This is going to be the last sharpening video I watch. I fell down the hole of sharpening videos a few days ago and got sucked in. After trying messy water stones and all kinds of jigs I ordered a two sided diamond stone and have a strop and am going to call it good. Crazy how there seems to be a whole cult behind tool sharpening, but I'm really not into that, I just want the tool to work and this all makes the most sense. Thanks Shawn for saving me from anymore sharpening videos ! Cheers... ;-)
Been watching this guy for 4 yrs and today i finally subscribed...You cannot be this good at lying and faking it must be who you genuinely are and that is ok with me. Just be who you are and only that.
A spinning mdf wheel with polishing compound has been the best for me..sharpen anything crazy sharp very fast and easy. No need for going through grits. From file to polished just on wheel.
Top notch videos lately. Sharpening got overwhelming at first but some one showed me to keep it simple, I started using a norton 2 sided oil stone and a strop and it works perfectly for me.
I like the strop as well, but it is easy to round the edge over. Yeah, been through that. I have three diamond plates, the coarse one is for grinding away nicks. I'll get a grinder, or build one... I did not have a power outlet in my basement compartment, so no only alcohol powered tools (moved house since, so now the grinder is an option)
Hello, Mr. Graham; Thank you for this. I just got my 1st spokeshave, it needed to be sharpened before the first use. So your guidance was very useful to overcome my inexperience w/ this tool. I used "Krud Kutter", diluted to 1-10, as a lube on my cheap 'diamond' plates. I got it sharp enough for the 1st time, I'll refine it later. Yeap, "lazy sharpening" is OK. I've used a number of ways of sharpening. Automotive wet/dry sand paper works really well, it's kinda' messy tho. I've used WD40 to lube the paper & to 'stick' the paper to glass. Sand paper works great on axes & hatchets, too, as well a knives & chisels. I have some 'water' stones but I seldom use them. Cheap 'diamond' sharpeners are easy & fast, & 'lazy' may not be the 'correct' term but it sure is helpful to 'get 'er done'. Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
Excellent video. I use to be into wood carving. When my chisels were new, it was great. After being sharpened many times and losing the hollow grind, sharpening became a headache and I stopped carving because dull tools make it far harder to get the results you want.
Best quote,” You can’t see sharp”. I have found that in most things in life there are 100 ways. 90 are down right bad. The other 10 are a balance of cheap, fast and good; pick two. Setting up a blade is important and should be done with care. Maintaining an edge is about understanding what’s important. Two surfaces coming together very well. A super sharp blade will be a great blade within 15 or so passes over the wood. The blade will stay great for about 200 passes then it needs sharpened. I have no idea how many sharpenings it takes to need a reset. Thanks for teaching efficiency … err laziness. Much appreciated.
My sharpening method is cheap, fast and good. So I scored a hat trick there. Now it did take me a lot of time, money and effort to get to where I'm at now though. But that's all water under the bridge today.
@@lincolndickerson1293 I hollow grind on my homemade bench grinder and hone on a Chinese diamond plate with a Chinese Eclipse knock off jig. So I have less than $20 into my whole system that I use. But it is cheap because I scrounged up the grinder. To go out and buy a grinder new today would cost a fair bit. I have at least 7 bench grinders and I never bought any of them new. The grinder I'm hollow grinding on now the only thing I bought for it was welding rods. Well, I bought a whole milk crate of grinding wheels at a flea market too. When you have a lot of bench grinders you don't pass up on milk crates of grinding wheels when they show up. It was the end of the day and the guy took $10 for the whole crate. He didn't want to load it back up into his truck. He told me he got them on a clean out job.
@@1pcfred makes sense. I have a craftsman grinder I bought in the 80s. One side wire brush. Since this is a hobbie and currently I am enjoying no power equipment using a few small cheap amazon diamond stones and a strop is less than a minute out and back into my plane. This is so much fun and there are so many ways to personalize the fun.
@@lincolndickerson1293 that's pretty speedy. Even just taking a few strokes to hone up it'll take me longer to get an iron out of a plane, sharpened and back in. Sharpening isn't woodworking, it is metalworking. You really don't have to hollow grind very often either. Just when the secondary bevel gets excessively large and is taking longer to hone. That could be more than a dozen sharpenings between grindings. It's not something you'd be doing every day.
Thank you! I like how you say it doesn't matter to the tool how sharp it is. I agree. My "lazy" way of sharpening works for me, and it even "lazier" than the way you do it. I'm just a part-time hobbiest, so as long as the tool cuts reasonably well and doesn't cause damage, it's OK by me.
I tried all kinds of sharpening systems but nowadays my "lazy" way is to use my cheap 1x30 belt grinder for everything. It is the only tool with which I'm able to sharpen by eye and the simple reason is that I can see the bevel while sharpening and not have to feel or find the bevel. Even my fancy swept-back-fingernail-bowl-gauge is now so easy to sharpen that it's almost fun to do. I'm using a worn 100 grit belt and present my tools tip facing downwards or if the tool has a straight edge, I lay the tool on the side so the bevel is vertical. Every few seconds I dip the tool in water to keep it cool and after two to three dips I'm done and my tools are sharp like never before. When I need extra sharpness, I turn the tool around so the tip is facing upwards and very lightly ride the bevel along the part of the sanding belt where there is no platten behind it. In case I need to alter the shape of a tool, I switch to a fresh 40 grit belt and go to town.
