TheLuthier
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone!
I am relatively fresh new in the world of Japanese waterstone. So, I tried to make a little tuto for some of my friends on social medias and I wondered if it could be a great idea to share it here. Many of you have tons of experience in this domain of expertise so... I hope my method won't be too unusual for many of you!
My way to sharpen, japanese chisels.
NOTE: I don't have the knowledge & experience of some of incredible sharpeners like Andrew Ren or Jude Noteboom. I never came to Kezuroukai, and I dove in the Japanese tool world, relatively recently.
So please, take in consideration that I don't have the ultimate truth, and that my set-up and way to sharpen need to be polished for decades... but well, the result I reached is not too bad, and I hope it could help many people who are afraid of Japanese tools. This is such rewarding, to sharpen these pieces of functional art.
If you want useful & serious knowledge about sharpening, go buy the Book: "Sharpening and the Japanese Hand Plane – In Depth", by Dale brotherton. You'll thank me later.
So, let's start by saying that I don't use sharpening guide and that I do my polishing free hands only. The reason is that even if guides are working incredibly well for occidental tools like Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, or any North-American/European brand, the Ura on Japanese tools makes it impossible to be used (no enough surface for the jig).
Very important point #1: before to start your journey, you need to use a diamond plate to make your stone flat. your surface need to be perfect, to sharpen your tool as best as possible. I am using Atoma 400 and 1200, depending of the grit of the stone I will work on.
There are 4 principal steels in the Japanese tool-world:
- White Steel #1 & #2
- Blue Steel #1 & #2
The stones you will chose according to them, will be very important. In this tuto, I am sharpening Ouchi-San Chisels, made with White Steel #2. I have a set of Michio Tasai I haven't sharpened yet, and I can't be sure that my set of stone will be pertinent with it.
Picture No.1: The rig. From Left to right
Ken-Syou Itadaki #1000 & #3000
Shapton Glass-Stone HC series #4000, #6000 & #8000
Atoma diamond plate #400 & #1200
///
Picture No.2 & 3: The way I am positioning on the stone.
I always start by sharpening the Ura-side, and the chanfrein after that. I am going verticaly for it, but I know we all have our preference. This is the way, that working the best for me.
///
Picture No.4: Flattening of the stone, for the surface and the slurry that will give me the best material to attack the steel. This is what you will see after a couple of minute, on the picture No.5: That grey mud is a mix of steel and stone.
///
Picture No.8: This is the Ura side.
Stone grit: #1000
I had a gap at the top of the chisel, on the center, and I had to flat the tool equally, to make it disapear. Unfortunately, it created an angle in the length, and I will need to flatten the entire surface to make this bump disapear.
I always use my #3000 stone to start and see the imperfection on the surface, to avoid an agressive grit like the #1000 as much as possible. I don't want to lose any gram of this precious layer of very hard high-carbon steel called “hagane” (鋼). The geometry of the tool on the Ura-Side, need to be preserved as much as possible but sometimes... some chisels are harder to set than others.
///
Picture No.9: Still #1000
I always start this side, with grit #1000. I want it perfectly flat, and even if I don't want to eat too much of the material, I don't want to lose my time trying to flaten this area with a smoother-grit.
I'll NEVER go with a grinding wheel, because the risk to burn the steel or to damage the tool (forged chisels are unique animals, and the Ura on the other side could be easily reached). That's why I always buy Japanese tools that are not cheap, you generally have a great surface to begin with. Ouchi-San's work is my way to go for around a year, and I didn't have any trouble for now.
///
Picture No.10 to 24: Not much to say about these
I always try to keep my hands steady & sturdy, and to have a beautiful surface/polish. I am going from #1000 to #8000, and I still need to buy #10.000 and #12.000 water-stones. The advantage of forged & very high carboned tools, is that you can sharpen them with super high grits. It is ridiculous to say that about many things, but the Higher, the better.
#8000 stones is enough and I could stop it there... but I always want to push myself and to have the best result possible. With these chisels I can cut ebony like if it were made of butter, but the best results I got were with softwoods like spruce or Cedar. These things are so damn sharp & durable.
I want to thanks Andrew Ren and Jude Noteboom for our great talks and their precious knowledge & time. I would not reach this result, without you 3.
PS: I apologize about the syntax-errors, my french is way better than my english
Cheers!
