Learning to Sharpen Chisels

Let's face it, I never started out to be a hand tool guy. There is something about power tools that just draws me to them. Among other things, they have (for me, at least) a mystique about being precise in application. Though I'm finding out they are only as precise as their user, still, the whole idea of hand tools leaves me with the impression of their being susceptible to misuse by my unpracticed hands.

Be that as it may, I have already found chisels handy enough (OK, essential) that I broke down and bought a set. I didn't pop for an expensive set but instead caught Woodcraft's Wood River brand when it was on sale. What I didn't count on was the fact that while they are not exactly dull when they arrive, they do need a basic sharpening to make them really useful.

The first thing I did was purchase a basic grinder, which is needed to shape the front of the blade. But after asking my friend Jeff Fleisher how to sharpen them properly, he put me on to an article about David Charlesworth's method. Finally, today I drove out to his shop in New Market, Virginia, and he helped me sharpen the first chisel so I could see and experience the process for myself.

The process is fairly straightforward, if a little tedious when doing it for the first time. Charlesworth's method calls for a series of Japanese waterstones. You first flatten the back (flat) side of the chisel to remove all the tooling marks as it comes from the factory. This involves working the back of the chisel up and down and then back and forth on either a 200 grit stone or wet or dry sandpaper laid wet on a sheet of glass. When the factory marks have been removed, only slight scratches from the stone or sandpaper should remain. You then move to a 1200 grit stone that has been wetted and repeat the procedure, working from there to a 4000 grit stone and finally an 8000 grit stone on which a slurry has been made with a nagura stone. By the time this has been done, few if any scratches should remain and the back of the chisel should be both flat and scratch free.

The next step is to work on the beveled side of the chisel blade. Here you turn to the fine wheel on a slow grinder. You mark the beveled edge with a Sharpie, then grind away the marked metal, holding the chisel at precisely 90 degrees to the wheel. When all the marking has been ground away, you should have a slightly concave surface on the bevel.

The final stage is to put a fine edge on the chisel. This is done on the 8000 grit stone using a device that holds the chisel blade at 30 degrees to the stone. Five or six pulls is all that is needed. Then you increase the angle slightly and repeat the process, again five or six times. All that's left now is to check and see if there's a burr on the flat side of the chisel and, if so, remove it by pulling the blade across the stone a few times.

The finished blade should be able to cut the top of your fingernail when gently pushed against it or should be able to shave a piece of soft wood like pine smoothly and cleanly.

So, I now have one sharp chisel. And a lot of work to do to get the rest of them ready for real use. The good news is, once the backs are flattened (the slow part of the process), I should not need to do more than touch up the bevels for a long time to come!

Norm

Preparing to Make Boxes

Today I jointed a sycamore board that I plan to use to make tissue box covers. Because it was 8 1/2 inches wide, I had to take the safety guard off my 6 inch jointer and run it through one end after the other so both sides would be smoothed. Planing it was no problem; my 12 inch planer did a good and quick job on it. When I finished the rough side, I ran the jointed side through one time to remove the groove left by the edge of the blade from the final pass on the jointer.

It was then that I turned my attention to my band saw and discovered that although I need 7 inch stock to resaw for the boxes, my saw will only accommodate 6 inches. So I got on line with Grizzly, the maker of my band saw, and ordered a riser kit for my saw. That will give me 12 inches of resaw capability. Now I'll have to get a new 105 inch saw blade to replace the Wood Slicer resaw blade I've never even used. I hope Highland Woodworking will take an exchange on it.

Norm

A Bad Day in the Shop

Woodworking is fun and most days spent in the shop are rewarding and, usually, successful. This wasn't one of them. It began when I set about removing the dado set from my table saw. After neatly packing it away in its case, I got down several saw blades from their peg on the wall to select the one I wanted to install next. As I moved around the table saw, my loose shirt tail caught the teeth of one of the saw blades and dragged it off onto the floor with a resounding clang. Upon inspection, I saw that one of the teeth had been damaged and there was nothing to do but consign it to the waste can. It was a Forrest Woodworker II blade, my best and most expensive one.