I have a harbor freight 1x30 belt sander, got rid of the table and added a knife bevel jig. It's the fastest, easiest way to sharpen my chisels and turning tools. The silicone carbide belts last a long time and thanks to Amazon, are pretty damn cheap. I keep a 600 grit belt on it and just a few seconds to sharpen just about everything. Downside: it's louder than a Slayer concert lol.
Hi Shawn, dig your videos and teaching style. Watched one of your tips videos awhile back about hand planing the edge of a piece of wood and pointing your index finger, that really helped me, thank you. I’m going to try freehand hand sharpening after watching this video which I found entertaining and inspiring 😃
Good video and reaching the same conclusion that I have been coming to after getting into turning. When I was doing flatwork, I obsessed with sharpening to get that mirror edge. Like you, I went through the scary-sharp sandpaper phase, got some diamond stones, then got a good complement of Shapton waterstones and later a sharpening system that was supposed to make it "easy" and "fast" to sharpen anything. I'm now realizing that this is a huge time sink and, even with jigs, the waterstones were taking huge amounts of time because even though one started out flat, during the sharpening process, each stone developed its own shape that then had to be taken out at the next grit stone. I'm approaching the point of just going with hollow grind on the CBN wheels and calling it good.
Great stuff as always. Love these “basic” videos lately. But most importantly leaving a comment to help with the algorithm, cause you are truly a great teacher, I’ve learned so much from you (it’s all about the grain), and you deserve to be able to reach more people.
That's a great point! I leave comments to feed the algorithm and sometimes for actual feedback. Hadn't occurred to me that, what you said, that feeding the algorithm results in reaching more people. Thanks.
Everyone else I watch says to remove that bur between grits though if that's not necessary, I won't be doing it anymore. I'll save that step for the strop.
LQ! Laziness Quotient! Yes! Get high scores in that category. Most often for me "laziness" isn't related to not wanting to take TIME, but has to do with, uh... shifting gears in my brain. That's what's tough for me.
Thanks for the video. My slightly lazier way to set up the iron was to have the offset of the wood holding the diamond stones set for the angle I wanted.
Silicone Carbide and the Carborundum/India stones by Norton was my only stones until a couple of years ago. I find them to be very good stones. I have good diamond stones now though. Flattening the back on chisels is hard work, the bevel is easy!
I think this is the first time I have ever disagreed with something you said: I'll take McNuggets over a hamburger and a happy meal any day of the week...but only if those are my ONLY options. Of course, I would take unseasoned rice over McDonalds most days. But as far as sharpening goes: I sucked at sharpening until I started doing a similar "lazy" sharpening. I think I just spent so much time sharpening that I would lose my angle (or the jig would slip) and start rounding my edge. It didn't matter how much time I spent, nothing was sharp, and as a power tool woodworker, I just further justified my power tools. Last year, I found an incredibly cheap set of diamond stone, figured if nothing else I could always touch up my skew with them. I found a sharpening method so close to this as to be interchangeable, and my cheap, budget chisels are amazing, and my knockoff, yardsale planes are good enough to do something other than piss me off.
An excellent video as always. Who would have thought that the key to easy, efficient and consistent sharpening technique, was ‘pizza anchorage’. I will be working on that. Keep up the good work.
Hey Shawn, I wanted to mention that it wouldn’t harm to adjust your mic settings, because you are overloading your mic quite often. Just a little bit less volume would fix this. I guess your mic is too sensitive for how loud you talk and therefore can’t handle it. Have a great day!
Fantastic, being able to teach something that is a rabbit hole of complexity and info into something simple and accessible is a skill, you nailed brother!
I free hand often, but then I gotta touch up the off angles with a jig. So I usually do some light stuff free hand, but for heavier stuff I go to the jig
Talking about the cost of diamond stones being much lower than they used to be, I just checked Amazon. A 5-piece set of approximately 2.5x6 inch Jewboer Diamond stones ranging from 400 to 1200 grit is currently $18.89. Wish I had seen that before I bought my 3-piece set of DMT Diamond stones for about $90 2 or 3 years ago. As for the method not mattering so long you obtain the desired result... DARN RIGHT! And the quicker we can get the more... undesirable tasks out of the way, the more enjoyment we will get out of the craft. Who cares how you get it done so long as the result is right.
Thanks for these videos and the willingness to teach us. I have a question. Which diamond stones do you recommend? There are so many to choose from and I want to get this right.
I stick with the name brand that has been around a while with good reputation. Pay more but it's piece of mind and in long run difference isn't much. And that from a poor guy. DMT
I'm even lazier. I don't even use my 4000/8000 anymore, I go straight from1000 diamond stone to the strop. The guide only comes out if I have a damaged edge and need to reset the primary bevel.
I grind primary bevels on a bench grinder. Skip doing that nonsense by hand. That secondary gets too wide it gets ground down again. I'm up for doing a bit of hand honing but I got my limits.
Thanks Shawn. Love your woodworking and teaching philosophy! What would be the lazy way of sharpening an extremely rounded plane iron such as the Veritas scrub plane?
I've found sharpening frequency is more important than "perfect" sharpening technique. What do you think of sharpening, where you hold the tool still and move the stone on it with your primary hand. I've found this easier for many situations including axes, drawknives, chisels, etc, especially when away from the workshop, sitting on a log.
