Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Wood Central

There are some interesting sharpening discussions going on on Wood Central dealing with bevel angles, shape, buffing and stropping your cutters. Look for the Unicorn threads by David Weaver. David was one of the  leaders several years ago in the change of understanding the role of the cap iron in tear out control. Pretty sharp guy.

I may have more on it it as I explore their finding but bottom line Paul Sellers may be smarter than some give him credit.

ken

11 comments:

  1. You have elicited a lot of responses over on SMC. It has to be one the busiest threads I have seen/read in a while. Interesting to me so far that no one extols secondary bevels for sharpness. I get the impression that it is strictly to minimize time sharpening and time alone.

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    1. Ralph,

      I'm still kinda processing the "WoodCentral" posts, seeing where they may confirm my understanding of sharpening, of what I have observed the effects of stropping to be and to see if I need to do a change in my procedure. Bottom line they bring up some observations that may be counter to my beliefs, but then maybe not. It may very well confirm my thoughts on stropping and the importance of smoothing the cutting edge vs. the meeting of two perfectly flat planes with a zero radius.

      ken

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    2. Steve D11:26 AM

      Here is one about micro bevels:
      http://www.woodcentral.com/woodworking/forum/handtools.pl/page/2/md/read/id/494185/sbj/tiny-microbevel/

      There is also ample talk about some "unicorn" profile involving stropping on a charged buff. Guess what? That is a steeper bevel at the edge. It's too much to digest, way beyond reason.

      Talk about getting into the weeds. My father was a barber and if he did all this crap with his razors we would have all starved, but that was before the internet.

      Delete
  2. You would be correct Ralph RE secondary bevels about saving time while sharpening. Truth is, I don't do them while initial sharpening but depending how my edge react to what I'm doing (wood, forces) then I'll quickly give it a sturdier edge by raising it a bit for a few strokes. That's what I learned while carving, I do it to everything else out of habits. And yes, it saves me time on the sharpening bench :-)

    Bob, who thought he knew sharpening until I learned to carve with clubs.

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    1. Bob,

      They do need a level of sharpness we mere mortals doing flat work can ignore.

      When I acquire some old chisels I can tell at first glance/touch of stone if they were used by a carver. The back tells the story.

      ken

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    2. Steve D11:28 AM

      Bob, do you hit the wood with a club or the chisel?

      Delete
  3. Indeed Ken, in carving a flat chisel (no 1 sweep) has a bevel in the back in order to have the cutting edge swing up or down, in and out of the wood.

    Bob, the old carver (Since 1998)

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  4. Steve D11:52 AM

    Ken, not sure if you have tried untreated strops but I picked up a horse butt strop from TFWW and have used it naked to clean up the edge. You have to make sure you don't drop the blade on your tool in that case. It does seem to clean up the edge without the material removal or dubbing that compound does. The Horse butt is noticeably harder than the leather I had obtained from a boot maker. Closest thing I have seen is the thick leather that goes below the insole.

    The abrasive compounds can be coarser than really fine stones so the bare strop doesn't reintroduce new scratches.

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    1. Steve,

      I have one with green and sometimes pink stuff and one that is just oiled. Use both, at the level I've been stropping I really can't tell the difference. Now with following along with the Unicorn process I could change my mind, or maybe not.

      ken

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  5. Steve D1:53 PM

    Ooooh! Someone doesn't like Rob Cosman.

    I find him akin to a huckster. Besides, why spend less time sharpening when you could read pages and pages about the merits and evils of secondary bevels?

    Not only a skilled woodworker, also has a way with Corian.
    https://www.woodcraft.com/products/rob-cosmans-tenon-saw-black-resin

    So popular, they can't keep them in stock.

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    Replies
    1. Steve,

      It is not so much dislike, more distrust.

      I want to check my back pocket and turn my BS meter up when I see him. That said, he has helped train a few woodworkers so I will cut him some slack.

      ken

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