tell a difference in edge retention-but it sure does look purty! I can completely understand the draw of having a horizontal wet-stone system to aid in this process since it definitely takes forever by hand!

If you are rocking three grinders, then you obviously have a nice little system worked out. You should post some pics and describe the process a little more in depth if you get a chance. I always love seeing different approaches to solving the same problem. Also, I would love to hear how you keep your horizontal stones flat. I have never used rotating stones, but I always thought they would be a pain to flatten since I would expect to need a flat abrasive surface at least as large as the wheel face. The only thing I have that would do that easily would be sandpaper on my table saw face, but that would get messy in a hurry! I would love to hear some insight on this if you could share.


----------

