My daughter Maddy reports she has fewer than 50 sets of stickers left, a set that includes the “Sharpen This” sticker that is showing up on the boxes for sharpening stones everywhere. (Wish I had thought of that.)
If you want a set of these high-quality stickers, here are the details. You can order a set of three from her etsy store here. A set is $6 delivered ($10 for international orders).
Or, for customers in the United States, you can send a $5 bill and a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) to by daughter Maddy at:
Stick it to the Man
P.O. Box 3284
Columbus, OH 43210
As always, this is not a money-making venture for me or Lost Art Press. All profits help Maddy through college. (Only one more college payment due!)
After this set is exhausted, we’ll be printing three new stickers. I’m working on the new designs now.
— Christopher Schwarz
This comment is specific to the sharpen this series, which prohibits comments (for reasons I understand! but…)
So I am a bit confused by the Sharpen This! series. In Post 1, you say “Articles in this category will show you how I sharpen every tool in my chest: planes, chisels, scrapers, travishers, scorps, moulding planes, awls, spade bits, screwdrivers and so forth.” In Post 9, regarding guides, you say “P.S. One more entry and then we get to sharpen things!” Post 10 has to do with…uh, expressing your disdain for sharpening zealots. Posts in between discuss the definition of sharp, the various sharpening media, the importance of the burr and so forth. Post 10 is the last post that doesn’t involve selling stickers. But there is no discussion of how to sharpen any particular tool. So the series does a good job covering chisels and plane blades, I guess (although to be picky you never say, for instance, whether to move back and forth, back only, laterally, horizontally, etc, and you suggest that strops are “the great leveler” but don’t discuss their use, which I for one find deeply mysterious), but…how do you sharpen all the tools in your chest? In particular, for instance, although I know what sharp is and know the importance of a consistent burr, I have no freaking idea how to get a consistent burr along a curved edge. None. Would love to learn. I have a hand router plane, which I used to love, until it got dull, and my attempts to sharpen it have been disasters. Do I just have to buy a new blade every ten or fifteen times I use it? How the heck am I even supposed to get that sucker onto my water stones? What about the spoon carving crooked knife I covet but know I’d be hopeless with after half a spoon? And more generally…how often should I sharpen? How do I know when it’s time to sharpen? Do I really need a $200 dia-flat aircraft aluminum brick to flatten my sharpening stones, and if so, do I really have to inflict it on them every time I sharpen?
I will get around to expanding the series. I have to do some things that put food on the table first.
In the meantime, my advice is to take a class with someone who is an excellent sharpener. That will help more than any internet post.
Well now I feel terrible. Go work on the moldings and doorbell, ignore me! I just thought the series was over…thought perhaps it was a zen kind of thing, “learn what sharp is, forget the dogma, and the rest will become clear, grasshopper.” I’m happy to hear it’s an ongoing project.
This was a lingering open issue way in the back of my mind, incidentally, until I saw a rerun of you on The Woodwright’s Shop, discussing jack planes and saying (jokingly? I think? maybe? surely?) that you only sharpen plane blades once a year.
Sincerely and with regards,
the wiener in the comments
Next comes her Grad degree, it never ends. Mine is now working on PHD.
Sold out. *tear*
I give the Disobey Me stickers to my daughters. They love ’em.