After we shipped out our first big batch of Crucible Type 2 Dividers, we realized that we made the tips a little too long, and they bent more easily than we liked. It’s an easy thing to fix with a piece of sandpaper. And the “fix” is also the way to sharpen the dividers after they become dull with use.
Note: The dividers that are shipping now have already been sharpened using these methods, or they have tips we have modified on the mill.
Sharpening these dividers (or any dividers) is part of routine maintenance and is much easier to do than sharpening an edge tool.
Materials Needed
Here in our shop, we use #220-grit sandpaper that we have stuck down to a piece of inexpensive 12” x 12” floor tile from the home center. We stick it down using a thin squirt of spray adhesive (also available at your home center).
You will find this setup ideal for truing the soles of your block and smoothing planes.
You also could use a medium-grit diamond plate (if that’s how you roll), oilstones or India stones (crystalon). I don’t like to use waterstones for this because they are so soft, and it’s easy to plow a ditch in your stone with dividers.
How To Do It
The video above shows how to do it. If you read our blog via email, click here, and you’ll be whisked to a page where you can watch the video. The desired result is two tapered tips that curve to fine points. The curve strengthens the tips and helps prevent them from bending.
If you have bent your tips, you can either bend them back with some needlenose pliers or (if they bend only slightly) remove the bend on the sandpaper.
We were going to make a $99 micrometer-powered jig that attaches to your angle grinder to do this operation, but this seemed the better solution.
— Christopher Schwarz
But, the micrometer-powered jig will be available early next year, right? Maybe by 2022-April-01?
By “micrometer-powered”, don’t you mean “flux capacitor powered”…..?
I don’t own these. Yet. But like most of your stuff I probably will eventually when enough birthdays and Christmases pass.
I appreciate that they’re easy to sharpen and are “mild steel.” I’m no metallurgist, but why not make them a little harder so the tips don’t bend and there is less of a need for this beyond occasional touch ups if you want to change the geometry to suit your needs? I’m asking that as a serious question with understanding of manufacturing constraints/costs/material availability in the current manufacturing and distributing environment that are wholly outside of your control. Plus I’m sure you’d rather not do the same damn thing hundred of times to get a product out that you’re happy with. You’re trying to get a product you believe in to market. From everything I’ve experienced from your company, you only deliver the best product you can, and you have publicly expressed your decisions in a clear and understandable way. I respect the ever living hell out of that. Incredibly refreshing.
Hi Daniel,
We chose a mild steel to keep the price down and to increase tool life on the mill. And we think that it is an appropriate material for the dividers. With the proper tip geometry, they stay plenty sharp for the job they are being asked to do: poke small dimples in wood. If they had to cut wood, we’d definitely use a pre-hard steel. Hope this makes sense.
We were going to make a $99 micrometer-powered jig that attaches to your angle grinder to do this operation, but this seemed the better solution.
It should be named the marmoset jig to continue the simian line of tool names. Plus it is a nice dig on a competing sharpening jig.
My marketing genius is gratis. And possibly worth the price.