About the service
I sharpen and hone woodworking edge tools on waterstones, and every job starts the same way: the tool goes on the bench, the edge goes under a loupe, and a bevel gauge tells me what angle it has been running at. Then I lay the back of the chisel or plane iron on a coarse stone and look at where the scratch pattern lands. Nine tools out of ten have a hollow or a rounded back, and until that face is flat and polished for the first inch behind the edge, grinding the bevel is wasted effort — the edge will come off the stones looking like a saw no matter how fine the final grit.
From there I work up through the grits in order and never skip one: coarse to remove chips and set the bevel, medium to erase the coarse scratches, fine to prepare for polishing, then a lapping plate with compound and a few passes on a leather strop. The angle depends on the wood. Pine, lime and cedar take a keen 25 degrees and leave a cleaner surface for it; oak, ash and tropical hardwoods need a 30 to 32 degree micro-bevel or the edge crumbles within the first few metres of cut. A new plane iron is never ready out of the box and takes longer to prepare than a resharpen. Jointer knives are dressed in a holder so the line stays straight end to end, and secateurs are touched only on the outer bevel so the blades keep closing the way the maker intended. I test on a thin cross-grain shaving and on a paper hair cut in mid-air, not by eye.
I work only with woodworking, garden and kitchen tools; I do not accept anything related to weapons. A fresh edge cuts instantly, so tools go back in a sheath with a warning and are not to be handed to children. Overheating on a powered grinder draws the temper and ruins the edge for good, which is why heavy regrinding is done slowly and with cooling. A badly chipped blade has a limit: if the steel is broken away deeply, it is more honest to say up front that the repair will eat half the remaining stock.
— inspection, angle measurement and a plain report on the state of the edge;
— flattening and polishing the back on coarse stones;
— grit sequence 220 - 400 - 1000 - 3000 - 6000 - 8000;
— honing on a lapping plate and stropping on leather;
— full preparation of a new plane iron, chip breaker included;
— jointer and thicknesser knives dressed in a holder;
— secateurs, loppers and pruning saws with the original geometry kept;
— rusted chisel revival with an honest estimate of the steel left;
— a whole kit brought back before the season in one order;
— a short note on stropping between sharpenings.
Turnaround is three to seven days for single tools and up to two weeks for a full kit.
From there I work up through the grits in order and never skip one: coarse to remove chips and set the bevel, medium to erase the coarse scratches, fine to prepare for polishing, then a lapping plate with compound and a few passes on a leather strop. The angle depends on the wood. Pine, lime and cedar take a keen 25 degrees and leave a cleaner surface for it; oak, ash and tropical hardwoods need a 30 to 32 degree micro-bevel or the edge crumbles within the first few metres of cut. A new plane iron is never ready out of the box and takes longer to prepare than a resharpen. Jointer knives are dressed in a holder so the line stays straight end to end, and secateurs are touched only on the outer bevel so the blades keep closing the way the maker intended. I test on a thin cross-grain shaving and on a paper hair cut in mid-air, not by eye.
I work only with woodworking, garden and kitchen tools; I do not accept anything related to weapons. A fresh edge cuts instantly, so tools go back in a sheath with a warning and are not to be handed to children. Overheating on a powered grinder draws the temper and ruins the edge for good, which is why heavy regrinding is done slowly and with cooling. A badly chipped blade has a limit: if the steel is broken away deeply, it is more honest to say up front that the repair will eat half the remaining stock.
— inspection, angle measurement and a plain report on the state of the edge;
— flattening and polishing the back on coarse stones;
— grit sequence 220 - 400 - 1000 - 3000 - 6000 - 8000;
— honing on a lapping plate and stropping on leather;
— full preparation of a new plane iron, chip breaker included;
— jointer and thicknesser knives dressed in a holder;
— secateurs, loppers and pruning saws with the original geometry kept;
— rusted chisel revival with an honest estimate of the steel left;
— a whole kit brought back before the season in one order;
— a short note on stropping between sharpenings.
Turnaround is three to seven days for single tools and up to two weeks for a full kit.