I chalked that one up to experience. Then I moved on to cutting the fences for a miter jig I'm building. The next step called for cutting through the aluminum T-track I'd installed in the maple fences. My table saw, a SawStop, is equipped with a safety system designed to stop the blade if it touches anything conductive, like a finger--its intended purpose--or soft metal, like aluminum. There's a bypass procedure, however, that allows the saw to cut aluminum without triggering the safety system. So, armed with what I thought was the correct information about using the bypass system, I proceeded to cut through the first piece of fence. No sooner than it had touched the first bit of aluminum than I heard a pop and the blade disappeared below the tabletop. After opening the table, I saw the results of my misguided handiwork--the safety device was firmly attached to the now-ruined saw blade. Scratch another blade and chalk it up to . . . experience. The good news is, the safety system works.

Now wiser about the bypass procedure, I installed my remaining saw blade and a replacement safety cartridge I'd had the foresight to purchase. Then I cut the aluminum-studded fences with no trouble. I learned a lot today. But it was a costly set of lessons.

Norm

My Spline Jig

Recently I completed a jig to make cuts for splines in the corners of boxes, such as tissue box covers and jewelry boxes. It's a fairly simple thing, made mostly of 1/2 inch Baltic birch plywood with a cradle that rests at a 45 degree angle to the table saw. I got the plan from Paul Anthony's new book, Table Saws (Taunton). He's also published the same plan in various articles he's written for magazines.

Using it is fairly simple. Once a box has been assembled, I'll clamp a stop block to the jig so the cuts will be made where I want them, then make the cuts, turning the box so that all four corners get identical cuts. I'll use a rip blade to make the cuts so the bottom of each cut is at 90 degrees to the edge. After the cuts have been made, all that remains is to insert splines of a contrasting color into the cuts and trim them off with a chisel, plane and sander.

The completed boxes will be my holiday presents for this year. And, if they turn out well, I may even try to sell some.

Norm

A Trip to the Sawmill

Last Thursday, I was in the vicinity of a sawmill I've been wanting to visit and decided to stop in and check it out. The mill, Herbine Hardwoods, is located near Lucketts, VA, just a few miles north of Leesburg and about an hour from me. It turns out that it is a one-man operation. The owner, Rich Herbine, has a portable sawmill and two kilns behind his house. He features domestic hardwoods that he cuts and dries himself. Of particular interest to me are his quartersawn white oak and, I was surprised to find out, his sycamore. Sycamore isn't usually carried by hardwood suppliers, though it is a common hardwood, at least in Virginia. The problem is, it isn't all that good for fine furniture so it is shunned by most woodworkers. But just look at the figure in this piece, which was among the better boards I bought. When it has been jointed and planed, this will be absolutely beautiful. For smaller projects, like boxes, that don't need much strength, it should do fine. And that is exactly what I intend to use it for. Right now it is resting on the lumber rack, acclimating itself to the humidity of my shop. In another couple of weeks, I'll start working it. I really can't wait to see what it looks like!


Next week, if it doesn't rain, I'll go back for a load of quartersawn white oak for an Arts and Crafts style cabinet I'll be making to hold my photo CDs. I know I'll find what I need there. And, it's a good place to get lumber. Since there is no middleman, Rick is able to underprice the other lumber yards by as much as 30 percent. And that's a good deal!

Norm

Building a Shaker Table

Last weekend, I took a class in furniture making at Woodcraft. The project was to make a small Shaker-style table out of cherry. The instructor was my friend Jeff Fleisher, from whom I had taken a previous class.

We began with rough 4/4 (1 inch) cherry boards that had been run through the jointer one time to help them acclimate to the humidity at which we would be working. We started by deciding which sections of the boards to use and marking them up. Then we cut them to length before running them through the jointer to get one smooth side. After that, we ran our boards through the planer to smooth the second side and reduce the width to 3/4 inch. Finally, we cut our boards to proper width by ripping them on the table saw.

