You’ve seen videos of me sharpening big tools, wide tools, and thick tools. Now I want to show you how the Ultimate Sharpening Jig can handle the tiniest tools. And this includes skewed and beveled blades. In the video below I show how to sharpen small tools using the Ultimate Sharpening Jig, the Makita 9820 Horizontal Waterstone and my DMT diamond stones.
Jeff Fischer and I are working on an exciting new design of marking gauge that is in the final development stages. I wanted to use one of the prototypes in my shop but it didn’t have a blade yet. Sharpening small tools is always a challenge, but once you have a solid system of holding your tool securely (i.e. The Ultimate Sharpening Jig) you are well on your way. By using small pieces of wood to act as step clamps under the u-channel I was able to quickly secure the steel into position. I then used the Ultimate Sharpening Jig to present the tool steel to the powered water stone to quickly and cooly grind the angle I wanted.
The strategy was to start with water stone and quickly establish the initial facet on the steel since it had never had one before. I then moved to the diamond stones for final sharpening and honing without ever adjusting the tool steel from it’s original position. It’s nice to be able to secure the blade in the jig one time and then be able to move freely from the water stone to the diamond stones.
I can not imagine a simpler or more precise way to sharpen small tools than this. The number of ways tools can be hold in this jig are limited only by the craftsmen’s imagination.
View more hi resolution photos of the The Ultimate Sharpening Jig on our Flickr page.
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