[AT] A favorite tool and sharpening stuff

[Indiana Robinson]

	One of my favorite tools is diamond hone that I bought last year. All too often when you 
buy something that promises to be great it turns into a disappointment. That has not been 
the case with that hone. I am pleased with it every time I use it. As I recall it was 
around $40 but well worth it.
	My sharpening philosophy is a little different than some folks. I am not after the glass 
smooth cutting edge of a razor that many covet and get all hung up on. When I sharpen I 
want steel to be removed with as few strokes as possible. I don't want to "wear" the 
steel off of the edge, I want to "cut" it off and cut it off quickly. I don't get into 
spending hours puttering around sharpening a tool like some guys, I want to get it done 
"right now" and get back to actual work. I have to. That diamond hone does that very 
well. Of course I bought the most coarse hone I could find.
	Let me say right up front that I do have an extensive background with sharpening and 
using cutting tools of all sorts. I have done woodworking for many many years. I worked 
during the early 1960's in a factory "cutting" department which was also sometimes called 
"hand cutting" department perhaps called that because most of us ended up cutting a hand 
badly while working there...   ;-)   We worked with cutting tools all day and sharpened 
them frequently many times a day. The company was buying the blades so we didn't care how 
fast we wore them out.  :-)   Later I owned a shoe shop for over 20 years and spent much 
of my time cutting leather and rubber products using many speciality knives and rotary 
cutters of different types. I owned and operated a sawmill and millwork shop for a number 
of years and constantly dealt with saws, planer blades and other cutters. In the wood 
shop I deal with the usual tools that are related. For many years I operated a part time 
sharpening shop and sharpened about everything but carbide stuff.
	I want sharp tools but in a production environment the glass smooth edge is way over 
rated. If you do any volume of work that tiny razor edge is gone very quickly and then 
you are working with a basic sharp edge again. I am reminded of a fellow on a gardening 
show one time that bought very expensive forged shovels (wish I could still find that 
kind here) and insisted that you needed to sharpen them with a file about 6 to 8 times a 
day. He got a very short life out of them and had the one he was using worn to a useless 
nub. It was not "efficiency" as he indicated but unproductive"compulsion".  :-) 
	Don't get me wrong. When I sharpen something like a plane iron I follow up with a finer 
cut but most tools don't really need that to work very well. Many woodworkers like to use 
a glass plate with a sheet of very fine sandpaper laid on it. I do a bit of that but 
instead of a glass plate I just use the polished cast iron table of a table saw and 400 
grit wet or dry automotive sandpaper.
	I once read a comment of a high quality, high volume professional woodworker that said 
that one of the quickest indicators of an amateur woodworker (not meant derogatory) was 
someone that insisted that a planer cut be absolutely glass smooth. He said that those 
tiny longitudinal ribs that come from really tiny nicks in the blades are harmless and 
they are what sandpaper was made for...   :-)
	Of course in woodworking the object being made is of little importance. The important 
part is just making sawdust...   ;-)   ;-)
	Shops are different things to different people. While mine does help me relax I also 
want it productive. Some folks use a shop to use up time. Most shop projects in magazines 
are designed to consume as much time as possible. I like to putter at times but never to 
just use up time. Some guys use a shop to hide from SWMBO...   ;-)   I don't have that 
problem.
I just used that hone last week to touch up the sickle section that is mounted on the 
round baler to cut the twine after it is wrapped around the bale.
-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America 100 
years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net