Lost Art Press

Sharpening Block: Now Smaller and Stupider

Posted on by Lost Art Press

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I left my little block of wood that sets my honing angles for chisels and plane irons in Australia, so the first order of business on Sunday was to build a new one.

After a decade of messing around, I pretty much sharpen all my edge tools with a 35° secondary bevel. This is a good all-purpose angle. It’s robust. It works with all my tools. And it keeps life simple.

In theory, I should use a lot of different honing angles to adjust the cutting characteristics of my tools, lower angles for paring tools, higher for chopping tools. I’ve been down those rabbet holes, and I’ve concluded that “sharp fixes everything.”

What’s important for me is that I get sharp fast and without fuss or error. Having one honing angle makes my life simple.

So this little block reflects that idea. One face of the block sets 35° in my side-clamp honing guide for chisels and plane irons. The other face sets 35° for wacky tools – shoulder planes – in my Kell honing guide.

I made the guide out of mahogany (leftovers from the campaign furniture book) and used waterproof glue and nails to assemble things. These are important details if you use waterstones. The water will rot the wood and loosen the glue. Promise.

Now I can get back to work on this campaign chest. Wait, I have to edit three books? Crap.

— Christopher Schwarz

26 thoughts on “Sharpening Block: Now Smaller and Stupider”

  2. Chris,

    I like your super-condensed version. Getting down and to the point. No pun inten……ok, maybe it was intended. 😉

    Lee

  4. I gave up sharpening when I bought a set of Veritas’ self sharpening chisels? Whadda’ya mean a day late? It’s April all month long.

  5. I guess I’m just lazy(er), but all of my honing guides, jigs, angle-setters, etc., are sitting in a drawer. Haven’t used them in years. Angles get measured by eye, all sharpening is done freehand, and as you said, “sharp fixes everything.” I have found it far more productive and efficient to hone much more frequently than to waste a lot of time fussing over bevel angles.

  6. “I made the guide out of mahogany (leftovers from the campaign furniture book)”
    This is why the book is taking so long!…. It’s made out of mahogany! Just the front and back covers or really thin veneer for the pages too? At least we know the book should soon be on sale since this is from the leftovers… I can’t wait!

  7. Might be fun to check ebay periodically to see if your old guide shows up.

  8. I’m half-expecting that old guide to show up on eBay as well. Maybe C-star should sell a “signature” sharpening guide block.

    2. Let’s see how the bidding on this one compares to bidding on youthful pics of future serial killers and politicians.

  10. It looks a lot like a nail gun was used to attach the block. Do you own a nail gun? I find them indispensable for things like this, but I’m surprised to see its use on a Schwarz item.

    True?

  11. Holy Crap, my family has taken that paper since I was born. I have to wonder at this point did I ever read, or was I ever influenced by the person with that byline? On what subject? OH this is bad, really, really bad.

  12. Yep, ’bout the only time I check angles (with one of those brass discs with various angled pie slices) is after a chisel does a swan dive onto the concrete, finds it’s way into the hands of an employee, or other serious chip repair when a substantial amount of material needs to be removed. Standard procedure is feel for the bevel on the stone(3 fingered grip), lock elbows, and hone away. Occasionally, I restore the hollow grind by setting the wheel/toolrest alignment to the center of the existing bevel. I try to resist the temptation to bear down more on the toe than the heel, and that angle really doesn’t drift appreciably before the next regrind. Honing guides slow me down; just grind, hone, strop/buff, & go, less than a minute to restore shave-ability. Is it 33-1/2 degrees or 34? Quit fiddling and get back to work…That little time management voice in the grey mushy stuff tells me I won’t save enough time with some theoretical perfect angle if I am quick enough at getting it perfectly sharp. All of which is a long winded way of saying never trust a woodworker with hairy forearms.

  13. Two questions about using this with the Kell guide – the instructions say to measure the distance from the steel rollers, which are not flush with the front of the wheels. Since it looks like this block would be stopped against the wheels, do you take that additional length into account? Second, his instructions give projections for up to 30 degrees – what do you use for 35?

    1. The jig has instructions? Oops.

      The point (for me) is repeatability, not a geometrically perfect angle.

      I put the plane blade I sharpen the most in the jig. I used a plastic protractor to set the sharpening angle to 35° (working above the bars of the jig, by the way). Then I recorded the distance from the front of the wheels to the tip of the blade and glued a stop at that position. That strategy worked flawlessly for many years on my old angle-setting block.

  14. Say, you don’t have a roller guide to use on a oil stone. What is the best way to maintain the angle on say a spokeshave blade on an oil stone?

  15. I can’t believe you left it here. I remember you saying how long you’d had it and one guy even took it home once to take measurements but you usually dont let it leave the shop. Maybe I should track it down, put it on ebay .’The original Christopher Schwarz honing angle setting jig’ it could sell for 1000’s 🙂

  16. So if the 35-degree setting is for honing the secondary bevel, what do you use for the primary bevel when the secondary gets too big? Diamond plate, coarse stone, power grinder?

    1. I grind with whatever I have handy – hand-cranked grinder, coarse sandpaper, diamond plate, sidewalk. When you work in other people’s shops, you can’t be too picky.

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