what's going on everybody I'm Johnny
Brook welcome back to another crafty
workshop video and today's video is kind
of a combination of a project video in a
techniques video so I built this quick
little sharpening station actually from
an Ikea bamboo cutting board but I want
to show you how I built that but then
also how I sharpened my tools my hand
tool specifically like my chisels my
hand plane irons that kind of thing
because it's a process that I think can
seem kind of mysterious a lot of times
but I have a pretty simple system I'm
definitely not a sharpening expert but
it works well for me you can see I'm
missing a lot of arm hair here I've
definitely been testing it out and these
tools are super sharp so hopefully you
can learn something there but first
let's go ahead and start by showing you
how I built this quick little sharpening
station I've had this IKEA bamboo
cutting board hanging around my shop
forever just waiting for a purpose and
as it turns out this was the perfect
size for this sharpening station I had
in mind
so I modeled up a quick sharpening
station design in easel and this whole
system is based on my buddy James right
sharpening station which i think is
based on Paul seller sharpening station
the system is built around 3d MT diamond
plates which are in varying grits from
coarse to extra fine and then the last
sharpening surface is a leather strap
which is used as the final honing
surface and can be used in between
scharping sessions for quick touch-ups I
got the cutting board clamped to the
x-carve spoil board and then started the
first milling operation which was a
simple process of cutting the four
pockets for the diamond plates and strop
the first three pockets for the diamond
plates were slightly deeper than the
strop area since the leather isn't quite
as thick as the diamond plates and after
the pockets were cut I swapped over to a
60-degree V bit so I could make this
sharpening station a little extra fancy
by milling in some labels for the
different diamond plates and this was my
first time trying v carving using easel
and it went really smoothly the letters
turned out super crisp and both of these
operations combined only took about 30
minutes I must have shifted the labels
and easel somehow between these two
operations as they were a little bit
off-center in the end but that was no
biggie
after the x-carve was finished up I've
removed the cutting board which I guess
now as a sharpening station sanded away
any fuzzy bits off-camera and then test
fit the diamond plates and strop and the
diamond plates were a perfect fit with
just a little bit of wiggle room which I
added in during the design process just
for ease of removal but I needed to cut
the piece of leather to size and I
figured the easiest way to do this would
be to use one of the diamond plates as a
template so I pulled out my self-healing
mat and cut the leather to size using a
rotary cutter and I love these rotary
cutters they leave a super clean edge
and are just perfect for this kind of
work
once the leather was cut to size I pre
drilled a few holes through the leather
into the bamboo and then drove in a few
decorative screws to hold the leather in
place and the screw heads are slightly
below the surface of the leather but
nothing I sharpen will ever get into
those areas anyway so there's nothing
really to worry about there I added a
few rubber feet to the bottom of the
board which actually came with the
diamond plates and then considered
filling in the letters with sharpie but
figured I didn't want to push my luck
there I applied a couple coats of
wipe-on poly just to help seal and
protect the bamboo overtime since it
will be getting covered in glass cleaner
and metal dust on a regular basis and
then I could finally get to doing some
sharpening and my previous sharpening
system was the work sharp which worked
pretty well but I was never able to get
things super sharp with it and you can
see the old micro bevel from the work
sharp system something I've actually
since ditched in my sharpening routine
and now I use this Veritas honing guide
I think this is the deluxe model which
has worked really well for me
you set the projection of the blade with
this little guide lock it into place and
then get to sharpening it's super quick
you don't need to plug it in and it's
really easy to make adjustments to
different bevel angles with this system
which is nice considering I have a
variety of bevel angles between my
chisels and plane irons for as a
lubricant on the diamond plate I just
use basic glass cleaner a few spritzes
is plenty and then I just rest the blade
against the plate applying even pressure
with my fingers and then run the blade
back and forth across the surface and as
you can see here I must have sharpened
this to a slightly different bevel angle
previously so I had a decent amount of
material to remove here and ideally I'd
probably use a bench grinder for this
kind of thing but I don't have one and
the coarse stone works it really only
takes a couple extra minutes and I don't
have to dedicate shop space to a bench
grinder that I wouldn't use that much I
just kept running the blade across the
coarse diamond plate which is the
equivalent of about 325 grit until I had
even scratch patterns across the entire
face of the bevel and once I was done
with the first plate I can move on to my
next diamond plate which is the
ingridt which i think is roughly 600
grit and these last two plates go a lot
faster than the first since the bevel is
already established and I'm really just
refining the surface here and one other
thing to mention one of my favorite
things about diamond plates is that they
stay flat and don't wear unevenly even
if you sharpen them in the same spot
over and over and this makes sharpening
super quick you never have to flatten
your diamond plates like you would with
water stones or oil stones after the