Hello boss I bet you the way you move your hand you can play the violin same thing with a violent we know you have to keep your elbow and shoulder the same position
I don´t find oil stones messy. I just need a thin film. Most oil stones are also quite hard, so I don´t have to constantly flatten them. I was always happy with my oil stones. I don´t need a mirror finish on the cutting edge of a chisel when I´m gonna pound it with a heavy mallet to chop a mortise, so the standard two sided Norton oil stone is good enough. No need for 4 or 5 different grits. It rarely makes a difference when you go to finer grits than that. Then the diamond plates became affordable and in recent years they became dirt cheap. I bought a set of 6 diamond plates for 20€. I just use the 200, 600 and 2000 grit and for the last year I´ve ground almost everything with them. So far they´re not worn out yet. My DMT plates cut a bit quicker, they´re most certainly flatter and I expect them to last longer but the cheap chinese ones do the job. I don´t use jigs. It doesn´t matter if I´m 2 or 3 degrees off.
For me using a honing guide is just easier. Easy is the lazy man's way. I used to sharpen freehand. It's too much work. I ain't locking nothing no more. The jig keeps locked for me. Plus I love the results the jig gets me. A jig's consistent. It doesn't have good and bad days.
How long does the 8000 grit last vs 600? It seems that after 5 passes on the wood you are probably down to 400 anyway. And is 8k THAT much easier to use?
I have 3 stones that look like bananas, one is old, and the other two are only 5 years old or so. They where out quick. But paper is nice but it doesn't last for nothin. And diamond is amazing. Lasts so long and long and you only "pull" and don't "push" the cutting edge. It will take the diamond layer off in a hurry, even the best of them. Ask me how I know ... But some good diamond plates in medium, fine, and super or extra fine, with a 1"x30" belt sander with a 1"x30" leather belt that you can get for 10 bucks on Amazon for your strop, or even just your classic board with the leather glued on. That's the killer combo
Personally, I'm not convinced that free hand sharpening is faster than using a honing guide. Maybe after 20 or so years of practise, but most people I see free hand sharpening take several attempts at it before they're happy, and they're constantly adjusting the angle steeper and steeper. In reality, it takes very little time to setup a honing guide and you get the result spot on first time with very few strokes. ... granted you need a good quality honing guide that is accurately repeatable.
im actually lazy even with my honing guide, i tell myself 1inch / 1.5inch / 2inch are close enough to the 25deg / 30deg projections (three measurements since theres two clamping positions) that i use my combo or double square as the jig
I free hand sharpen with a pneumatic bandfile. Sometimes they are a bit too sharp and they cut easier after they dull a little. I think that means I am not sharpening on the correct angle?
There's no such thing as too sharp. There's no valid argument for anything besides 30° for woodworking tools either. Least there isn't a reason to go any shallower than that.
@@wortheffort Steel is cheaper than the effort it took to get the wood on the lathe. Lesson learned. Secondary realization that my issue was the bur left from sharpening. I have a strop now.
I had a hard time learning to sharpen in the beginning. Used Rob Cosman's set up first, went to the Veritas jigs second then finally learned Paul sellers technique for the concave bevel. Looking forward to trying your method. I agree about the diamond stones but since I have a bunch of Shapton's they get the nod for now. Down the road it will be all diamonds with a few choice Shaptons for sharpening.
How does Paul Seller's method create a concave bevel? I hollow grind on a bench grinder. That gets me a concave bevel. Then the secondary is an inclined plane.
@@Win52D convex and cambered are two different things. A plane iron can be both. What you have to understand is Sellers is advancing a philosophy. He's a radical minimalist. Not everything he does is practical. Yes you can sharpen things how he does. But there's better ways to sharpen. Those ways do take a bit more kit though. Namely a honing jig and a bench grinder. I had to laugh when Sellers was cambering a scrub plane iron and even he had to resort to using a hand cranked grinder. So that proves what he's doing isn't realistic. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
The question is whether a hollow grind is needed. Lots of other woodworkers (who earn their money with it, like Paul Sellers, Richard Maguire and others) don't seem to need it. I can live without a bench grinder, it would be nice to fix the occasional nick though - but a coarse stone does the job as well, just takes a moment longer. For a hobbyist that's OK. It would also be nice for restoring old planes (but how often do I do that?).
Nothing wrong with being lazy - if the sharpening is made easier, then we will sharpen the tools more effectively and also do it more often instead of working with dull blades.
Almost got me working hard on sharpening. Not joining the cult. I'm just going to keep my blades ruined and sharp on one side the burn all the bad chisel lines and call it rustic chiq.
Whose definition of lazy are we using? I feel like it could be easily argued that using a jig is the lazy way. If we learn to sharpen by hand, we're putting in effort and building our skills. It takes time and dedication. If we use a jig, we're relying on the skill of the jig's engineer, and we're just sliding our hands back and forth like any old ape can do. No effort needed. No skill gained. No dedication required. It's worth the effort to learn to hand sharpen, and I wouldn't call it lazy at all. It's certainly the harder of the two options to master. Just because it's more efficient (once you pass the learning curve) doesn't mean its the lazy path. Jigs are ok, but mine has sat useless in a drawer since I realized I could sharpen in half the time or less if I just sat down and learned the hard skill.
What do you need 400 grit for? I hone on 1,000 and that's it. I'm never looking to remove a lot of material honing. I grind the primary bevel on my tools.
