I've freehand sharpened for years. I believe it is faster, easier, and for the most part better than using a sharpening jig. Today I decided to A &B a pair of SwissMade chisels, one a 19mm and the other 16mm. It would have been better if both chisels were the same size but I do not have two of the same brand and size.
Both chisels I ground to a 25* bevel on the Tormek and sharpened using the same progression of Oil stones. A medium India, a Lilly White Washita, a Norton Hard White Arkansas, and a Hard (Surgical) Black Arkansas. Both edges were stropped on a hard leather strop with green stuff.
The guide used was an original Eclipse. I had forgotten how slow using a guide is. It is not just adjusting the chisel and guide, it is also the guide required more strokes on each stone to get to the same place. Another advantage of freehand is feedback, when free-handing you can feel when you have spent enough time on each stone. If I used a jig long enough I might develop that feel but I doubt it.
A plus for using a guide is a flat bevel, sometime freehand that is not the case.
The real test is metal to wood and here is where prejudice is hard to control. I will just say on the same piece of wood, side by side cuts, the freehand felt easier to push. When looking at the surface left with a 10X lupe the freehand surface was slightly smoother.
Of course YMMV.
I expect if for no other reason than speed and ease if the jig cutter had been the better of the two I would still sharpen freehand. The good news is there is little difference between the two as far as sharpness. Take your pick and use the method that blows your skirt.
Wear a mask and stay safe,
ken
I have switched to hand sharpening almost exclusively and I am just amazed at what a difference it has made. I use Rob Cosman's method of creating a secondary bevel on a fairly coarse (1000) diamond plate and follow it up with a microbevel on a fine (8000) waterstone. I ruler trick my plane blades and strop them on my palm. This reliably produces the best results I have had, and so. much. faster. I use a leather strop with the green paste to touch up chisels as I'm using them.
ReplyDeleteI was about set to sell my Veritas shaprpening jig, but decided to keep it for my cambered jack plane blade. It doesn't need sharpening very often anyway, but the Veritas has a cambered roller to match the blades grind, and a little knob you turn to raise the angle to put the microbevel on.
I think if you have a jig sharpened tool and repeatably place the tool in the jig for resharpening, that will be the fastest. The reason being is that it minimizes the material removal while maintaining angles.
ReplyDeleteSharpening a freehand tool in a jig takes much longer because all the convex material in the bevel has to be removed prior to touching the edge.
Freehand can be fastest by going straight to the edge but that runs the risk of steepening the angle over time.
I have found that going sided to side across the width on a coarse india or extra extra coarse diamond will remove material fast enough to keep the bevel flat and get me to the edge. Then I can work the fine stones and get good results.
Another benefit of freehanding is being able to alternate sides of the bevel in final honing to keep the burr from growing. When you watch a barber strop a razor it isn't on one side a bunch of times then the other. It's once a side over and over.
Alternating like that I have found that I can get to a shaving edge on a coarser grit and get back to work.