Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
The sun may not climb over the horizon just to see me, but it does see me first. Preferential treatment?
:roll:
:roll:
Timber Framing
- Thread starter brendonv
- Start date
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lumberjack
Young man on the go
Ha, that cracked me up.
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
That little ditty is the Pythagorean theorem ,one of the most elementary in geometry .http://www.jimloy.com/geometry/pythag.htm
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
I took a couple of shots of some of my sharpening gear.
#1 left to right. DMT fine/extra fine diamond honing plate, 4"x10", Japanese 8000 grit polishing stone. Proprietary ceramic polishing stone. The Japanese stone will put a mirror finish on an edge tool, but requires a little delicacy, and a little maintenance. The ceramic will put a mirror finish on faster, with no stone deterioration. It is made by a friend of mine that used to work for GE, and made stuff for the aerospace industry.
The diamond and Japanese stone use water, and the ceramic is used dry. I keep a spray bottle of water on the workbench. The ceramic stone requires occasional cleaning with dish soap and a Scothbrite pad. Oil stone will sharpen the tools acceptably, but they are much, much slower, and you have to deal with the oil and mess, and they will also wear out of shape over time. I use the diamond and ceramic exclusively now.
#2 I use a Veritas MKII jig for sharpening everything from framing chisels to plane irons. Most chisels are fairly easy to sharpen by hand, once they are in good form. Plane irons are a bit tougher. The Veritas MKII has a straight roller, and a camber roller, allowing you to rock the tool back and forth to achieve a rounded edge. Small woodworking chisels use a square edge, and all of your timber framing tools will have at least a slight radius.
#3 Camber roller and registration jig. The jig aligns the tool to the guide, and also sets the angle that you will be honing the edge to.
Woodcraft, Lee Valley, The Japan Woodworker and Highland Woodworking are good catalogs to order. I bought my jig and DMT stone from Highland. If you have tools that are already in good condition, all you really need to maintain an edge is the DMT, and a polishing stone. You can also strop instead of using a polishing stone. Norton makes great two-sided (two different grits) water stones, and they are a bit tougher, and cheaper, than the Japanese stones. They may even have a kit with a couple of stones and a truing plate.
I would avoid any powered sharpening equipment at this point. A couple of sharpening stones will be more than enough to keep you whittling away at timbers. The diamond stones cut the fastest of any that I have used, and they don't distort over time. I don't spend a lot of time going up through the different grits, I go from the fine side of the DMT, to the x/fine when shaping, and then straight to the 8000 or ceramic for polishing.
Another alternative is to use 3M wet sandpaper. They offer paper down to I believe a micron or so, in the range of the 8000 grit polishing stone. The sand paper is used on some sort of very flat surface, such as a granite surface plate, which one of the catalogs I mentioned carries, I think Woodcraft. They are about $30 for a small one. If you have a polished stone counter top, you can also use that. The sand paper is a good way to go as it is a smaller initial outlay, and if you gouge them, you throw them away.
Sorry for the info overload, it isn't too complicated, once you try it.
#1 left to right. DMT fine/extra fine diamond honing plate, 4"x10", Japanese 8000 grit polishing stone. Proprietary ceramic polishing stone. The Japanese stone will put a mirror finish on an edge tool, but requires a little delicacy, and a little maintenance. The ceramic will put a mirror finish on faster, with no stone deterioration. It is made by a friend of mine that used to work for GE, and made stuff for the aerospace industry.
The diamond and Japanese stone use water, and the ceramic is used dry. I keep a spray bottle of water on the workbench. The ceramic stone requires occasional cleaning with dish soap and a Scothbrite pad. Oil stone will sharpen the tools acceptably, but they are much, much slower, and you have to deal with the oil and mess, and they will also wear out of shape over time. I use the diamond and ceramic exclusively now.
#2 I use a Veritas MKII jig for sharpening everything from framing chisels to plane irons. Most chisels are fairly easy to sharpen by hand, once they are in good form. Plane irons are a bit tougher. The Veritas MKII has a straight roller, and a camber roller, allowing you to rock the tool back and forth to achieve a rounded edge. Small woodworking chisels use a square edge, and all of your timber framing tools will have at least a slight radius.
#3 Camber roller and registration jig. The jig aligns the tool to the guide, and also sets the angle that you will be honing the edge to.
Woodcraft, Lee Valley, The Japan Woodworker and Highland Woodworking are good catalogs to order. I bought my jig and DMT stone from Highland. If you have tools that are already in good condition, all you really need to maintain an edge is the DMT, and a polishing stone. You can also strop instead of using a polishing stone. Norton makes great two-sided (two different grits) water stones, and they are a bit tougher, and cheaper, than the Japanese stones. They may even have a kit with a couple of stones and a truing plate.
