The following short excerpt is from Christopher Schwarz’s “Sharpen This” – a 120-page pocket book on how to get great edges, regardless of the sharpening system you choose. It is about what is important: Creating a sharp edge quickly with a minimum amount of equipment.
Simple side-clamp honing guides are a godsend for quick and repeatable work when it comes to chisels and plane irons. I do sharpen freehand a lot of unusually shaped tools, but when it comes to plane blades and straight chisels, I am happy to let the honing guide do the work.
Side-clamp honing guides can be had for a song – inexpensive ones cost less than $20.2 And I have found no valid downside to using them.
Critics of honing guides deride them as “training wheels” or as a crutch that slows you down. I have regularly challenged these people to sharpening contests for speed and fineness of edge – the winner determined by a judge who doesn’t know whose blade is whose. I have never lost – not because I’m a great sharpener but because the honing guide is an enormous asset.
While I do love my honing guide, my love has limits. I don’t use the endless attachments that allow honing guides to be used for oddball tools or skewed tools or short tools or extra thick tools. For those tools, the honing guide and its accessories slow me down. So I stick with the base model, which works well for chisels and plane blades.
So if you stick with the base-model honing guide, you are five minutes away from being a speedy sharpener. All you need is a simple block of wood that sets the blade at the proper angle in the guide so the steel at the tip of the blade immediately touches the sharpening media perfectly. Which brings us to a discussion of sharpening angles.
The plastic block sets the blade’s location in the jig.
Honing Angles – the Argument for Fewer (or One) Most sharpening experts steer you toward using a wide variety of angles for different jobs in the workshop. Lower angles for paring tools. Higher angles for chopping tools. And soon you are engraving all the sharpening angles on all your tools and doing more sharpening than woodworking.3
In my experience, the sharpness of the edge is more important than the angle (within reason). A 25° paring chisel and a 35° paring chisel will both do a fine job when really sharp.
When I realized this, I decided to see if I could hone and polish all my tools at 35° and be happy. That was about 10 years ago, and I remain committed to this simple approach. I am sure there are tools out there on the fringes that won’t work with a 35° hone and polish, but I have yet to encounter them.
Setting the tool is simple. Slap it in the guide, press the guide against the block and press the blade to the stop. Tighten the guide. Done.
So I have a block of wood with a stop on it. I put the tool in my honing guide, I press the guide and blade against the stop block, then I tighten the guide. I am ready to sharpen. (Making a setting block is simple. Use a school protractor to set the blade to the correct angle in your honing guide. Then screw a stop to a block of wood that matches that projection.)
Our new Warrington Pattern Hammers – I’m picking up the first batch today.
Just a reminder that we’ll be throwing the doors open (metaphorically – it’s too hot to actually do that) on Saturday, July 29, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. for our 2023 Summer Open House. We’ll be selling our complete line of products, signing books and – most of all – talking about woodworking.
And exciting news: We’ll have a double handful of the new Warrington Pattern Hammers here for sale – assuming I don’t get hammer-jacked on the way back from Nicholasville, Ky. today. (We’ll also be putting most of the batch for sale in our online store as soon as we can; they’ll be $97).
Plus, Chris will lead tours of the Anthe building – the 1890s-era factory we are restoring to become our new headquarters. Those tours will leave from Willard Street (our current building) at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Roy Underhill playing around in Christopher Schwarz’s tool chest before a taping of “The Woodwright’s Shop” a decade or so ago.
The two paragraphs below are excerpted from Anna-Rhesa Versola’s article in Chatham Magazine on the closing of The Woodwright’s School and what’s next for Roy Underhill. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
“Roy’s sense of wonder is part of his charm, delighting anyone who will listen with stories about the connected past, present and future of man and nature. ‘My whole interest in [working with hand tools] stems from this point – quality of life and responsibility,’ Roy says. “Working with muscle power is a good thing. It’s like riding a bicycle instead of driving a truck. The environmental impact of this. And that’s why I think this is the way of the future.
“He is a master craftsman, entrepreneur, author, historian and teacher. He is also a husband of 50- plus years and father to two adult daughters. After more than 15 years teaching woodworking classes, Roy has no immediate plans to retire but he feels compelled to close the school in Pittsboro. He will empty the storefront windows, clear out the piles of wood and hand tools and sweep out the sawdust by the end of summer.”
Cutting patterns and symbols in wood, and enhancing them with vibrant color, are folk traditions kept alive in the slöjd craft. Through decorations imbued with meaning, chip carving has given soul to slöjd woodcraft throughout history. Even today, chip carving offers a natural complement to an artfully crafted spoon, cutting board or shrink box – and it provides the opportunity to develop your own creativity and meaningful patterns. This book teaches you techniques for cutting triangle chips, fingernail cuts, lines and letters — plus you’ll learn what kind of wood, knives and tools you need to get started, and techniques for painting your finished work. You’ll find 15 projects, from simple decorations on knife handles and signs to more demanding objects such as boxes and combs.
When designing a pattern, there are several things to keep in mind. It’s important to balance both the overall look and your own personal style. Allow time for the process of sketching and cutting samples.
