Honing the Travisher

and the end of an era

Before diving into the post, I want to mention there’s space in this weekend’s Turning Intensive. Contact me if you are interested in coming and making some shavings.

It’s also time I remind you how much your support means to me and my small shop.

The last big projects are coming to a close in the house and workshop. I finally got the house painted and was shocked at what a great difference it makes.

As a reminder, this is the house as I found it. I still miss the rusty roof, but my insurance company insisted it go.

And tomorrow the Solar installation on the barn will be complete.

This should be enough to cover all the heating/ cooling and electric needs for the house and workshop. It was always part of my plan, but I got tired of huge investments, so I put it off. Then I started getting $900 electric bills, so here we go.

Here is a video on honing the travisher. I do think it’s helpful to have it ground to do this, mainly because it takes so much less time and effort. If you let the hollow grind disappear completely, you will have to abrade the entire bevel to sharpen and it’s far more likely to start rounding over. I make my tools with O-1 tool steel, which is very quick to sharpen to a razor edge, though it may not last as long as some other steels. There are tougher and harder steels out there, but they may take more effort to sharpen to the same high level as O-1.

I choose my materials and processes, as I often do, factoring in my laziness. I’m much more likely to actually stop and sharpen if it takes 2 minutes versus 10.

I’m working on the prototype for my new birdcage side chair and rockers this week, I’ll be showing a bit more about that process as I get further into it.