Depends on your setup. I had no power in my basement compartment, thus no grinder. Keeping the bulk of the material in check (primary bevel, if you use guides, otherwise you will likely get a convex shape anyway, just how the body works) makes a lot of sense then. Do you need it every time? No. Do you want to think about how often you have sharpened already and need to go back to the coarse stone? No, at least I don't. Using coarse - fine - strop every time is lazy and also removes the need for a grinder (until you nick the blade on a knot). The additional stone takes about 20 seconds more. Oh, and a moderate sum of money. But in the end: is it a process you can live with, that is, is it simple enough you do it often enough so stuff stays sharp? And only the person doing it can answer that. You love your process, I like mine, our tools are sharp (enough), let's build something.
You can certainly sharpen freehand. But the question remains, is it the best way? For me the answer is no. I get much better results far easier and faster using a jig. The jig I use wasn't expensive either. It's not the best one available but it suits me. I suppose you could even make a jig. You could just use an angled block of wood. Even that would help maintain an angle. Instead of trying to rock on a little bevel on a tool. Or just thinking you're going to push so perfectly flat and straight you're going to maintain an angle with your muscles. Yeah in your dreams. You probably can't even draw a straight line freehand. But somehow you're going to manage to do it floating in the air over a hone stone. Mmm hmm. Sure you are.
@@1pcfred it takes minimal time and effort to learn freehand sharpening. It took a single attempt for me to get a blade sharp enough to do work (however long it took), and a few more sharpenings to get proficient. Let me put it this way: hand sharpening is easy enough that every single person who ever sharpened anything made of metal over the course of approximately six and a half thousand years managed to do it well enough that they successfully fed their families, defended their lands, and spawned every subsequent human. Without all of those people mastering the skill of rubbing a hunk of metal on something well enough to make it sharp, almost nothing you see in the modern world would exist, including the jigs you personally rely on for sharpening. It really isn't the impossible dark magic you're making it out to be. It just takes effort, a little time, and attention to detail. Also, if I might give advice, stop trying to balance on the bevel if you attempt another go at it. Just make the bevel cambered and be done with it. It's so much faster and easier.
@@MortimerSugarloaf I freehand sharpened for 50 years. It works. A jig works better. Simple as that. With a jig I can get an edge that looks like it came out of the razor blade factory. It's absolutely perfect. I'm not willing to accept anything less. Because I don't have to. Furthermore I don't want to!
Love this subject because no matter where you are around the globe or which f.b group you are in it's an arguable subject...and for people who don't have experience and ask questions I am giving my advice with my experience insights because I had my way of getting to the point I am now and other had they're ways and there isn't a wrong one if you are learning from it and know how to sharp your tools. What I don't like is all "noise" of a lot of UA-cam channels and f.b advices that there is only one why or in order to have the best edge on tools you should buy this expensive or special jig or buy this high brand and all the commercials around this subject because great deal of them are making no good and misleading new people to woodworking. So my advice on short notes: buy simple honing jig and start with good quality sand paper and flat working surface ( it can be a tile or glass), and after you will learn how to sharp you will understand what is good for you. High expensive honing jigs can get you good results but won't make you a better sharpener and with a simple one you can have good enough results and save a lot of money. Next you have got all the stones range try a few ... And in the future you will come up with the setup that suits you!!
This is going to be the last sharpening video I watch. I fell down the hole of sharpening videos a few days ago and got sucked in. After trying messy water stones and all kinds of jigs I ordered a two sided diamond stone and have a strop and am going to call it good. Crazy how there seems to be a whole cult behind tool sharpening, but I'm really not into that, I just want the tool to work and this all makes the most sense. Thanks Shawn for saving me from anymore sharpening videos ! Cheers... ;-)
Been watching this guy for 4 yrs and today i finally subscribed...You cannot be this good at lying and faking it must be who you genuinely are and that is ok with me. Just be who you are and only that.
A spinning mdf wheel with polishing compound has been the best for me..sharpen anything crazy sharp very fast and easy. No need for going through grits. From file to polished just on wheel.
My dad used to say a very lazy guy invented the wheelbarrow. Appreciate the down to earth approach.
LOVING THE NEW CONTENT. FUNNY AND INFORMATIVE. WELL DONE.
Top notch videos lately.
Sharpening got overwhelming at first but some one showed me to keep it simple, I started using a norton 2 sided oil stone and a strop and it works perfectly for me.
I like the strop as well, but it is easy to round the edge over. Yeah, been through that. I have three diamond plates, the coarse one is for grinding away nicks. I'll get a grinder, or build one... I did not have a power outlet in my basement compartment, so no only alcohol powered tools (moved house since, so now the grinder is an option)
Hello, Mr. Graham;
Thank you for this.
I just got my 1st spokeshave, it needed to be sharpened before the first use.
So your guidance was very useful to overcome my inexperience w/ this tool.
I used "Krud Kutter", diluted to 1-10, as a lube on my cheap 'diamond' plates.
I got it sharp enough for the 1st time, I'll refine it later.
Yeap, "lazy sharpening" is OK.
I've used a number of ways of sharpening.
Automotive wet/dry sand paper works really well, it's kinda' messy tho.
I've used WD40 to lube the paper & to 'stick' the paper to glass.
Sand paper works great on axes & hatchets, too, as well a knives & chisels.
I have some 'water' stones but I seldom use them.
Cheap 'diamond' sharpeners are easy & fast, & 'lazy' may not be the 'correct' term but it sure is helpful to 'get 'er done'.
