Sharpening Demystified....the video....

Stuart Ablett

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I mentioned a while back >> here << that I read an article in the American Association of Woodturners Magazine about setting up your jigs to sharpen bowl gouges, well I made up a video showing how this set up works..........

Sharpening Demystified <<

Just over six minutes long, not much there really, but I really do recommend this system, as I can get consistently the same grind every time on every gouge, easily.

Cheers!
 
Hey Stuart thanks for making this! Pretty informative. Do you have a link or know where I could go to order that magazine? I can sharpen the normal gouge grind by hand, but not the fingernail grind. For me to go and buy the standard gouge jig, and then the fingernail jig on top of that would come out to about $130! No thank you!, I think I could weld up some things and make my own, and you are getting me started in the right direction. Thanks! :D
 
Sharpening jigs

Hey Westley,

You can easily make most of what you need to sharpen gouges. If you are good at working metal you can go that way or use wood. I made a sliding arm for my grinder that works fine. You might find plans/ideas at various woodturning sites like www.woodturningonline.com in the articles section. Another is www.aroundthewoods.com . Lots of turners make their own stuff, it's part of the fun. Stu is notorious for making all kinds of cool things:thumb:.
 
Stu,

That was a great video. I have been lazy about making setup jigs for my gouges. Your vid however shows me it is by far better to make the jigs and then sharpening is a simple three step proccess. I think I have that issue as well.
 
Thanks Fellas.

Alex, yeah, this system really does work well, and takes the guess work out of sharpening. I do want to get good at freehand sharpening, but it takes time to do so, I also want to get better at turning, so I have to do both! :D

One thing about hand sharpening is that you can easily stray from where you want to be, (until you get good at it) with this system, you can put a gouge back to where it should be, fairly easily.

Westley, >> HERE << is a page on my site showing a jig and such I made a while back, this is a bit old info, as I've since upgraded both of them, but you get the idea.

Cheers
 
I disagree Gordon, why? Well, when you see Eli Avisera or Jean-Francois Escoulen step up to the grinder and then step back, 20 seconds later, with a perfect grind on the gouge, as good as any jig can do it, well, that is something to shoot for. :D Dunno if it will happen anytime soon, but it is a goal worth working towards.

I have a 1/2" bowl gouge that is really too short to use, but I am going to remove it from the handle, so I can practice with it just the short piece of the tool left, otherwise, I'll get a half inch bolt, and use that to practice on:dunno:

The beauty of hand sharpening for the pro is that it is dead quick, and they can sharpen on anyone's grinder anywhere, they don't need a jig. Yes, I know, I'm not a pro, nor will I be traveling to do any sharpening, but still, it is a skill that I will want to master at some point.

Cheers!
 
Stu,

I haven't had the chance to watch Avisera yet. I found most of the top turners are turning for their fathers growing up. I am afraid I won't have enough years to catch up.;)
I disagree that their free hand grind is as good as any jig. I believe some of them are better than any jig. The Stuart Batty grind is all around 40° grind. You can rotate the gouge and maintains the edge direction. I don't think it can be done with any jig at all.
Doug Thompson and I belong to the same Club. He has milled me some common steel rods with bowl gouge flute. I have experimented with every Varigrind jig leg angle setting. I can't reproduce the Batty grind with the jig. I also found out I can't get the same grind from the "U" and "V" shape flute.
I free hand grind my detail and Sorby bowl gouge; I use the jig for the more expensive steel bowl gouges.
 
Gordon, it seems you and I are on the same page :D :thumb:

Yep, the hand ground gouges have an edge over the jig ground ones, for sure, but getting to that point, well yeah, that will take some time for sure! :wave:

Cheers!
 
Stu,

I have a much weirder problem. For some reason, both of my bowl gouges have a kind of V groove right at the tip. I've learned to live with it, but it's still odd. I've stared and stared at the jig and setup, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong... :(

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill,

A picture may help.
Bill Grumbine did a bowl gouge clinic when he did a demo for our Club last month. He asked members to bring in their problem bowl gouges. He didn't change hardly any gouge angle; what he did was just tweaking the lumps and dips on the side grind mostly. He then chucked up a big bowl blanks for the gouge owners to try their correctly shaped gouges. It was very educational. What I learn was there is no magic angle, they all have pros and cons. We have to adjust our direction of tool presentation angle to accommodate for the tool we have, either by the tool rest height, lifting the handle or rotating the gouge.
Any jig is only going to help us repeating the same set up, save time and steel. We still need to know the correct shape, when to stop and where to stop grinding.
 
Bill, a pic and the set up you are using, would help us help you :wave:

Gordon, you are so right about the angles etc, and having different ones for different jobs is that way to go, and is also the reason for my ever expanding collection of bowl gouges :doh: :D
 
Stu,

I have a much weirder problem. For some reason, both of my bowl gouges have a kind of V groove right at the tip. I've learned to live with it, but it's still odd. I've stared and stared at the jig and setup, but I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong... :(

Thanks,

Bill

Hi Bill,

If I am understanding you correctly, the dip or V is on the very tip of the gouge. If that is the case it is a common problem when first using the jig.

It results from grinding to long on the tip. The tip will lose metal way faster than the sides of the gouge. Try to really lighten up as you pass the tip over the wheel. If it is really dipping you may have to redo the profile and start from scratch.

If this is not the case.... please ignore everything I just wrote. :)

Best wishes,
Dave
 
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