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honing gouges with slipstones

N

Nate Hawkes

Joined
Jul 21, 2008
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Ivy, VA
So, fellow woodturners, I've come to that place that turners do, apparently; the place where they realize that they should've been honing their tools all along, that it would've saved so much sanding and so many trips to the grinder. The last couple articles in American Woodturner have been great for me. I'm not a newbie, been turning a few years, but I've turned a few hundred bowls by now. I've currently only got a fine 600 grit card sized diamond hone that I originally purchased for sharpening my McNaughton knives, but I'm having trouble with such a small stone to hone bevels, and can't hone the flutes at all. I'm using a stiff buffing wheel with emery compound--I had it already to buff off heavy oxidation on a couple old plane irons. It has worked fine to polish the flutes, but doesn't hone worth a darn. The MDF disc idea is fine, but I don't have anything I can put it in other than the lathe MT2 mandrel, and I don't want to take off a work in progress to hone tools....

I have my doubts that an india or arkansas slipstone will be up to the task of honing powder metal gouges or skews for that matter. I know they are much harder than normal steels; I don't want to be honing for several minutes at a time. I've looked around for tapered diamond slipstones that also have a flat side like the india and arkansas stones available they're almost nonexistent. The one that I can find is on Alan Lacer's site, and is $88. I'm trying to convince myself to go for it; I know it will last, and I know its a quality tool. I'm just trying to find others' experience with the slipstones and powder metals. My go-to tools are now crown PM, hamlet2030, and packard 2060 steels, and I'm about to get a thompson gouge to round out my bowl gouge selection. So, how do they do????? Thanks in advance.
 
I use the eze-lap diamond hones. Actually I don't hone very often unless I'm having trouble with tearout I do sharpen my skews with the diamond hones.
 
Nate, I bought the slip stone from Alan about a year ago and have no regrets. I use it for the flute and the bevel when necessary. I also use it on the McNaughton hollowing tool and the coring knives. Heck I even use it on my pocketknife. What I like is cuts steel quickly (Thompson and Glaser), cleans easily with WD-40, and it is large enough to hold in my hand comfortably.
 
I have been honing for some time, especially with skews, parting tools and shallow gouges with the Lacer diamond hone. It is reasonably fine and does cut fast. It is too fine to remove much metal if your have poorly shaped gouges.

The challenge is to dress the inside of gouges, especially some bowl gouges. I got a couple of P&N that were very coarsely finished. I finally used a dremel or Foredom with chain saw sharpening stone to get the surface to a regular form for an inch or so from the edge. Then I was able to use the curved PSI diamond sharpeners and touch with a round diamond.

I tend to spend much less time with the hone when I am rough shaping, and pay a lot more attention to edges as the final shape and finish work come to pass.
 
I find honing the inside of the flute is often all that's needed to really improve the edge. I use a diamond fish hook sharpening tool. It's round and tapered so it fits a lot of different shaped flutes.
 
You have to get a stone of sturdy constitution to hone harder stuff. The bond on my India isn't good enough, so I confine its use to carbon steel. The others get touch-ups and deburring from diamond flat and cones of 220 grit. I don't hone so much as finish the edge produced by the grinding wheel, or freshen an edge that ate some grit in roughing.

No big name stones nor designer alloy gouges in my setup, and only a few of the powder steel persuasion. The grinder is good enough at 100 for almost any turning. Since you let wood slice itself down the edge, you can get 220 quality surfaces from even 100 grit gouges if you care to spend the time. I don't, preferring to go to the rotary gouge ~150 instead. I never get much of a wire edge (burr) at the grinder, because I'm removing so little, so a couple strokes is all I need to clean the opposite side.

Nice thing about the steel backing is that you can put your "stones" on the same magnets that are holding your knockout bar, Tommy bars, and occasionally, even your chuck key.
 
MM, thanks for the tip on magnets/steel hone. I have been letting mine on a shelf all this time. Soon my lathe will look like a refrigerator! I too find hones useful for touching up an edge rather than going to the grinder.I got several of the Glaser tools used from a turner that stopped turning and now by Thompson tools whenever I need a tool and he has one available. Both respond well to touch-up honing. It was the plating process and expected longevity that drew me to the Lacer hone.
 
I don't know why it has come as such a shocking revelation to so many woodturners to discover that sharp tools cut better than dull ones, and that the sharper they are, the better they cut.

A 600 grit India, Ruby, or Arkansas slip-stone works very well on all grades of tool steel whether it be a simple high carbon, or any of the alloys from an M-2 HSS, to a 2060 or 15% Vanadium. The rounded edge will wear with use inside the flute, but it can be dressed and reshaped to as good as new on a concrete block.
 
RussFairfield said:
I don't know why it has come as such a shocking revelation to so many woodturners to discover that sharp tools cut better than dull ones, and that the sharper they are, the better they cut.

A 600 grit India, Ruby, or Arkansas slip-stone works very well on all grades of tool steel whether it be a simple high carbon, or any of the alloys from an M-2 HSS, to a 2060 or 15% Vanadium. The rounded edge will wear with use inside the flute, but it can be dressed and reshaped to as good as new on a concrete block.
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Its not so much a revelation for me that they cut better when sharp, just that its not as hard as I thought to maintain that edge, and that its actually easier to keep it there by honing repeatedly--I've been using a skew a lot lately. I'm still not honing the gouges with a diamond or slipstone yet, but will be soon in one form or another.

I posted my doubts as to the efficacy of the india or arkansas stone because the latest article in American Woodturner posts the hardness scale, and they are under the hardness of hardened steel. I mean, it would seem intuitively that the burr may be stropping off, but it might not actually be honing hardened alloy steels if the hardness of the honing stone is actually lower than the hardness of the steel. I think for now I'm going with one of the Henry Taylor blue silicon carbide slipstones, which are cheap enough. Then, I'll probably get the lacer stone. Seems like a "buy it once" tool option.
 
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I just use a Norton slipstone, prob it's a carbide, to polish the flutes of the P&Ns which generally have milling marks left. Works quick enough. Some makes like Sorby and Henry Taylor get theirs polished at the factory.
 
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