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
Excellent video. I use to be into wood carving. When my chisels were new, it was great. After being sharpened many times and losing the hollow grind, sharpening became a headache and I stopped carving because dull tools make it far harder to get the results you want.
Congratulations on 200k! The extra push of all these recent videos is gonna keep it going.
Best quote,” You can’t see sharp”. I have found that in most things in life there are 100 ways. 90 are down right bad. The other 10 are a balance of cheap, fast and good; pick two.
Setting up a blade is important and should be done with care. Maintaining an edge is about understanding what’s important. Two surfaces coming together very well. A super sharp blade will be a great blade within 15 or so passes over the wood. The blade will stay great for about 200 passes then it needs sharpened. I have no idea how many sharpenings it takes to need a reset.
Thanks for teaching efficiency … err laziness. Much appreciated.
My sharpening method is cheap, fast and good. So I scored a hat trick there. Now it did take me a lot of time, money and effort to get to where I'm at now though. But that's all water under the bridge today.
Paul what is your cheap, fast and good method?
@@lincolndickerson1293 I hollow grind on my homemade bench grinder and hone on a Chinese diamond plate with a Chinese Eclipse knock off jig. So I have less than $20 into my whole system that I use. But it is cheap because I scrounged up the grinder. To go out and buy a grinder new today would cost a fair bit. I have at least 7 bench grinders and I never bought any of them new. The grinder I'm hollow grinding on now the only thing I bought for it was welding rods. Well, I bought a whole milk crate of grinding wheels at a flea market too. When you have a lot of bench grinders you don't pass up on milk crates of grinding wheels when they show up. It was the end of the day and the guy took $10 for the whole crate. He didn't want to load it back up into his truck. He told me he got them on a clean out job.
@@1pcfred makes sense. I have a craftsman grinder I bought in the 80s. One side wire brush. Since this is a hobbie and currently I am enjoying no power equipment using a few small cheap amazon diamond stones and a strop is less than a minute out and back into my plane. This is so much fun and there are so many ways to personalize the fun.
@@lincolndickerson1293 that's pretty speedy. Even just taking a few strokes to hone up it'll take me longer to get an iron out of a plane, sharpened and back in. Sharpening isn't woodworking, it is metalworking. You really don't have to hollow grind very often either. Just when the secondary bevel gets excessively large and is taking longer to hone. That could be more than a dozen sharpenings between grindings. It's not something you'd be doing every day.
Thank you! I like how you say it doesn't matter to the tool how sharp it is. I agree. My "lazy" way of sharpening works for me, and it even "lazier" than the way you do it. I'm just a part-time hobbiest, so as long as the tool cuts reasonably well and doesn't cause damage, it's OK by me.
Ya make me smile Shawn, and thanks for teaching this old dog new tricks.
I tried all kinds of sharpening systems but nowadays my "lazy" way is to use my cheap 1x30 belt grinder for everything. It is the only tool with which I'm able to sharpen by eye and the simple reason is that I can see the bevel while sharpening and not have to feel or find the bevel. Even my fancy swept-back-fingernail-bowl-gauge is now so easy to sharpen that it's almost fun to do. I'm using a worn 100 grit belt and present my tools tip facing downwards or if the tool has a straight edge, I lay the tool on the side so the bevel is vertical. Every few seconds I dip the tool in water to keep it cool and after two to three dips I'm done and my tools are sharp like never before. When I need extra sharpness, I turn the tool around so the tip is facing upwards and very lightly ride the bevel along the part of the sanding belt where there is no platten behind it. In case I need to alter the shape of a tool, I switch to a fresh 40 grit belt and go to town.
I have a harbor freight 1x30 belt sander, got rid of the table and added a knife bevel jig. It's the fastest, easiest way to sharpen my chisels and turning tools. The silicone carbide belts last a long time and thanks to Amazon, are pretty damn cheap. I keep a 600 grit belt on it and just a few seconds to sharpen just about everything. Downside: it's louder than a Slayer concert lol.
Hi Shawn, dig your videos and teaching style. Watched one of your tips videos awhile back about hand planing the edge of a piece of wood and pointing your index finger, that really helped me, thank you. I’m going to try freehand hand sharpening after watching this video which I found entertaining and inspiring 😃
Good video and reaching the same conclusion that I have been coming to after getting into turning. When I was doing flatwork, I obsessed with sharpening to get that mirror edge. Like you, I went through the scary-sharp sandpaper phase, got some diamond stones, then got a good complement of Shapton waterstones and later a sharpening system that was supposed to make it "easy" and "fast" to sharpen anything. I'm now realizing that this is a huge time sink and, even with jigs, the waterstones were taking huge amounts of time because even though one started out flat, during the sharpening process, each stone developed its own shape that then had to be taken out at the next grit stone. I'm approaching the point of just going with hollow grind on the CBN wheels and calling it good.
Thanks for a review of the basics and sharing your thoughts on the methods. Thank you!
Great stuff as always. Love these “basic” videos lately.
But most importantly leaving a comment to help with the algorithm, cause you are truly a great teacher, I’ve learned so much from you (it’s all about the grain), and you deserve to be able to reach more people.
That's a great point! I leave comments to feed the algorithm and sometimes for actual feedback. Hadn't occurred to me that, what you said, that feeding the algorithm results in reaching more people. Thanks.
I never understood "feel for the burr" after each grit without having to remove the burr each time, until now. Thank you, great videos.