Ben
I am relatively fresh new in the world of Japanese waterstone. So, I tried to make a little tuto for some of my friends on social medias and I wondered if it could be a great idea to share it here. Many of you have tons of experience in this domain of expertise so... I hope my method won't be too unusual for many of you!
My way to sharpen, japanese chisels.
NOTE: I don't have the knowledge & experience of some of incredible sharpeners like Andrew Ren or Jude Noteboom. I never came to Kezuroukai, and I dove in the Japanese tool world, relatively recently.
So please, take in consideration that I don't have the ultimate truth, and that my set-up and way to sharpen need to be polished for decades... but well, the result I reached is not too bad, and I hope it could help many people who are afraid of Japanese tools. This is such rewarding, to sharpen these pieces of functional art.
If you want useful & serious knowledge about sharpening, go buy the Book: "Sharpening and the Japanese Hand Plane – In Depth", by Dale brotherton. You'll thank me later.
So, let's start by saying that I don't use sharpening guide and that I do my polishing free hands only. The reason is that even if guides are working incredibly well for occidental tools like Lie-Nielsen, Veritas, or any North-American/European brand, the Ura on Japanese tools makes it impossible to be used (no enough surface for the jig).
Very important point #1: before to start your journey, you need to use a diamond plate to make your stone flat. your surface need to be perfect, to sharpen your tool as best as possible. I am using Atoma 400 and 1200, depending of the grit of the stone I will work on.
There are 4 principal steels in the Japanese tool-world:
- White Steel #1 & #2
- Blue Steel #1 & #2
The stones you will chose according to them, will be very important. In this tuto, I am sharpening Ouchi-San Chisels, made with White Steel #2. I have a set of Michio Tasai I haven't sharpened yet, and I can't be sure that my set of stone will be pertinent with it.
Picture No.1: The rig. From Left to right
Ken-Syou Itadaki #1000 & #3000
Shapton Glass-Stone HC series #4000, #6000 & #8000
Atoma diamond plate #400 & #1200
///
Picture No.2 & 3: The way I am positioning on the stone.
I always start by sharpening the Ura-side, and the chanfrein after that. I am going verticaly for it, but I know we all have our preference. This is the way, that working the best for me.
///
Picture No.4: Flattening of the stone, for the surface and the slurry that will give me the best material to attack the steel. This is what you will see after a couple of minute, on the picture No.5: That grey mud is a mix of steel and stone.
///
Picture No.8: This is the Ura side.
Stone grit: #1000
I had a gap at the top of the chisel, on the center, and I had to flat the tool equally, to make it disapear. Unfortunately, it created an angle in the length, and I will need to flatten the entire surface to make this bump disapear.
I always use my #3000 stone to start and see the imperfection on the surface, to avoid an agressive grit like the #1000 as much as possible. I don't want to lose any gram of this precious layer of very hard high-carbon steel called “hagane” (鋼). The geometry of the tool on the Ura-Side, need to be preserved as much as possible but sometimes... some chisels are harder to set than others.
///
Picture No.9: Still #1000
I always start this side, with grit #1000. I want it perfectly flat, and even if I don't want to eat too much of the material, I don't want to lose my time trying to flaten this area with a smoother-grit.
I'll NEVER go with a grinding wheel, because the risk to burn the steel or to damage the tool (forged chisels are unique animals, and the Ura on the other side could be easily reached). That's why I always buy Japanese tools that are not cheap, you generally have a great surface to begin with. Ouchi-San's work is my way to go for around a year, and I didn't have any trouble for now.
///
Picture No.10 to 24: Not much to say about these
I always try to keep my hands steady & sturdy, and to have a beautiful surface/polish. I am going from #1000 to #8000, and I still need to buy #10.000 and #12.000 water-stones. The advantage of forged & very high carboned tools, is that you can sharpen them with super high grits. It is ridiculous to say that about many things, but the Higher, the better.
#8000 stones is enough and I could stop it there... but I always want to push myself and to have the best result possible. With these chisels I can cut ebony like if it were made of butter, but the best results I got were with softwoods like spruce or Cedar. These things are so damn sharp & durable.
I want to thanks Andrew Ren and Jude Noteboom for our great talks and their precious knowledge & time. I would not reach this result, without you 3.
PS: I apologize about the syntax-errors, my french is way better than my english
Cheers!
Ben
