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Honing a wood working tool

Not sure where to post this on B&B, but I know some of the guys who could likely best answer it will look in the honing forum.

I am doing some Hobby-level lathe work this weekend. My father-in-law’s set up. He is mainly into carbide turning tools, but there are actually a variety of more traditional tools as well, bowl gouges, etc. I had been using a Tormek machine to sharpen the gouges and it works well for that due to the alignment tools. However the alignment tool doesn’t work as well with the skew chisel. Then I remembered that I had bought a Dan’s knife sharpening tool (one of those things with 4 sides, different grit on each side). So this particular one has a SiC side, a soft Ark side, a hard Ark side and a black Ark side. I skipped the SiC (the skew chisel wasn’t that dull) and just did the soft Ark and hard Ark. Question: For wood-working tools in general and lathe tools in particular, what level of refinement makes sense? I am thinking a black Ark is overkill, maybe even counter-productive (as for kitchen knives) but no idea.

Thanks in advance for your responses, and my apologies if I posted in the wrong area.
 
A picture of the skew chisel and sharpening system.
6D12F6F8-AD5B-4A18-BBCA-C4D0993D0FA3.jpeg
 
You can go up to a black if you want. I tend to finish at Washita / Turkish level though, so would probably finish on the normal hard ark part of your stone.
 
Not sure where to post this on B&B, but I know some of the guys who could likely best answer it will look in the honing forum.

I am doing some Hobby-level lathe work this weekend. My father-in-law’s set up. He is mainly into carbide turning tools, but there are actually a variety of more traditional tools as well, bowl gouges, etc. I had been using a Tormek machine to sharpen the gouges and it works well for that due to the alignment tools. However the alignment tool doesn’t work as well with the skew chisel. Then I remembered that I had bought a Dan’s knife sharpening tool (one of those things with 4 sides, different grit on each side). So this particular one has a SiC side, a soft Ark side, a hard Ark side and a black Ark side. I skipped the SiC (the skew chisel wasn’t that dull) and just did the soft Ark and hard Ark. Question: For wood-working tools in general and lathe tools in particular, what level of refinement makes sense? I am thinking a black Ark is overkill, maybe even counter-productive (as for kitchen knives) but no idea.

Thanks in advance for your responses, and my apologies if I posted in the wrong area.
Depends on what I'm pushing the chisel through, but I put mine on a black from dans pretty regularly.
 
In some ways you want a chisel sharper than a kitchen knife because you are push cutting rather than slicing. The teeth that help cut on a knife are no use on a chisel.
Kitchen knives are usually to cut veg, fruit or meat. I push/hammer chisels through all kinds of unimaginable crap! I use coticules for chip removal if they aren't too bad. Coticules make short work of A2 tool steel but you'll wear your arm out.
 
In some ways you want a chisel sharper than a kitchen knife because you are push cutting rather than slicing. The teeth that help cut on a knife are no use on a chisel.

If you like to plane competitively,
there is no limit to how much refinement makes sense.

 
If you're sharpening lathe chisels, I would just get it sharp and go. Doesn't need any particular refinement, especially for roughing out.

Plane irons, normal chisels, carving tools etc, go as far as you want. A friend of mine uses a CrOx pasted strop to finish his chisels. He thinks my 0.1u balsa is overkill for my razors, but he has a beard so is in no position to comment.
 
Also a great one. An AC leaflet taught me the right way to sharpen am axe and it was a game changer. Don't have to use a wheel anymore.

This is a sharpening gauge that the forest service uses. I think it will print to scale. Cut out both half's and they go together, back and front. You can then make your own by gluing to plastic or any medium you choose and cutting out and drilling.
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I know that turning tools are not sharpened to the same degree as other woodworking tools.

I was left with the impression that turning gouges were intentionally left with a burr because they worked in much the same way as a scraper?
 
The great debate, of coarse, when sharpening wood working tools is do you just sharpen the bevel, or do you introduce a micro bevel on the tip of the chisel or plane ion. In wood working circles the 'jury is always out' and no two craftsmen will agree on what's best.
 
I know that turning tools are not sharpened to the same degree as other woodworking tools.

I was left with the impression that turning gouges were intentionally left with a burr because they worked in much the same way as a scraper?
Not an expert by any means, but gouges and scrapers in theory work in different ways. Carbide tools are all essentially scrapers, and gouges can be used to scrape, but gouges are supposed to slice not scrape. I can say for a fact I can get a much smoother surface finished with a gouge than with a carbide tool or even a traditional scraper. Now if I could just get rid of the tool marks!

photo is a hollow travel shaving brush handle that exploded on me today. The wood was compromised due to an overly quick drying out, but I almost got it across the finish line. Then like an idiot I went to do the final sanding, moved the belts to achieve what should have been the slowest speed, and instead put it at the highest speed. The centripetal force tore the part apart before I could turn off the lathe. It had split last winter and split again along the same lines today.
EE0B888B-EF66-4E6A-8CEC-859BA2F9FBD1.jpeg
 
Not an expert by any means, but gouges and scrapers in theory work in different ways. Carbide tools are all essentially scrapers, and gouges can be used to scrape, but gouges are supposed to slice not scrape. I can say for a fact I can get a much smoother surface finished with a gouge than with a carbide tool or even a traditional scraper. Now if I could just get rid of the tool marks!

photo is a hollow travel shaving brush handle that exploded on me today. The wood was compromised due to an overly quick drying out, but I almost got it across the finish line. Then like an idiot I went to do the final sanding, moved the belts to achieve what should have been the slowest speed, and instead put it at the highest speed. The centripetal force tore the part apart before I could turn off the lathe. It had split last winter and split again along the same lines today.
View attachment 1541712
Thanks for that information.
That break is a downer, right at the last, all work lost. That's an attitude check for sure.
Walnut maybe?
 
The great debate, of coarse, when sharpening wood working tools is do you just sharpen the bevel, or do you introduce a micro bevel on the tip of the chisel or plane ion. In wood working circles the 'jury is always out' and no two craftsmen will agree on what's best.
I think the only right answer is... "what's the job?". I finish my chisels on all different kind of stones depending on what I'm actually pushing them through.
 
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