Everyone else I watch says to remove that bur between grits though if that's not necessary, I won't be doing it anymore. I'll save that step for the strop.
Your content has really been useful and fun lately
Great lesson Shawn.
LQ! Laziness Quotient! Yes! Get high scores in that category. Most often for me "laziness" isn't related to not wanting to take TIME, but has to do with, uh... shifting gears in my brain. That's what's tough for me.
Love it! You're one of the most entertaining and informative woodworkers on UA-cam!
Thanks for the video. My slightly lazier way to set up the iron was to have the offset of the wood holding the diamond stones set for the angle I wanted.
Between your video and the new Lost Art Press book Sharpen This, sharpening really has been de-mystified! Thanks Shawn!
Thanks man. Great content. More basic woodworking vids are always useful for the new and experienced woodworkers.
You're like a 7th degree Black Belt in laziness, I aspire to reach that level one day lol
You have been an amazing inspiration and a teacher. Thank you for all your kindness and sharing your very practical, no fuss guidance
Sean, Another great and very informative video. Hopefully, new and old woodworkers get something from this. Thanks
Silicone Carbide and the Carborundum/India stones by Norton was my only stones until a couple of years ago. I find them to be very good stones. I have good diamond stones now though. Flattening the back on chisels is hard work, the bevel is easy!
I think this is the first time I have ever disagreed with something you said: I'll take McNuggets over a hamburger and a happy meal any day of the week...but only if those are my ONLY options. Of course, I would take unseasoned rice over McDonalds most days.
But as far as sharpening goes: I sucked at sharpening until I started doing a similar "lazy" sharpening. I think I just spent so much time sharpening that I would lose my angle (or the jig would slip) and start rounding my edge. It didn't matter how much time I spent, nothing was sharp, and as a power tool woodworker, I just further justified my power tools. Last year, I found an incredibly cheap set of diamond stone, figured if nothing else I could always touch up my skew with them. I found a sharpening method so close to this as to be interchangeable, and my cheap, budget chisels are amazing, and my knockoff, yardsale planes are good enough to do something other than piss me off.
Even though I never really do anything myself, I really do love this videos
An excellent video as always. Who would have thought that the key to easy, efficient and consistent sharpening technique, was ‘pizza anchorage’. I will be working on that. Keep up the good work.
You're moving so much on this video is making too tired to sharpen today. It's a lazy hazy day here in Pa. 😂 Seriously great info thanks
Nice video, great share, fun. Cheers.
Hey Shawn, I wanted to mention that it wouldn’t harm to adjust your mic settings, because you are overloading your mic quite often. Just a little bit less volume would fix this. I guess your mic is too sensitive for how loud you talk and therefore can’t handle it. Have a great day!
Usually the quality is better, I think... (but yes, it got on my nerves a bit as well). Still, content is king (and this one, ehm, rules).
Thanks man... great technique...
Fantastic, being able to teach something that is a rabbit hole of complexity and info into something simple and accessible is a skill, you nailed brother!
Thanks Shawn!
Well done young man
Great vid! Thank you, Sir!
I free hand often, but then I gotta touch up the off angles with a jig. So I usually do some light stuff free hand, but for heavier stuff I go to the jig
So true. Don't stress! 👌
👍What a great guide from one lazy-normative person. You should escalate your laziness to skipping supper. I will use your tricks.
you're rude.
Laziness quotient! Love the idea. Mine is high!
I like your teaching style😅
I would love to see some lazy lathe tool sharpening tips.
The audio is clipping a little bit. Just FYI. Thank you for the video. It is very good!
Dunno what that means. I'm woodworker. Not a very good AV/editor.
@@wortheffort I think the mic recording volume was set too high. So the audio distorts a little bit sometimes.
Talking about the cost of diamond stones being much lower than they used to be, I just checked Amazon. A 5-piece set of approximately 2.5x6 inch Jewboer Diamond stones ranging from 400 to 1200 grit is currently $18.89. Wish I had seen that before I bought my 3-piece set of DMT Diamond stones for about $90 2 or 3 years ago.
As for the method not mattering so long you obtain the desired result... DARN RIGHT! And the quicker we can get the more... undesirable tasks out of the way, the more enjoyment we will get out of the craft. Who cares how you get it done so long as the result is right.
Great video mate. 4 out of 5 stars. I had to remove a star because your shirt could do with ironing. 😁👍
Thanks for these videos and the willingness to teach us. I have a question. Which diamond stones do you recommend? There are so many to choose from and I want to get this right.
I stick with the name brand that has been around a while with good reputation. Pay more but it's piece of mind and in long run difference isn't much. And that from a poor guy. DMT
I'm even lazier. I don't even use my 4000/8000 anymore, I go straight from1000 diamond stone to the strop. The guide only comes out if I have a damaged edge and need to reset the primary bevel.
I grind primary bevels on a bench grinder. Skip doing that nonsense by hand. That secondary gets too wide it gets ground down again. I'm up for doing a bit of hand honing but I got my limits.
thanks....GREAT points
Thanks Shawn. Love your woodworking and teaching philosophy! What would be the lazy way of sharpening an extremely rounded plane iron such as the Veritas scrub plane?
Get after it.
I've found sharpening frequency is more important than "perfect" sharpening technique.
What do you think of sharpening, where you hold the tool still and move the stone on it with your primary hand. I've found this easier for many situations including axes, drawknives, chisels, etc, especially when away from the workshop, sitting on a log.
