[pianotech] Chisel Sharpening epilogue

[Michael Staples]

David,

Thank you for posting your review of these sharpening systems.  It's very
useful and timely to me.

Michael Staples
PTG Associate Member

On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 12:05 AM, David Love <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>wrote:

> After our lengthy discussion I wandered into my favorite
> spend-whatever-extra-money-I-have-store, The Japan Woodworker, with my
> chisels in hand to try various sharpening systems that they had available.
> I won't bother you with everything but I tried various systems, hand and
> machine, including the Tormek T7, Lap Sharp and Work Sharp systems.  The
> best system, I found, was the Lap Sharp system ($795) LS 200-2009.  It can
> be used either wet or dry and features replaceable abrasive discs in a
> range
> of grits and has a honing guide that will hold all types of chisels and
> plane irons at precise angles which are easy to duplicate.  The system is
> fast and easy to use but expensive.  The Tormek T7 ($599) system also works
> well especially if you use gouges and things as it has some accessories
> that
> makes sharpening them easy and quick (also expensive).  Using quality
> diamond or wet stones with a proper guide also does a good job but it is
> slower than the machines and by the time you purchase the various stones
> (some up to $90 each) and guides is not that much less expensive than a
> quality machine.  The best machine for the money that I found (in fact I
> ended up buying one) is the Work Sharp WS 3000 ($199).  The is a dry system
> using replaceable pressure sensitive adhesive disks of various grits that
> adhere to a thick, removable glass disk.  The system comes with two glass
> disks and you adhere the abrasive disks to both sides creating a sequence
> of
> 4 (or more if you want to buy more disks) progressive grits that is more
> than adequate to get a very finely polished and sharp result.  Very simple
> and quick to use and easy to duplicate honing angles.  You do need to
> purchase a Wide Blade Sharpening system design for this machine to
> accommodate wider blades (especially plane irons) over 2 inches wide ($60).
> The replacement disks are not expensive and available in grits from 80 -
> 6000.  You can also purchase a leather honing disk for fine polishing
> ($28).
>
> One comment, at least according to the folks here, is that if you use
> Japanese chisels (which I do), it's not recommended that you use hollow
> grind systems (like the Tormek).  The reason is that the Japanese chisels
> are made of two types of metal laminated together--a high carbon steel
> (which is the cutting part) and a low carbon softer steel for the backing.
> The hollow grind systems tend to remove too much of the backing which can
> impact performance and longevity (though honestly I didn't quite get
> exactly
> how).  Nevertheless, they advise to use a system that creates a flat bevel.
> All the machines mentioned above will create a microbevel, btw, but only
> the
> Lap Sharp and the Work Sharp systems create a flat bevel as opposed to a
> hollow grind that comes from sharpening on a turning wheel as in the Tormek
> system.  One other advantage over flat bevel systems is that as the Tormek
> wheel wears of course the diameter changes and thus the "hollowness" of the
> grind also changes and becomes more acute over time.  A flat bevel system
> doesn't have that problem FWIW.
>
> That's my report.
>
> David Love
> www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>
>
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