Sharpening Wheel Gauges

When I'm using my wood turning tools (gouges, scrapers, skews etc.) on my wood turning lathe to shape the wood, the tools need to be sharp - a blunt too is more dangerous.

Mostly, I touch up the tip of my tools using diamond coated steel plates - sharpening by hand. This is quick, and often means I don't need to move away from the lathe (important as I turn seated).

I use the James Barry sharpening stones and fluid when doing a more major touch up on my wood turning tools

Wood Turning Spindle Gouge, sharpening by hand

However, this touching up means the tool tip will start to round over slightly - or be harder to sharpen as each time I sharpen like this I'm removing more of the roundness created by my sharpening wheel.

In either case, it's time to put them on my sharpening wheel to re-profile the tool. I use a low speed sharpening wheel with CBN wheels - it's a personal preference but it doesn't get the tool tip as hot, and I like the fact that the wheel doesn't wear away like on ceramic stones - so it stays a constant diameter (thus preserving the tool tip angle). The only disadvantage is it takes a long time for the wheels to stop rotating after I switch it off - and this is on a low speed system - the CBN wheels are heavy and act like flywheels!

You can get various jigs to sharpen tools on the wheel, and I'm sure they're great. Having worked for so long with wood working tools, I prefer to sharpen by hand - I use a tool rest to get the angle, but the shape is defined by my hand/arm/body movements.

Sharpening a wood turning gouge on my sharpening wheel

I don't get too hung up on what actual angle my tools are sharpened too - in fact I'll be honest, I don't know what angle my 1/2" spindle gouge is (the tool I use the most) - or any of my other tools. But what matters to me is that it is sharpened to the same angle that it was sharpened to last time - if I don't do this, it's a lot more work to resharpen each time, and I'm more likely to lose the overall shape of the tool tip.

I've tried various ways to do this, but I recently hit upon a new idea to create jigs to preserve the angle between the wheel and the tool rest.

• I found some scrap wood, planned on side completely flat using my hand planes.

• I then set the tool rest on my sharpening wheel to the right angle by eye, using the edge of a tool as an example. Obviously I did this all with the whole system switched off and unplugged.

• Then I placed the flat edge of gauge on the tool rest, and marked the edge of wheel against the wood with a pencil.

• This round section was cut out, and the shape refined using a spoke shave, so it sits accurately on the wheel.

Finished templates with round section refined by spoke shave

• I then marked the gauge up with a letter to show which gauge it is - currently I have A, B, C and D, then mark each tool with the right letter on it.

Set of gauges created with their respective letters

Tool with the correct gauge letter applied

• When I need to sharpen a set of tools on my wheel, I first organise them into letters - all the A's go together etc.

• Then using the right lettered gauge - say A - set the tool rest to the right position, then sharpen all the A's. Tool rest is set in position by offering correct gauge up to wheel (obviously when not rotating), and setting the tool rest up against the base, so it all sits neatly together. Takes a bit of practice to do this, but after a while it becomes easier.

Setting tool rest to correct angle with the gauge

• Then I sharpen the tool.

Sharpening the tool

- Then I move to B, C and D repeating the above process.

I find this a surprisingly accurate way of doing things - I can quickly sharpen my tools on my wheel. The fact that I don't know what the angle is doesn't matter - it works and that's the most important thing.

So it's on to more sharpening soon again...