A Quick and Easy Upgrade to The Sharpening Center

I finally got around to making a strop.  If you haven't added this last step to your sharpening process, I definitely recommend it.  I could easily shave arm hair before.  The difference is the same as changing out your shaving blade for a new one.  Where it had started to pull hair a bit as the blade wore, a new blade glides with no resistance and leaves a baby smooth surface.  For woodworking this means a cleaner cut for longer periods and when that blade does start acting a bit dull, just strop it.  With the strop you can go much longer in between actual sharpening sessions.

The upgrade is extremely easy.  I took a piece of good quality plywood and glued two pieces from an old belt onto the surface.  In this case I used Power Grab by Loctite,

 which is a favorite "construction" adhesive of mine.  I like it because it cleans up with warm soapy water and doesn't have the horrible off gassing that many other construction adhesive create. 
I used a J - roller to makes sure the leather was solidly affixed to the plywood with no voids and as flat as possible.  A bar of jeweler's rouge and you're done.

You will be able to create a beautiful mirror surface and as you've been taught, a sharp edge is the junction between two dead flat surfaces.  So, the fewer scratches in the surface the more likely you will achieve a good edge.  This was easiest upgrade I've done yet.  If you haven't already, go do it now.  Totally worth the small amount of time.

Whew! Part Five - TWW Guild Roubo Build

This was easily the most intimidating part of TheWoodwhisperer Guild build for me.  I've only cut one dovetail up to this point by hand.   It did not go well.  This time I'm cutting blind dovetails and from reading the BenchCrafted instructions, you either get the fit of this vise correct, or it doesn't work well.  What good is a premium vise if it doesn't work like it should?

So, I laid out my dovetails and put my little Doc Holliday to work.  I tried to employ what Shannon Rogers has taught us at the Hand Tool School and did my best to "split the line".  I don't know if it was because I was cutting horizontally, the learning curve, or I'm just a spaz, but I managed to drift on each dovetail when cutting the right side.  Both were straight and true on the left where I could actually see the line, but the right sides both drifted to the left as I approached the bottom of the tails.

After cutting out the dovetails, I needed to "straighten" them and pare the waste.  I got to use my Knew Concepts fret saw.  I think next time I can get closer to the base, but even though I was probably being overly cautious, it was fun getting there.

Right off the bat, I found I needed to fire up the sharpening station.  My chisels and, as I found, my planes all needed drastic attention.  I had too shallow an angle on my chisels and was damaging the edge trying to chop out the waste.  The station proved to work very well.  Since I still haven't been pleased creating the initial angle on my Delta variable speed grinder, I used the DMT Duo Sharp in the bottom drawer, moved up to the wet stones, then finished on the sandpaper on glass.  Considering I was completely reshaping the blades, I was surprised how little time it took to get them from rough to a polished finish.  Because I tend to be a space cadet, I made sure to write the settings I used on for the Veritas Mark II honing guide.

Once I had the tails cleaned up, I created a 1/4" rebate on the bottom of the tails to register against the end cap and transferred the tails to the end cap. 

After rigging up a clamping solution, which I will NEVER have to do again once this bench is built, I again pulled out my Bad Axe dovetail saw and got to work.  It all seemed to go well, but as you can see in the second photo, I was over zealous in marking my lines.  After using the knife to mark, I wanted to define the line a bit better with my chisel and I think I pushed too hard and "moved" the line.

After chiseling out the waste and doing a dry fit, you can see my joint had almost as big of a gap as my front teeth.

With much finessing and dry fitting, Saturday night I glued everything up and called it a day.  I did, however, return to the shop about an hour later to clean up my glue mess.  I'm still not very good at applying just the right amount.

Luckily after clamping up and paring down the end cap, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd originally suspected.  I've thought about using glue and sawdust to help hide the mistake, but I think this is a good lesson to remember.  The second and bottom is much better than the top and, as time goes on and I keep practicing, I WILL get better.

Now came the fitting of the vise.  Because I went with a bench top thickness of 3", the Benchcrafted directions said to use 3/4" thick spacers to properly position the tail vise runners.  That ended up being too thick and made the hardware bind too much to travel as freely as the video shows.  After trying a couple pieces of 3/4" plywood, which is actually 23/32", I thought momentarily about just using it.