As soon as we could, we glued up three boards side by side to make the table top. We then set these aside to dry overnight.

Next we moved on to the legs. These were made from 8/4 (i.e., 2 inch) boards cut into 2X2 widths. We marked up the ends of the boards so the grain would run at a 45 degree angle so it would approximate being rift sawn. The reason for this is so the grain would run straight along the length of the leg and also to add strength. In some cases, this required us to cut the legs lengthwise on a band saw with the table angled in order to achieve the desired angle of the grain. Once we had one edge cut to the proper angle, we jointed that edge, then rip cut the other edges on the table saw until the legs were square.

The legs are tapered on the two inner edges to give the table a lighter appearance. To taper them, we used a jig that Jeff provided. The jig held the legs at an angle so we could run them through the table saw at the proper angle.

Once all the parts were cut to final dimensions, we moved on to joinery. The method used was mortise and tenon. We used a mortising machine to cut the mortises on two sides of each leg, then cut the tenons on the apron pieces using a dado blade in the table saw. This is only one of several methods of making tenons, but it was easy and worked quite well. I will adopt this method at home, now that I've done it. It makes me wish I hadn't recently purchased a tenoning jig; I'll have to find a way to sell it to get my money back. After cutting the mortises and tenons, we cleaned out rough areas in the mortises with a chisel and trimmed the tenons with Jeff's Veritas shoulder plane until they fit snugly together. Then we sanded the parts and glued the legs to the aprons, completing the table assembly.

Next we turned our attention to the table top. Any unevenness was smoothed off using a scraper. This worked well to get rid of glue squeezeout, but I found it really hard on my arthritic thumbs and I was unable to do as much of it as the project needed. I eventually finished the job at home using a random orbit sander. The final stages of construction were to cut the table top to 18 inches square on the table saw, then by standing it on end using a special tall fence, we cut 2 inch bevels on the bottom of the tabletop which has the effect of making the table appear lighter, a nice effect.

The final step was to sand the top and attach it to the frame, which was done using figure 8 hardware.

We did not have time to put a coat of finish on the table so this will be done at home. I'll use the recommended oil-based sealer, followed up with four to five coats of an oil-urethane top coat. I hope to have the finishing done within the next week.

This was a really nice project. The table is lovely. But more important to me is all the knowledge I gained about furniture construction. I learned a lot, some from doing things right, some from mistakes I won't have to make a second time. Now I feel I'm ready to start designing and building my own furniture. Thanks, Jeff.

Making a Mallet

I had been making jigs to use in woodworking and decided what I really wanted to do was to make something "real." I remembered a simple band saw project in Mark Duginske's Band Saw Book for a wooden mallet. Knowing that I will soon be using my chisels to clean out mortises and the like, I decided a mallet would be a good next project.

I started with some rough soft maple and walnut and jointed and planed them smooth. Then I cut the maple into three short pieces and glued them together in a stack. This became the stock for the head of the mallet. While this was drying, I cut the handle from a larger piece of walnut. I cut the tenon on the walnut on the band saw with no difficulty. Then I cut the handle to shape to fit my hand and ran the whole piece through the router table using a roundover bit to ease the edges.

When the glue had dried on the maple, I cut the stack to final shape on the band saw. Then, I made the mortise on the mortising machine. I cleaned out the mortise with a chisel until the handle tenon fit tightly into the mortise. Finally, I glued the two pieces together. And the project was done! I now have a sturdy and, I think, attractive mallet that should give me good service.

Could I have done anything differently? Definitely. My chisel was not sharp enough and I did a lot of unnecessary work paring out the mortise. I cut the thick stack of maple with a 3/8" band saw blade; a 1/2" blade made for resawing would have cut better, I think. And, I might have improved the looks by sandwiching some walnut in between the maple boards (or vise versa) to create a more patterned look. But, hey, it was all about getting practice with my machines and developing a sense of accomplishment. And that I got.