That's how I hone turning tools.
Hello boss I bet you the way you move your hand you can play the violin same thing with a violent we know you have to keep your elbow and shoulder the same position
Played from elementary thru Middle School.
Thank You
I don´t find oil stones messy. I just need a thin film. Most oil stones are also quite hard, so I don´t have to constantly flatten them. I was always happy with my oil stones. I don´t need a mirror finish on the cutting edge of a chisel when I´m gonna pound it with a heavy mallet to chop a mortise, so the standard two sided Norton oil stone is good enough. No need for 4 or 5 different grits. It rarely makes a difference when you go to finer grits than that.
Then the diamond plates became affordable and in recent years they became dirt cheap. I bought a set of 6 diamond plates for 20€. I just use the 200, 600 and 2000 grit and for the last year I´ve ground almost everything with them. So far they´re not worn out yet. My DMT plates cut a bit quicker, they´re most certainly flatter and I expect them to last longer but the cheap chinese ones do the job. I don´t use jigs. It doesn´t matter if I´m 2 or 3 degrees off.
For me using a honing guide is just easier. Easy is the lazy man's way. I used to sharpen freehand. It's too much work. I ain't locking nothing no more. The jig keeps locked for me. Plus I love the results the jig gets me. A jig's consistent. It doesn't have good and bad days.
what brand of diamond stones do you use?
Thanks Shawn, what's the lazy man approach for spokeshave blades where there is not enough metal to lock in the angle using your wrist
Pressure on the bevel and hand. IRL it’s easy. Lazy sharpeners don’t overthink it.
Excellent content, but you gotta get your audio levels under control.
How long does the 8000 grit last vs 600? It seems that after 5 passes on the wood you are probably down to 400 anyway. And is 8k THAT much easier to use?
I have 3 stones that look like bananas, one is old, and the other two are only 5 years old or so. They where out quick. But paper is nice but it doesn't last for nothin. And diamond is amazing. Lasts so long and long and you only "pull" and don't "push" the cutting edge. It will take the diamond layer off in a hurry, even the best of them. Ask me how I know ... But some good diamond plates in medium, fine, and super or extra fine, with a 1"x30" belt sander with a 1"x30" leather belt that you can get for 10 bucks on Amazon for your strop, or even just your classic board with the leather glued on. That's the killer combo
If you have three stones you can make them flat rubbing them together. That's how the Greeks made flat tools and mirrors.
@@wortheffort o I know, I have stones I take care of, those ones just got out of hand and I just left them to get terrible lol
Rubbing alcohol on diamond plates. Orange oil on oil stones. Stropping makes a big difference on paring chisels.
Personally, I'm not convinced that free hand sharpening is faster than using a honing guide. Maybe after 20 or so years of practise, but most people I see free hand sharpening take several attempts at it before they're happy, and they're constantly adjusting the angle steeper and steeper. In reality, it takes very little time to setup a honing guide and you get the result spot on first time with very few strokes. ... granted you need a good quality honing guide that is accurately repeatable.
im actually lazy even with my honing guide, i tell myself 1inch / 1.5inch / 2inch are close enough to the 25deg / 30deg projections (three measurements since theres two clamping positions) that i use my combo or double square as the jig
How do you like your Veritas chisels? Are yours the PM-V11?
I'll fight anyone that says they aren't the greatest in the world.
I free hand sharpen with a pneumatic bandfile. Sometimes they are a bit too sharp and they cut easier after they dull a little. I think that means I am not sharpening on the correct angle?
Try a different angle then. Steel is cheap. Can always be reset.
There's no such thing as too sharp. There's no valid argument for anything besides 30° for woodworking tools either. Least there isn't a reason to go any shallower than that.
@@1pcfred Ya, don't say that at a woodcarving convention.
@@wortheffort everyone has their opinion.
@@wortheffort Steel is cheaper than the effort it took to get the wood on the lathe. Lesson learned.
Secondary realization that my issue was the bur left from sharpening. I have a strop now.
Old Patternmakers trick grind and then buffer with compond razor sharp
Very good points, but it all became clear once you addressed the mcnuggets vs. hamburger argument. was like, that's it.
and C water stones and winter do not mix
Have you considered trying your hand at stand-up comedy? Your personality lends its self to humor.
HAIL NO!
I had a hard time learning to sharpen in the beginning. Used Rob Cosman's set up first, went to the Veritas jigs second then finally learned Paul sellers technique for the concave bevel. Looking forward to trying your method. I agree about the diamond stones but since I have a bunch of Shapton's they get the nod for now. Down the road it will be all diamonds with a few choice Shaptons for sharpening.
Shaptons are good. Use 'em up.
How does Paul Seller's method create a concave bevel? I hollow grind on a bench grinder. That gets me a concave bevel. Then the secondary is an inclined plane.
@@1pcfred Well crap, my apologies. I meant to write convex (or cambered as he puts it). Thanks for pointing out the goof 😂
@@Win52D convex and cambered are two different things. A plane iron can be both. What you have to understand is Sellers is advancing a philosophy. He's a radical minimalist. Not everything he does is practical. Yes you can sharpen things how he does. But there's better ways to sharpen. Those ways do take a bit more kit though. Namely a honing jig and a bench grinder. I had to laugh when Sellers was cambering a scrub plane iron and even he had to resort to using a hand cranked grinder. So that proves what he's doing isn't realistic. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
The question is whether a hollow grind is needed. Lots of other woodworkers (who earn their money with it, like Paul Sellers, Richard Maguire and others) don't seem to need it. I can live without a bench grinder, it would be nice to fix the occasional nick though - but a coarse stone does the job as well, just takes a moment longer. For a hobbyist that's OK. It would also be nice for restoring old planes (but how often do I do that?).