I would avoid any powered sharpening equipment at this point. A couple of sharpening stones will be more than enough to keep you whittling away at timbers. The diamond stones cut the fastest of any that I have used, and they don't distort over time. I don't spend a lot of time going up through the different grits, I go from the fine side of the DMT, to the x/fine when shaping, and then straight to the 8000 or ceramic for polishing.
Another alternative is to use 3M wet sandpaper. They offer paper down to I believe a micron or so, in the range of the 8000 grit polishing stone. The sand paper is used on some sort of very flat surface, such as a granite surface plate, which one of the catalogs I mentioned carries, I think Woodcraft. They are about $30 for a small one. If you have a polished stone counter top, you can also use that. The sand paper is a good way to go as it is a smaller initial outlay, and if you gouge them, you throw them away.
Sorry for the info overload, it isn't too complicated, once you try it.
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MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Crikey!
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
Sharpening plane irons and good chisels is almost a lost art .
lumberjack
Young man on the go
Every time they're dull.
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
My chisel needed a quick touch up after that sill I posted earlier in the thread. You will probably want to touch up the edge on the chisel once a day, maybe longer if you don't run into any problems. I haven't done a lot of spruce, that is tougher than pine, and the knots are hell on tools, so you may be looking at some nicks that you will have to hone out. You will want to spend some time on your layout to get as few knots in your joints as possible with spruce.
A timber framing chisel uses a double bevel edge. You will sharpen at about 33 degrees and tip the chisel up to about 35 to put a very shallow edge on it. That way when you need to put a quick tough up on it during the day, you are only sharpening that short bevel, not the entire cutting edge. After a few touch ups, you have to reestablish the short bevel. You said you ordered a book, was that the Sobon book? Sharpening is covered in there. He doesn't discuss most of the stuff I showed earlier, but does cover the angles and tool selection. Is there a store near you that makes granite counter tops? I have a piece of polished counter top that is about 10x20 inches, that will work great for the 3M paper as they are polished to a very consistent flatness. Just make sure there are no flaws (holes) in the surface.
A timber framing chisel uses a double bevel edge. You will sharpen at about 33 degrees and tip the chisel up to about 35 to put a very shallow edge on it. That way when you need to put a quick tough up on it during the day, you are only sharpening that short bevel, not the entire cutting edge. After a few touch ups, you have to reestablish the short bevel. You said you ordered a book, was that the Sobon book? Sharpening is covered in there. He doesn't discuss most of the stuff I showed earlier, but does cover the angles and tool selection. Is there a store near you that makes granite counter tops? I have a piece of polished counter top that is about 10x20 inches, that will work great for the 3M paper as they are polished to a very consistent flatness. Just make sure there are no flaws (holes) in the surface.
PCTREE
Treehouser
I sharpened (read had it sharpened) my chisel once during the build of the workshop but I did notice I was hitting it a tad harder at times
I think Alti is more of a craftsman than I, I just needed a shop and have wood
I think Alti is more of a craftsman than I, I just needed a shop and have wood
lumberjack
Young man on the go
A thick piece of glass would also work dandy for a surface plate.
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
Actually one of those old school tool gurus did show using a sheet of plate glass and 600 grit paper to tune up a plane on TV once .
I have some good old Stanleys in one of the drawers of my radial arm saw which I haven't used in years .They do a great job but I seldom use them as I seldom do any cabinet work but every few years .
If they are set and sharped correctly there is a certain sound they make while slicing off a pass .
A person can get quite lazy if you own a power planer or at least that's my excuse .
I have some good old Stanleys in one of the drawers of my radial arm saw which I haven't used in years .They do a great job but I seldom use them as I seldom do any cabinet work but every few years .
If they are set and sharped correctly there is a certain sound they make while slicing off a pass .
A person can get quite lazy if you own a power planer or at least that's my excuse .
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
After power planing, a couple passes with a hand plane leaves a finish like glass.
Float glass is also used for the sandpaper trick. I guess it is flatter than regular glass.
Float glass is also used for the sandpaper trick. I guess it is flatter than regular glass.
tblough
Climbing Up
Just about any flat glass today is "float" glass. Plate glass is made by flowing molten glass over a weir or through a gate onto a pool of molten Tin where it cools. The glass is less dense than the tin, therefore it "floats" on top of the tin. This gives the glass very flat and parallel faces.
MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Hows China, Tom? Are you completely fluent by now?
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
Did you get your book yet, Brendon? I'll be chiseling away shortly.
lumberjack
Young man on the go
Wow! Are you up early or late?
lumberjack
Young man on the go
Ah, I was up late. 
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Traditional Japanese houses are all timber frame. The oldest wooden buildings in the world are here. They took it to an incredible level of sophistication. Temple builders are people with phenomenal skill, to simply call them timber frame carpenters does a dis-service.
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MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
Jay, how many (not tremors) earthquakes have you been through? I was there for three years and we had one that was quite substantial. It seems we had tremors once a week or so.
