Sharpening a handsaw

Luis — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:12:00 +0000

Sharpening ones tools can be a skill on its own and every woodworker will soon discover that to get the best results, learning how to sharpen will soon become a necessity.

While we are on the subject of saws, here is a link to the best essay I’ve read on how to sharpen a saw blade:

Saw Filing – A Beginner’s Primer

Enjoy!

Diamond stones

Luis — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:16:00 +0000

There seems to be some confusion regarding diamond stones, one of the reasons being the fact that the system used to grade them is different to the one used for Japanese waterstones and many of the natural stones like the well known Arkansas stones.

Diamond stones from DMT, probably the best and most popular around, have the following grits:

Extra coarse ~ 220 grit
Coarse ~325 grit
Fine ~600 grit
Extra fine ~1200 grit

As you can see from the above list, diamond stones will be most useful as a first step in the sharpening process, followed by the higher grits provided by waterstones and oilstones.

Because diamond stones cut extremely fast and their surfaces remain perfectly flat they’re well suited for flattening the back of plane irons and chisels and establish the bevel. This is what I use my extra coarse stone before moving to a 1000 grit whaterstone for the sharpening and 8000 grit stone for the honing of the cutting edges.

I must say that so far these three stones have served me well and with this small sharpening kit I’ve kept my plane blades and chisels sharp for a very long time.

The Dovetail Kid » sharpening

Sharpening a handsaw

Diamond stones