Thread: Woodworking tools and sharpening

Thank you all very much for the feedback, I greatly appreciate it

I felt lost when starting, but am slowly figuring things out and it feels great! Using the tools and restoring them gives you a very good idea how they work.

I've honed a couple more of his chisels on the stones and a regular strop and the edges came out very nice. As we know with razors, stropping works and does wonderful things to an edge, I can feel the difference when coming off the strop vs not stropped.

I started off with flattening the back of the chisels first on my DMT and gave them a nicely polished finish and then re-set the bevels. Marking in the edges out of habit and seeing them go from unused (abused) to perfect working condition is a very pleasurable and enjoyable feeling. Sort of my heirloom tools now.

The plane iron gave me a bit of trouble to get that ultra sharp finish on, however I never touched the flat back side until mentioned you could microbevel it on a plane blade, so that seemed to work very well, planes more easily and smoothly now.


I've got some metal polish lying around, I'll have to do an experiment with it, slicing wood like butter sounds mighty fine

Next up are a couple of his saws

Thank y'all


It's a wonderful thing to have that many resources and knowledge available these days via the internet, with the books and DVDs, it's simply amazing.

I start with a 6" grinder and set the bevel angle at either 25 or 22 degrees. Then it is DMT coarse, DMT fine, Norton 1000, Norton 4000, Norton 8000, Naniwa 12,000, CrOx strop, and finally plain strop. For the curved gouges I use a fine grit DMT round rod on the inside followed by a washita arkansas round slipstone. For the V gouges I use a washita square slipstone.

While actually carving, I use a black arkansas with olive oil to refresh the blade.

Except for the block plane, shoulder plane, and rabbet plane, most plane irons are cambered. The fore plane and jack planes are usually around an 8" radius. Smoothing planes are around 10" radius. Trying plane (jointing plane) are around 6" radius. Scrub planes are around 3" radius.

Also for your plane, make sure that the chip breaker (if it has one) is set down low. And make sure the pig is set back enough to not foul the mouth.
You might want to check out https://www.pbs.org/video/hand-plane...chwarz-9qkzzm/

The last few years there has been a resurgence of hand tool woodworking and folks have begun to look at lost practices and efficient use of hand tools. A good newer resource is “Mortise and Tendon” magazine, published bi-annually.

The practice of fitting the chip breaker very close to the plane iron edge has been re evaluated and found that the distance of the chip breaker from the edge can dramatically affect the cut. There is much written on this recently and some experimentation with the distance (a bit more than traditionally recommended) can improve performance and prevent frustration with a nonperforming hand plane.

Properly tuning and setting up a hand plane is not difficult to do and can make even an inexpensive hand plane a performer and a quality plane a super performer. Some lesser known name brands can be purchased for a few dollars and are every bit the quality and performance of the standard Stanley /Bailey and even wooden planes the equal or better than modern metal models.

As you say, there is a lot of good information from knowledgeable users available, sticking with the mentors listed will serve you well. As with most methods disputed, try them and judge for yourself.

The use of hand tools can be very efficient and satisfying and lack of “safety equipment” needed another plus. Vic Tesloin even listens to music in his shop from a turntable, as he creates no dust or competing noise from machinery. His book “The Minimalist Woodworker”, is also a good read and resource. Hand tool use can be addictive and rewarding, enjoy.

Hand Saws are but another self -reproducing marvel. As excellent vintage saws are everywhere and available for a few dollars, restoration, sharpening and tuning is also simple, easy and once done very efficient. A screwdriver, gallon of vinegar, a saw file and bit of knowledge will have you sawing precise joints with ease. The only problem is re-producing, god only know what goes on when you turn off the shop lights.

Awesome replies,

I'm loving working with hand tools, currently working on dovetails and mortise and tenon joints (especially loving the wedged ones)

Mostly been focusing on getting my equipment right and looking at getting a few new tools, it's very addictive though!
I'm gonna deepen my focus on learning more about woods and the importance of the grain, etc.

Starting out with trying to make small boxes and then onto bigger things.

There's just something about wood and working with it, absolutely satisfying. A hobby that will be treasured.

Do NOT look at the woodworker magazines. Another set of rabbit holes to fall into.

Originally Posted by TristanLudlow

I took my time to restore a couple of my grandfather's tools, he's got a lot of tools made by EA Berg Eskilstuna, which I have a couple of razors of so that's pretty cool.

Clearly someone used some of his chisels to open cans of paint and doing strange things with, some are askew, have the edge chipped and are covered in paint

I just got a box of chisels and gouges that had if I remember right 13 Berg's in it. I wonder if they were part of your grandfathers collection because they also have some chips and paint and glue on them!

I to now have to learn about sharpening them etc.I have been wanting to make a wooden hone box and I think that will make a great first project.

I am a little mad now though because I have one or two somewhere in my garage and about 2 weeks ago I bought a new set of 3 at the local hardware store because I couldn't find them and I have to cut a new latch plate into my garage door.......

If you really want to get serious start looking at building a work bench. Christopher Schwarz has written a couple of books on mostly Roubo style work benches, one of those and an auxiliary moxon vise and you’ll be more or less set for fine wood working.

One reason I haven't done a damn thing lately related to razor or knife making or blacksmithing (haven't even lit the forge for a few months ) is that back in the winter I decided to make a guitar from scratch. Kind of a Gibson Firebird style thing. Apart from never having done this before and therefore needing to pick up a bunch of new skills and techniques, I also needed to turn my kinda sharp chisels and planes into insanely sharp chisels and planes.

One of the youtubers I've been watching for guitar building tips is Ben at Crimson Guitars. Apart from being a bloody good luthier and more than a bit bonkers, he's also more than a bit obsessed with really sharp tools. He has a bunch of videos on sharpening tools, but in this one the system he uses is explained by the guy whose system he adopted. (or something like that) Pretty good tutorial:



Basically, progression of microfilm on a flat surface, followed by stropping. Having used chisels sharpened using this system to trim plenty of tricky things including hard maple plugs used to make fretboard dots, I can confirm it works *really* well.

He really explains sharpening scrapers well too, helped me tremendously get cleaner burrs.

Great thread

I don't really use many "Hand Tools" I do use Turning Gouges but those are mostly sharpened on a designated Grinder with guides
I keep an older Arkie out there to tweak the final edge on the Skews