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Over the years I've sharpened my chisels and plane blades hand held on oil and water stones. No problem with getting them sharp but always seemed like too much work just doing up the edges on a few cutting tools. Recently treated myself to a Veritas Mk.2 Honing guide and a Atoma 400x diamond plate.................................I have seen the light, what a treat to use, fast and efficient and does a much more ever job then I could ever get when just hand holding. I now use the diamond plate and then the water stones. No sharper then I got by hand but much more pleasurable. Wonder If anyone else has had the same experience?
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

+1 on the Veritas Mk 2 jig. I struggled to get consistent bevels until I got one of those. I use the scary sharp method of a piece of plate glass with 3M abrasive film and it works a treat and is easy to do so I sharpen more frequently. Doesn't stop me from being an idiot though as I write this with surgical tape all over my palm after an encounter with one of my scary sharp chisels. (doing something I knew I should not be doing but it was only going to take a few seconds.....you know the rest!. To anyone new out there using sharp tools, always keep any fleshy bits you value behind the edge of the tool!)

Cheers, Bob

I did as well Tom. I had always hand-held sharpened my tools with oilstones as I was shown as an apprentice cabinetmaker. I did this for 30 years and thought I would try the Vertitas Mk.2 Honing guide and I had bought some water stones after reading a lot of feedback on them. I found that it was a great system and found that it was fast and efficient and I find it preferable to how I used to do it

Dave

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To be someone must be a wonderful thing!

Same school as you Tom. Did it for years as I was taught by Enzo, an Italian cabinet maker I worked with many moons ago. I achieved good results. When I started building guitars I picked up the Vertitas guide. Results got even better. Earlier this year I treated myself to one of these. https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/bla ... terstones- 1000/8000. The results are now great. One thing I really like about these stones is you don't have to soak them in water. They just need a light spray once or twice during a sharpening.
And since I was doing an order anyway, I got them to throw in one of these. https://www.lie-nielsen.com/product/mod ... lers-rasp- I bought it with volutes in mind but am finding many more uses.

I was using water stones for awhile then I got a set of the DMI diamond stones and wow they work so much faster. I use just a spritz of water, or nothing at all if it's just a light touch up. Much less messier than water stones.

Danny I love love love my Auriou rasps! Probably my favorite part of the build is using these to carve the heel and back of the headstock.

I have used the veritas MK2 with both diamond stones and wet stones. With it I have achieved great results, I would use the waster stones between projects and make sure all of my chisels and my plane blade were flat and had good edges. I would use a green tagged diamond stone to keep a sharp micro bevel as I worked. Even still while working, the barrier of pulling out the guide setting chisel or blade and sharping led me to use a tool a little longer than I should without sharpening. When in the zen of carving braces I just could not help myself.

So I ended up buying a Work Sharp 3000, It sits on my bench set for the micro bevel angle with a glass disk installed with 1200 grit sand paper disk on both sides. Now at any time I can just stick the the chisel into the guide and very quickly clean the edge, quickly enough that I actually do it for chisels.

The work sharp 3000 works like an mechanized scary sharp system. I bought extra glass disks with a range of sand paper grits so it is very easy to completely sharpen my chisels and blades. I do take care that I do not allow the edge to overheat, which is possible using the tool.

Early on I tried a tormek for sharpening but using paring chisels with a hollow grind edge drove me crazy. I spent a whole day removing that edge from all of my tools.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

John - Can you do spokeshave blades with the Work Sharp? I am think about getting one. I wish it could do draw knife blades. That's what has me torn between the Work Sharp and the Tormek (besides the price difference!).

I use the worksharp to sharpen may Lie Nielsen Flat Boggs spokeshave blades. I think the Tormek would be better for a draw knife. The blade guide in the 3000 would not work for it. The only functionality you would be left with would be the small spinning disk of sand paper on top.

I still have the Tormek, about all I use it for is to sharpen my Carruth Scrapper. If I was a turner I could see it helping me.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

I'm diamond all the way, 300/400/1200/DMT XXF does most things.
Welsh Slate 8-10K well slurried up if I want that "special" edge.
Water stones, need too much TLC for me.
Started with an Eclipse honing guide, want to the MkII when I got more serious, but have gone back to the Eclipse guides (I have 2) for most things except Japanese chisels and spokeshave blades, when I use a Kell no 2 guide because of the short blades.
I keep the MkII for skew blades, nice bit of kit, but too much kerfuffle for everyday use.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Which systems work for curved edges, such as gouges?

I use a jet slow speed water filled sharpener with an auxillary leather wheel, and then a repurposed grinder that has 2 ,8in buffing wheels charged with green and red rouge. I also have water slip stones coarse to 4000 grit and water cone stones for coarse to 4000 for putting a slight inside grind on my many carving chisels and taking out nicks

+1 for the Work Sharp. The main thing about it is how easy it is to use so I use it often. Like John, I leave it set up sitting on a bench and therefore I can touch up a chisel in seconds. Anything "difficult" and my laziness would make me let my chisels get duller than they should.

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I went for this system years ago, designed by a man who has been building for longer than most of us have been alive. It's time-consuming to make initially, but once you are set up, it is truly excellent.