my tool sharpening system by Alan Wood, author hand-cut-dovetails

My tool sharpening system.
I will now introduce you to my sharpening station. As I said in my profile, I fine tuned my hand tools on a short course with
David Charlesworth.   It was whilst on that course I was introduced to the efficiency of David's sharpening methods. I had never
worked with anything better, so I adopted them.

On returning home from the course I obtained a piece of perfectly flat material that is used in kitchens for the top surface of the
base units. It was around 40mm(1½”) thick and 600mm(24”) square.   I then added some lipping around the edges that protruded
around 6mm(1/4”) to prevent any water or mess spreading.

I purchased some 6mm (1/4”) float glass and secured it to the top with double sided
tape.   This measures 300mm (12”) by 250mm(10”)

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Whilst the water stones are being used they need to be secured firmly or they just roam around the board.

A wooden block with a slope of 1 : 20 and a matching wedge are positioned so that the water stones are pushed against the outer lip
of the sharpening station.

my sharpening station 071

Honing guides
I find that I only require two honing guides for all of my sharpening,
The eclipse honing guide

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The eclipse073

And the Stanley honing guide.

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Diamond stones.
I own a couple of small diamond stones that I use to remove sharp edges on a tool that would be otherwise dangerous to use.

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Kitchen towel.
another important element of the sharpening station is paper kitchen towel, to clean the tools and the sharpening station.

The water stones are kept in a seed tray half full of water. They are supported on two pieces of timber the full width of the tray.
In this way the water stones will not be laying in a bed of slurry.

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And I use another seed tray for cleaning the 8000 grit stone after it has been flattened, and for cleaning the part of the wet and dry
that has been used to flatten it. This will be explained under the topic water stone maintenance.

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And a bucket of water is situated adjacent to the sharpening station for cleaning the part of the wet and dry used to flatten the 800
and 1200 grit stones. Using this prevents the 8000 grit stone being contaminated. I also have another bin on the floor for the
waste paper towel.

I also use an adjustable lamp, an essential aid in checking the edge of blades.

Tormek water cooled grindstone
Many years ago now when I was looking for advise when buying a sharpening system, I read an article by David Savage, another
leading cabinet maker in this country. He recommended a Tormek water cooled grindstone. For me, this is a near perfect
system. Unfortunately, it does not come with a jig for grinding the small Japanese chisels that I use. Having said that, Rob
Stoakley wrote an article in the Furniture and Cabinet making magazine,about a jig that he had designed for that purpose. I will
cover this in detail some time in the future.

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Chisel/knife tidy
Having spent so much time getting the knife or chisel ready for fine cabinet making, I wanted an efficient method of protecting the
sharp edges. A piece of scrap wood 25mm(1”) square with 9mm(3/8”) slots was my solution. I have a few of these. Some that
are only used by the sharpening station, and those used on my workbench.

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