Sharpening sharpening sharpening. I’m in the middle of working on a flat panel carving and in doing so I’m having to master not only using carving chisels but also sharpening them. I have now undertaken two carving workshops run by Silvio Apponyi. There are about 10 participants in each of these workshops all working on a variety of individual projects.
I am attempting to recreate a 17th century Norwegian flat pane panel. This comes from a design that was created in a book called Norwegian carving by Odd Fauske. This is an interesting book based on a training manual by Odd Fauske and published by Ian Whittington and translated by his wife Elaine. The book contains the original Norwegian text and the English translation on the facing page. In order to do this I copied the design out of the book which was spread over several pages. I converted it to an svg file in a program called Inkscape. This program has a n auto trace function which allows a jpg or other image to be made into an svg file. The advantage is that the image is scalable without losing resolution. It is similar to Adobe’s Illustrator but is an open source project and it seems to be regularly updated.
The project has resulted in me buying some additional carving chisels both new and second hand. .At the workshops there is the opportunity to borrow tools from other carvers to see how they suit my needs. I only buy after attending thee workshops to see what I actually need.
This brings me to the subject of this article which is sharpening. It’s almost like some sort of dark art. No matter how much equipment you buy, it’s in the practice of sharpening that you achieve good and reliable edges on your tools. The previous post on this blog talks about a way of manually sharpening curve shaped chisels such as gouges.
In the workshop I learned to use a bench using a grinder to touch up carving chisels which was a bit scary at the start. Itis a matter of a firm grip and a soft touch on the tools. Sylvia Apponyi uses a polishing mop on a bench grinder and a green silicon based grinding stone on the other side. I haven’t bought a green grinding stone yet but I will do so. Mostly he uses the polishing mop to hone the blades with a grey honing compound. Which in time will give any of the chisels a slightly rounded edge. The edge can be restored by using the grinding stone. I do have other ways of sharpening including wet stone, wet stone grinder and the Robert Sorby system which I primarily use for turning chisels.
The message is practice practice and find someone that can help you. I need to write another post more focused on the process of sharpening.
