Next Saturday, Sept. 9, is our regularly scheduled open day for Lost Art Press. We’ll have our complete line of books plus a good number of slightly damaged books at 50 percent of retail (cash only). And T-shirts. Coffee. Stickers.
I also have been informed that we will have a handful of Crucible dividers there that are cosmetic seconds (100 percent fully bang-on functional). Those also will be 50 percent of retail (cash only).
It’s ‘Sharpenday’
To reinforce the “Sharpen This” series of blog posts, I will offer free sharpening lessons all day. If you want to learn basic sharpening or get into more advanced topics, come on down. I don’t know everything about sharpening, but I’ll be happy to share what I do know.
(Note: Let’s not make this day about me rehabbing your old or damaged tools. If you’d like to bring in a tool to discuss, great. I’ll show you how to sharpen it, but you will do the grinding and honing. One guy brought in a box of old planes for me to fix for him once – that service is $60/hour plus materials.)
If you struggle with any aspect of sharpening, put your ego aside and come ask for guidance. If you don’t know how to sharpen curved blades (travishers or scorps), we can cover that. Scrapers? Yup. Grinding V-tools? Nope (those drive me nuts).
Our storefront is at 837 Willard St. in Covington, Ky., 41011. The hours on Saturday are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
— Christopher Schwarz, christophermschwarz.com
Hi Chris, it looks like you’re burning the hell out of that iron. Is that layout fluid or are you not concerned with burning the carbon out of that steel?
It’s Sharpie marker. Not decarb.
Chris, Thank you for the heads up, I will unpack my trunk. lol
The woodworking author with a rapier wit teaches sharpening. Wish I could. Cannot drive up there this time. Have fun, Mr. Schwartz.
Oh come on, it wasn’t a real big box. Couldn’t have been more then ten planes at the most in there…
This is very generous of you Chris. Thank you! I feel like I’m pretty close but would love to have the critique or confirmation on what I’m doing right/wrong. Do you recommend people bring their sharpening stones, etc. or would that quickly become overwhelming?
If you have questions about your equipment then bring it. I have plenty of stones otherwise. Likewise with your tools. If a particular one is vexing you, bring it. If it is a general vexing, then no need.
I suppose Sharpenday might not be the best day to bring my kids to the storefront. Too bad, I have a scraper and a plane with a skew iron that I just cannot seem to figure out!
I don’t see why not. My youngest learned to sharpen when she was 8.
$60/hour seems awfully cheap for your time, Chris. I drove a friend to drop off his motorcycle to get new tires and saw that the shop charges $95/hour. I doubt they have your expertise. Something’s not right here.
The shop rate here for skilled auto mechanics is $60. The Midwest is cheap.
Well yeah – but as a trained journalist, you deserve an upcharge.
How many trained journalists here make $124,800/year?
I wish you offered the book and Crucible seconds on here for those of us who can neither afford the full priced items or the drive to KY. I will own a pair of the Crucibles one day. Maybe even two. By the way Chris, I can’t wait until my wife gives me the go ahead to order The Anarchist’s Tool Chest. I’m looking forward to reading it. You’re one of my favorite authors. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and keep up the good work.
Oh to be in Covington KY this weekend! I just received my copy of Workbenches on Friday, so I’ll just have to be content to read that during my tea breaks here in the Tassie highlands. Have a blast of time, y’all!
Hi, Chris:
Is it ok to hang out for the duration of the day at your store to practice sharpening? I’ve never been to your store before, and was planning on staying from open to close, unless that’s nutty.
Thanks,
Mark
It’s nutty, but people do it. And we don’t discourage it.
Great — thanks, Chris. Are all these fair game for potential sharpening topics for Sharpenday?
– sharpening a drawknife
– grinding and honing jack plane iron
– how to use a strop correctly
– sharpening a skew iron
– sharpening a single bevel hatchet
– in the slightly nutty category, sharpening a carpenter’s adze
– lastly, sharpening a 1/2″ socket chisel to perfection
Thank you,
Mark
Mark,
I don’t use adzes, so you don’t want me showing you how to sharpen them.
All the other tools I use all the time.
Thank you, Chris. See you at 10 o’clock sharp.
If there are any cosmetic seconds of the dividers left after that day, is there a possibility that arrangements could be made to purchase?
I’m afraid there are myriad reasons we can’t do that. I’ll write a blog entry explaining that in the next day or so.