John,
I’m planning on building a dedicated sharpening station in my home workshop. Do you have any design tips? Obviously, the design could be as simple as a table that will accommodate my grinder and waterstones. But I’d rather make it more complicated for myself. Actually, I want to make it as easy and comfortable to use my sharpening equipment (and consequently have sharp tools) as possible. For example, should the setup be tiered — with the grinder higher than the stones? And what is an easy, no muss way of setting up the water stones? I noticed, for example, that David Charlesworth, uses wedges against a small fence to lock the waterstone in place while in use. What other designs/jigs have you seen or used that ought to be incorporated into a sharpening station design? I searched finewoodworking for an article, but came up empty handed (good material for a future article).
Thanks in advance for your help!
Replies
I'm still catching up on questions and e-mail that piled up because of the holiday weekend, but I've been giving your question some thought and I'll try to post an answer in the next day or two. Thanks for being patient.
John White
No problem. I look forward to your reply.
Sharpening is generally a messy process best done on a dedicated bench. If you have access to running water and drain lines, a small sink built into the bench is a real convenience. I built a sharpening station for the FWW shop out of a length of conventional Formica laminated counter top and found that it worked out very well. I used a dark grey granite pattern laminate so that it wouldn't show dirt too easily.
I don't have any specific recommendations for using water stones, I don't use them myself, but I would set the height of the bench where it is the most comfortable for the techniques you use to sharpen. Grinder height doesn't seem that critical, so set the bench height for the hand work with the stones, I don't think a different level for the grinder is worth the extra trouble of building a step in the bench.
Lighting is critical for sharpening work and I prefer the sharp crisp light of a halogen lights which show up angles and surface detail better than the softer lighting of fluorescents. A large magnifier on a stand is a luxury touch but useful once in a while (and makes you look like real sharpening pro).
John
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