👌👌👌
Nothing wrong with being lazy - if the sharpening is made easier, then we will sharpen the tools more effectively and also do it more often instead of working with dull blades.
Almost got me working hard on sharpening. Not joining the cult. I'm just going to keep my blades ruined and sharp on one side the burn all the bad chisel lines and call it rustic chiq.
P120 is totally fine...
Two grit diamond file; sharpen those chisels by your lathe, super lazy
Whose definition of lazy are we using? I feel like it could be easily argued that using a jig is the lazy way. If we learn to sharpen by hand, we're putting in effort and building our skills. It takes time and dedication. If we use a jig, we're relying on the skill of the jig's engineer, and we're just sliding our hands back and forth like any old ape can do. No effort needed. No skill gained. No dedication required.
It's worth the effort to learn to hand sharpen, and I wouldn't call it lazy at all. It's certainly the harder of the two options to master. Just because it's more efficient (once you pass the learning curve) doesn't mean its the lazy path. Jigs are ok, but mine has sat useless in a drawer since I realized I could sharpen in half the time or less if I just sat down and learned the hard skill.
I must be really lazy,I use diamond 400,1000 then strop with chromium oxide green compound that’s it done.
What do you need 400 grit for? I hone on 1,000 and that's it. I'm never looking to remove a lot of material honing. I grind the primary bevel on my tools.
Depends on your setup. I had no power in my basement compartment, thus no grinder. Keeping the bulk of the material in check (primary bevel, if you use guides, otherwise you will likely get a convex shape anyway, just how the body works) makes a lot of sense then. Do you need it every time? No. Do you want to think about how often you have sharpened already and need to go back to the coarse stone? No, at least I don't. Using coarse - fine - strop every time is lazy and also removes the need for a grinder (until you nick the blade on a knot). The additional stone takes about 20 seconds more. Oh, and a moderate sum of money.
But in the end: is it a process you can live with, that is, is it simple enough you do it often enough so stuff stays sharp? And only the person doing it can answer that. You love your process, I like mine, our tools are sharp (enough), let's build something.
Free hand sharpening will set u free!!! Will make your woodworking more fluent and you will pay less for expensive and unnecessary jigs
You can certainly sharpen freehand. But the question remains, is it the best way? For me the answer is no. I get much better results far easier and faster using a jig. The jig I use wasn't expensive either. It's not the best one available but it suits me. I suppose you could even make a jig. You could just use an angled block of wood. Even that would help maintain an angle. Instead of trying to rock on a little bevel on a tool. Or just thinking you're going to push so perfectly flat and straight you're going to maintain an angle with your muscles. Yeah in your dreams. You probably can't even draw a straight line freehand. But somehow you're going to manage to do it floating in the air over a hone stone. Mmm hmm. Sure you are.
@@1pcfred it takes minimal time and effort to learn freehand sharpening. It took a single attempt for me to get a blade sharp enough to do work (however long it took), and a few more sharpenings to get proficient. Let me put it this way: hand sharpening is easy enough that every single person who ever sharpened anything made of metal over the course of approximately six and a half thousand years managed to do it well enough that they successfully fed their families, defended their lands, and spawned every subsequent human.
Without all of those people mastering the skill of rubbing a hunk of metal on something well enough to make it sharp, almost nothing you see in the modern world would exist, including the jigs you personally rely on for sharpening. It really isn't the impossible dark magic you're making it out to be. It just takes effort, a little time, and attention to detail.
Also, if I might give advice, stop trying to balance on the bevel if you attempt another go at it. Just make the bevel cambered and be done with it. It's so much faster and easier.
@@MortimerSugarloaf I freehand sharpened for 50 years. It works. A jig works better. Simple as that. With a jig I can get an edge that looks like it came out of the razor blade factory. It's absolutely perfect. I'm not willing to accept anything less. Because I don't have to. Furthermore I don't want to!
Love this subject because no matter where you are around the globe or which f.b group you are in it's an arguable subject...and for people who don't have experience and ask questions I am giving my advice with my experience insights because I had my way of getting to the point I am now and other had they're ways and there isn't a wrong one if you are learning from it and know how to sharp your tools. What I don't like is all "noise" of a lot of UA-cam channels and f.b advices that there is only one why or in order to have the best edge on tools you should buy this expensive or special jig or buy this high brand and all the commercials around this subject because great deal of them are making no good and misleading new people to woodworking. So my advice on short notes: buy simple honing jig and start with good quality sand paper and flat working surface ( it can be a tile or glass), and after you will learn how to sharp you will understand what is good for you. High expensive honing jigs can get you good results but won't make you a better sharpener and with a simple one you can have good enough results and save a lot of money. Next you have got all the stones range try a few ... And in the future you will come up with the setup that suits you!!
21 minutes?? i'm too lazy for that....
lol chicken mc nuggets
Not a real UA-cam tool sharpener, no arm/leg/chest hairs removed to show sharpness 😝
That never worked for me. Peach fuzz on arms.