8 Comments
User's avatar
Herbert Forsberg's avatar

Great info Pete. Keep it comin'. I have a family of grinders and stones and diamond plated that I've accumulated over the years .They all come in handy for various tasks. It took me a long time to totally appreciate the fundamental that sharpening the tools is essential to the craft of woodworking. But once you get it, there's hope for advancing one's work.

Expand full comment
Tim's avatar

Very interesting Peter. I like how you spend so much time on teaching sharpening in your Vimeo series. I am proud of how I have become a good sharpener of traditional chisels and I’m making progress with my scorps and drawknives.

Expand full comment
Sue Tolleson-Rinehart's avatar

Thank you, Dr. Galbert, for this kind and knowledgeable therapy session...I feel my grinderphobia lessening! Now that I have the precious gift of time, and some bad old chisels, I am going to get better! I'll also channel the spirit of the late, great Phil Lowe who, like you, could always make his students understand the value of the hollow grind. One day I'll have the courage to touch my travisher blade to the grinder! Not yet, but soon..."sharpening a feather" is just the right image! Thank you, as always, for these truly insightful discussions.

Expand full comment
Todd Reid's avatar

Keep preaching Peter. Great topic that I’m sure most of us want more information on. After five years I am just now getting comfortable sharpening and knowing when to sharpen. Thanks again. Todd

Expand full comment
Walter Egon's avatar

I bought a slow speed grinder a coupla years ago because I was concerned about overheating the steel. Some people were saying that steel would lose its temper long before it would turn blue/black, even as low as a 100°C / 212°F. Others would claim that it's poor practice to cool your tool in water as the sudden change in temperature would make micro-cracks in the steel.

I don't know about these things, but I do know that some people are obsessive fusspots who worry and find problems where none exist (having a stripe of that hide myself). Since I bought the grinder I've also upped my honing game so I find I seldom need it these days, only for changing (lowering) primary bevels, and then I take care to be gentle ... like "sharpening a feather" indeed.

That aloe vera plant on the sill behind the grinders in the first picture ... poor thing; it's a dusty life being a shop-plant :-)

Expand full comment
Peter Galbert's avatar

That’s Spike, he’ll have a new home soon, but he’s doing better than when he came to the shop!

Expand full comment
Walter Egon's avatar

Hahahah! Good name :-)

Expand full comment
Sue Tolleson-Rinehart's avatar

Dear Spike!

Expand full comment