honing gouges with slipstones

Nathan Hawkes

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96
So, fellow woodturners, I've come to that place that turners do, apparently; the place where they realize that they should've been honing their tools all along, that it would've saved so much sanding and so many trips to the grinder. The last couple articles in American Woodturner have been great for me. I'm not a newbie, been turning a few years, but I've turned a few hundred bowls by now. I've currently only got a fine 600 grit card sized diamond hone that I originally purchased for sharpening my McNaughton knives, but I'm having trouble with such a small stone to hone bevels, and can't hone the flutes at all. I'm using a stiff buffing wheel with emery compound--I had it already to buff off heavy oxidation on a couple old plane irons. It has worked fine to polish the flutes, but doesn't hone worth a darn. The MDF disc idea is fine, but I don't have anything I can put it in other than the lathe MT2 mandrel, and I don't want to take off a work in progress to hone tools....

I have my doubts that an india or arkansas slipstone will be up to the task of honing powder metal gouges or skews for that matter. I know they are much harder than normal steels; I don't want to be honing for several minutes at a time. I've looked around for tapered diamond slipstones that also have a flat side like the india and arkansas stones available they're almost nonexistent. The one that I can find is on Alan Lacer's site, and is $88. I'm trying to convince myself to go for it; I know it will last, and I know its a quality tool. I'm just trying to find others' experience with the slipstones and powder metals. My go-to tools are now crown PM, hamlet2030, and packard 2060 steels, and I'm about to get a thompson gouge to round out my bowl gouge selection. So, how do they do????? Thanks in advance.
 
The only tool I hone is my 8 skews. I only hone after sharpening on the tormek. I always have one gouge I leave for the final cuts and start sanding around 120 to 150 grit. I use a conventional gouge (P & N) like Mike Mahoney for the final cuts. I started this after watching him demo last year.
 
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