Here's a link...
To the knife sharpening thread we JUST went through.
It has all sorts of links within it to this FAQ in it's fancier form, plus a couple of other good sites, AND a good tool sharpening article that's very thorough, and makes a good companion to the FAQ.
There's also the Origin of Scary Sharp.
Here's the link.
My favorite line from the
Ameritech sharpening site:
sharpeningmadeeasy.com
"The Secret of sharpening."
"If there is a "secret" in knife sharpening, this is it: Woodworkers write and publish more about sharpening and have more sharpening toys than knife makers and collectors. To learn more about sharpening, read Woodworking books and catalogs."
It does feel kind of nice having an entire site devoted to sharpening knives come out with a statement like that. I mean,
I know that I know what I'm talking about, but it's nice getting deffered to by an Authority on the subject without even asking.
The oddest thing, however, is the lack of widespread sharpening knowledge in the woodworking INDUSTRY. A lot of the time, the guys don't even realize that a chisel is a precision cutting instrument capable of amazing things if properly sharp. They find out when I expose 'em to real edges, but at the same time they use mirror-finished tools to chop through
nails! Simply because it's what they used last time, even though they know it renders the chisel virtually useless.
I guess it goes hand in hand with the replacement of hand tools with power tools. If they can't use a machine, they haven't been trained. One foreman I worked with didn't even OWN a single hand-plane. Said he had no use for 'em. Of course, this guy was also a second-class woodhacker who produced sloppily-made goods. He didn't NEED precision cutting tools, because he didn't care about precision in his work. Net result? He got to make the cheap commercial-grade particle-board/laminate stuff, work he disliked, because he couldn't be relied on to make things that looked new. I got to make all of the heirloom-quality
furniture-grade highest-end cabinetry, which is the work I like the best. No plastic for me!
A job worth doing is worth doing right. Knowing how to arrange for the right tools is part of the job. When they run right, it makes the tasks easier so they go quicker, which frees up time and effort that can be spent making sure the quality is the best it can be. (Just proves I'm lazy at heart. I HATE struggling at work, so I want it to go right the first time!
)
Is there any other way to do things that lets you look in the
Mirror?