A slöjd object with a consistent expression and a purpose connected to the context in which it is used tends to last longer in terms of design. When patterns and symbols align with function, the different parts are bound together into a whole by the subtext — a certain unity to which they all contribute. The small relates to the big as the big relates to the whole, goes a proverb coined in Florence, Italy, as early as the 15th century. On some objects, a pattern serves to add something, but sometimes the decoration takes over and demands too much attention at the expense of the whole. If so, it’s a good idea to break it down into its constituent parts and consider the different components. It’s a reflective process, which — as you experiment with new elements of form — allows for a constant development of your artistic expression through forms and patterns. Think of pattern composition as a playful and fun sketching that lends a personal expression to your slöjd.
Begin by considering the desired character of your pattern. The design of lines and patterns contributes to the overall feel of an object. Reflect on whether the lines and patterns have an expression that is distinct, exhilarated, broad and steady, delicately uneven, rough or subtle. Sometimes, mixing expressions creates a nice contrasting effect.
Continue by sketching and working with different forms, borders or ornaments, one at a time, making simple geometric shapes. Repeat or stack them on top of each other, place them close together or spaced apart. You can offset any shape vertically or horizontally, turn it upside down, invert it, bring two together or make them overlap. Geometric patterns involve a lot of mathematics. Here, you can test the golden ratio, which stipulates that the most harmonious relationship between the sides of a rectangular surface is a ratio of 3:5. Multiply the length of the shortest side by 1.618 to get the length of the longest side.
Things to consider when constructing patterns • Choose a main pattern that will catch the eye. • Surround the main motif with a balanced amount of decoration. • Divide the pattern into sections. Frame the decoration with borders and lines. • Create suspense in the geometry using rhythm, movement and variation. • Compress and expand, make it denser and more spacious. Be aware of symmetry and asymmetry. • Consider both positive and negative forms — the pattern in relation to the space in between.
Stripes and borders By dividing a surface into large or small sections using vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines, you can create stripes or borders. These can also be full circles or semicircles, reinforced with surrounding lines. Group and distribute the lines or shapes rhythmically over the surface, creating dense or spacious borders.
Smaller shapes, signs or symbols placed at an even or symmetrical distance from each other create the same effect. A border can be symmetrical or asymmetrical, sometimes inverted around a center point. But avoid mixing styles, which may easily give a cluttered impression. Alternate with uncut, undecorated surfaces; this brings space and balance to the border. Adjust lines and the way borders and patterns are grouped to bring them into balance with each other.
Grids and braids Grids arise when systems of lines intersect to form oblique or right angles. Sometimes, it’s the lines that are central and create the pattern. Other times, the empty space is essential and the lines are secondary. If the lines are brought closer together or moved farther apart, the spaces become either square or rectangular, and when they are repeated vertically or horizontally with a certain rhythm, a decorative surface is created.
When the lines intersect at an angle, they can be intertwined to look like wickerwork or braided birch bark. Alternating between thin and thick lines creates rhythm and variety in the grid or braid. One over, one under is simple math, but if the braid is to fit the intended surface without being demarcated by lines, the composition becomes more difficult. The middle grid pattern in the top row is common in Southern Sámi slöjd culture.
Often, grids are used to frame a stylistic decoration involving animals, human figures or vegetal elements in a square or rectangular shape. The pattern above is copied from a detail on a metalwork decoration on a late 12th-century coffin in Rydaholm Church in Småland.
Common elements of form • The square, circle and triangle are considered the basic forms of a carved surface. Even with simple shapes, the possible combinations quickly become numerous. • Lines and borders, dots and circles, ellipses and ovals, rhombuses, vesicae piscis, waves, grids, braids, letters and numbers. • Roses, suns, stars, moons, leaves, flowers, trees, feathers, tassels, pillars and columns. • Figurative shapes such as animals, faces, and people.
Armchair, “Jacob’s seat.” Larch, crooked birch in the armrests and posts, bird cherry in the backrest and legs. The composition of the pattern was inspired by the client’s interest in hunting in the woods and acting on the stage. Patterns and shallow relief carvings on the backrest include, in addition to the owner’s initials, a bird as a symbol of heaven and an earthly dog. The single-sided triangle chips with three maidens, two crosses and a fire-eye symbolize faith, hope and love. The sun cross with a pierced decoration in the central stanchion stands for vital energy and a backbone in life.
The stickers on the outside of the lump hammer box from our machine shop, Machine Time, made me giggle. File under “oxymoron.”
“Standard” lump hammers are now back in stock (that is, the ones without any engraving). With 2.2 pounds of hardened-steel heft in the head, the Crucible Lump Hammer is the perfect tool for knocking large and/or recalcitrant things together and apart, plus it does a fine job of breaking up chocolate (after first placing said chocolate in a sturdy bag) for all your baking needs.
– Fitz
p.s. We do still have some “Anthe Hammers” available – same great lump hammer, but with a “Fancy Lad/Lass” engraving of our new headquarters on one side (and the extra $ goes right to our building restoration/renovation fund).