Considering the reclaimed aspect of this build, I decided not to introduce man made wood.  It turned out that was a good decision in terms of the vise, too.  I ended up with a even slightly less thickness and the vise's action was incredible.  So, if you are building along or using a Benchcrafted tail vise on a future bench.  Test it out and play with the thickness.

The last thing that was kind of freaking me out was the drilling and final set of the runners.  In the previous post when I'd drilled for the retaining bolts, I had not though about the placement of the runners  I think I dodge that bullet by a hair, which you can see in this photo.

I think the hardest part is over.  I already have the legs, dead man and tail vise parts milled.  I need to mill the rails still and then on to the base construction!!!

Modular Sharpening Station

 YEAH!!! SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!!!  

Spring brings mixed emotions.  We had a very long winter and what has seemed to be a quite wet and extended spring has turned our very beige environment into a very green one.  Sylvia's Garden that we planted last year with a bunch of trees and a perennial wildflower mix is vibrant!  More than anything SUMMER IS ALMOST HERE!!  Our summers here are great.  The days are hot and the evenings are perfect for hanging out on the patio and taking evening swims.  The flip side of that is I don't get into the shop nearly as much as I'd like, due to spring wake up and weekly maintenance chores.


Here and there, I've managed to get into the shop and my latest project has been to install my deep sink and small hot water tank.  

This, of course, facilitated a great place to have a sharpening station.

To design this station, I took a few things into consideration.  First, I wanted it to be modular to enable full access to the water tank for maintenance flushing and the sewer clean-out in case I ever need access to that.  Second, I wanted this station to house all my sharpening arsenal, except the variable speed grinder, which will mount around the corner.  Finally, I wanted a no mess solution to my water stone sharpening regimen.

The first thing I did was build the base, 

then the cabinet to house my sharpening tools and supplies.  The drawers come later.

Next up was the sharpening basin.  A buddy had an off-cut piece of Corian he let me have.  I was originally going to use it for the top of my upcoming router table, but I really liked the idea of using it here as it is impervious to water.  The first thing I did was create a sub-base that I could more easily create the actual basin in.  This was made 1/2" plywood for the bottom and 3/4" for the sides.  For proper drainage I needed to create slope.  To do this I split the bottom of the basin.  So, I cut the plywood bottom and then created a deep kerf to allow it to bend.  I also added a small strip of 1/8" plywood on the left and front side, then added the 3/4" sides.  Now, I was ready to start cutting the Corian basin.  The first piece to fit was the thin strip shown here.

Next I cut and fit the remaining pieces and glued them up.  I used epoxy for a watertight seal and torqued the basin as much as I could without breaking it to allow the slope I wanted.

After the glue up I tested it for leaks and proper drainage.  

  

I also cut an other piece of Corian to be the dam for the basin.  That didn't quite work, as you can see in this shot.  It was a slow leak, but I'm kinda OCD and it wasn't good enough. 

Next up, stone holders.  For cutting these little pieces I pulled out my crosscut sled.  It was the only solution I could think of that I felt was a safe option for cutting these.

Then over to the basin to position and mark everything out for glue up. 

I used a file to round over the edges of the blocks, so they were less prone to chip in use.

I used pure silicone sealant to adhere the blocks into place.  I preferred this over epoxy to allow me to remove them in the future if I get new water stones and they don't quite fit.

When I test the basin earlier for leaks and drainage, I noticed surface tension was making the water curl back around the end of the drain and get the wood wet.  The solution to this was gluing on a little off-cut piece I still had. 

 Before I said the dam I'd made of Corian wasn't quite cutting it.  I scoured the shop and found an old foam rubber sanding block I never use and this worked perfectly.

 Here is the final product and everything in it's place!

I know it's not pretty.  It is, however, functional and it's just shop furniture.  I think the only two nice pieces I will ever build for the shop are going to be my hand tool bench and my hand tool cabinet.  Those two objects deserve a little more love and attention.  The rest only needs to be utilitarian.


Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this has been helpful.