fine plate I moved on to the extra fine
plate which is roughly 1200 grit and
this really refines the surface and gets
the edge extremely sharp
once again this doesn't require as many
strokes and I'm really just removing the
scratch pattern from the previous plate
here and I should also mention here when
I'm sharpening in the future unless I've
really damaged the edge by dropping the
chisel or something I don't even need to
start with that first plate unless I let
things just go for way too long in the
edge you get super dull I can just skip
right to the fine or even the extra fine
plate depending on the condition of the
edge the last step in the sharpening
process is the strop and I think this is
really the step I was missing out on
with my previous sharpening system my
strap is just a scrap piece of a 9 ounce
vegetable pan leather which is plenty
beefy for this application I applied
some more buffing compound to the rough
side of the leather and then pulled the
bevel of the chisel across the strop 30
to 40 times until it starts to get a
mirror polish near the edge you should
also see that buffing compound get a
little darker as you run the bevel
across the strop I also worked on the
back of the chisel a few times just to
make sure and remove any bird that's
formed during the sharpening process and
also to polish that face a little bit
after the strapping the blade is super
sharp and the real test for sharpness in
my mind is the shaving test and as you
can see it passed with flying colors
taking all the hair it came into contact
with on the first pass I could also of
course test the edge on wood on this
scrap piece of walnut I had and as you
can see it sliced through this ingrained
super cleanly leaving a nice smooth
surface and it also made quick work of
this edge grain and left a shiny almost
glass-like surface finish I'd call henna
sharp chisel now all these steps were
done assuming the back of the chisel was
flat but what if it wasn't
I had already flattened the backs of my
main Eric's chisels with the work sharp
but I had some cheaper Harbor Freight
chisels hanging around that I hadn't
actually sharpened yet and as you can
see here the scratch pattern from the
factory
is still there on the back of the chisel
so the first step is to remove those
scratches and replace them with some
finer scratches from the diamond plate
and when flattening the backs of chisels
you really only need to focus on the
inch or so nearest the cutting edge
there's really no point in flattening
the entire back of the chisel it's just
kind of wasted effort and after getting
a consistent scratch pattern from the
coarse plate I moved up through to the
fine plate working perpendicular to the
direction from the coarse plate so that
it was a little easier to see when the
scratches were gone and then I repeated
the same process on the extra fine plate
and then finish it off with a little
strapping with the back nice and flat I
went through the whole sharpening
process on the bevel and then could
again test the chisel sharpness which it
passed with flying colors so that's
pretty much how I sharpen my chisels but
what about plane irons well this
sharpening jig has another attachment
for wider plane irons but the whole
sharpening system is essentially the
same I used the same projection guide to
set the bevel angle 30 degrees in this
case and then I clamped down the plane
iron making sure it was parallel to the
projection guide so it sharpened square
to the bevel edge after that it's just
more of the same processes before moving
up through the grits and then finishing
with the strop and you can see here that
this iron is actually hollow ground from
the manufacturer so sharpening really
only hits the very front and back edges
the bevel and this makes sharpening a
whole lot faster since you don't have to
remove as much material and finally I
can test it out first with the shaving
test which of course was no problem and
then I reinstalled the iron in the plane
got it set up and all centered and then
could make some shavings and this plane
is now cutting beautifully producing
these awesome paper thin shavings and I
could actually see through the shavings
when I held it up to the light
pretty awesome and with that I think
that's basically it when it comes to how
I sharpen my tools all right hopefully
you guys enjoyed this one I'm really
happy with the way this came together
it's nice to have a simple system that I
can just kind of pull out of a drawer
from below my workbench here sharpened
really quickly and then just get right
back to work because I think that was my
big barrier to sharpening before is it
was something that plugged in and I had
to do all these changing of plates and
that kind of thing and it just took
longer than I needed it to so this is a
really effective system it's simple it
is a bit of initial investment but I
think it's something that will last you
for many many many years to come
so hopefully you guys enjoyed this one I
also want to give a quick shout out to
eisah toons who are the exclusive
hearing
Protection provider in my shop they
actually have these new models the ISO
Tunes extra which I'm loving a better
battery life they sound better I'm
loving them so if you want to learn more
about them check out the link in the
video description below I also have
links to all of the tools and materials
I used in this video including the
honing guide and all these diamond
plates and that kind of stuff so
definitely go check those out also if
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subscribed I put out new project videos
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ring that little notification bell so
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superfans there so hopefully you guys
will check that out and enjoy but I
guess until next time thank you guys all
for watching and until next time happy
building