Thanks Mike, another ingenious design and build which reflects your engineers approach to solving a common problem. I've tried many different guides over the years and different stones but now mostly hand shares and am perfectly happy with the results, I'm sure they're not perfect but if it feels good and the cut is clean that is all I need !
Actually, there is a lot of 'finger feel' involved. Especially with plane irons, where you often want the slightest of bevels across the blade. I feel sure that, if a true automated sharpener had been developed, we would not need to perform so much work on brand new tools- they would come sharpened. In practice, after the initial back flattening and front angle establishment, the re-sharpening by micro-bevel just takes a few seconds. Especially when you are not trying to get the angle by 'feel'.
I do not own any high-end tools such as Veritas or Lie-Nielsen, but based on reviews, they are ready for use straight out of the box, which suggests that sharpening is already well-automated. Perhaps the reason high-end manufacturers do not ship blades sharpened to the maximum is that the finest level of sharpening is likely to be compromised during shipping and handling. Regarding 'finger feel,' a bolt with a spring could perhaps be employed to adjust the tension and pressure according to the user's preference. These are just random thoughts, given your previous inventions, I’m confident you can come up with a much better idea than I could. Thank you for the video, by the way. Initially, I thought you were making something similar to knife sharpening jigs, but as usual, you’ve pleasantly surprised everyone by taking it to another level.
@@alfgordon1741 Thanks! Yes, I believe high end brands come sharpened, but at least some of them claim hand sharpened. The back flattening could certainly be automated- but given that you only do that once, and I have enough chisels and planes to 'see me out', I do not intend designing that! Not sure why manufacturers do not do it- I guess the majority of chisels are never properly sharpened. Our local Men's Shed gets lots donated- and I have not found a well sharpened one amongst them...
@@SirBenJamin_ Most honing guides run on the surface of the stone, so you have to keep turning the stone around. And cannot use irons wider than the stone. And tend not to use the edges, because of the roller action. With this, you use >90% (depending on blade width). Turn the stone around and it becomes all of it. I certainly find I am using more of the stone. Circular motion for roughing, sideways for the final edge. It is not like a windscreen wiper, because you have two degrees of freedom. Mercedes used to have wipers with a camming action to reach the corners- same idea, but more so.
@@Tensquaremetreworkshop What I meant was that if you were to use a water stone, with your design, you would definitely see deeper wear patterns than with a traditional honing guide where it's much more evenly spread out. However, I still think yours would work better in terms of cutting efficiently as you can do the figure of 8 and at a faster rate (much like how you would do it by hand).
@@SirBenJamin_ Yes, the idea is to have all the freedom of hand honing, but with the support that prevents the angle changing. I find that, for me, I use more of the area of the stone than when using a conventional jig. Such a jig, that uses a roller, only moves in one direction (forward and back) and it is difficult to use the sides of the stone's surface. Of course, the initial shaping of the chisel/iron is done with a diamond stone, where it is not important. I then use a 6000 ceramic stone, and use moving circles, traversing almost the whole area of the stone. Then it is the 16000 grit, which takes little time. This is the only stone needed for later micro-bevel sharpening, and I find sweeping strokes give the best finish (I have looked under high magnification). Because the jig is very accurate, I can do the secondary bevel at +1/2deg, and later a tertiary bevel at +1deg. I am still experimenting with this, to find the optimum for number of re-sharpenings before the primary bevel needs to be reset (back to 1000 diamond for this).
very handy, thank you for your ideas.
Thanks Mike, another ingenious design and build which reflects your engineers approach to solving a common problem. I've tried many different guides over the years and different stones but now mostly hand shares and am perfectly happy with the results, I'm sure they're not perfect but if it feels good and the cut is clean that is all I need !
Happy is what it is all about! Wish I had the skill...
Another genius invention, Mike. I think this device is begging to be motorised to remove the repetitive 'elbow grease' part.
Actually, there is a lot of 'finger feel' involved. Especially with plane irons, where you often want the slightest of bevels across the blade.
I feel sure that, if a true automated sharpener had been developed, we would not need to perform so much work on brand new tools- they would come sharpened.
In practice, after the initial back flattening and front angle establishment, the re-sharpening by micro-bevel just takes a few seconds. Especially when you are not trying to get the angle by 'feel'.
I do not own any high-end tools such as Veritas or Lie-Nielsen, but based on reviews, they are ready for use straight out of the box, which suggests that sharpening is already well-automated.
Perhaps the reason high-end manufacturers do not ship blades sharpened to the maximum is that the finest level of sharpening is likely to be compromised during shipping and handling.
Regarding 'finger feel,' a bolt with a spring could perhaps be employed to adjust the tension and pressure according to the user's preference. These are just random thoughts, given your previous inventions, I’m confident you can come up with a much better idea than I could.
Thank you for the video, by the way. Initially, I thought you were making something similar to knife sharpening jigs, but as usual, you’ve pleasantly surprised everyone by taking it to another level.
@@alfgordon1741 Thanks! Yes, I believe high end brands come sharpened, but at least some of them claim hand sharpened. The back flattening could certainly be automated- but given that you only do that once, and I have enough chisels and planes to 'see me out', I do not intend designing that! Not sure why manufacturers do not do it- I guess the majority of chisels are never properly sharpened. Our local Men's Shed gets lots donated- and I have not found a well sharpened one amongst them...
Nice. Although I think it makes less use of the entire surface than the traditional honing guide, very much like windscreen wipers. 👍🏼😄
@@SirBenJamin_ Most honing guides run on the surface of the stone, so you have to keep turning the stone around. And cannot use irons wider than the stone. And tend not to use the edges, because of the roller action. With this, you use >90% (depending on blade width). Turn the stone around and it becomes all of it. I certainly find I am using more of the stone. Circular motion for roughing, sideways for the final edge.
It is not like a windscreen wiper, because you have two degrees of freedom. Mercedes used to have wipers with a camming action to reach the corners- same idea, but more so.
@@Tensquaremetreworkshop What I meant was that if you were to use a water stone, with your design, you would definitely see deeper wear patterns than with a traditional honing guide where it's much more evenly spread out. However, I still think yours would work better in terms of cutting efficiently as you can do the figure of 8 and at a faster rate (much like how you would do it by hand).
@@SirBenJamin_ Yes, the idea is to have all the freedom of hand honing, but with the support that prevents the angle changing. I find that, for me, I use more of the area of the stone than when using a conventional jig. Such a jig, that uses a roller, only moves in one direction (forward and back) and it is difficult to use the sides of the stone's surface. Of course, the initial shaping of the chisel/iron is done with a diamond stone, where it is not important. I then use a 6000 ceramic stone, and use moving circles, traversing almost the whole area of the stone. Then it is the 16000 grit, which takes little time. This is the only stone needed for later micro-bevel sharpening, and I find sweeping strokes give the best finish (I have looked under high magnification). Because the jig is very accurate, I can do the secondary bevel at +1/2deg, and later a tertiary bevel at +1deg. I am still experimenting with this, to find the optimum for number of re-sharpenings before the primary bevel needs to be reset (back to 1000 diamond for this).