Customer Reviews

Sharpening with Waterstones: A Perfect Edge in 60 Seconds (Cambium Handbook)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've been getting into sharpening over the last year, since I've started using handplanes seriously. I started with the scary sharp (sandpaper) method, but recently thought I'd try out waterstones. I already had a couple of books that discuss sharpening - Garret Hack's "The Handplane Book" and Leonard Lee's "The Complete Guide to Sharpening".

I was having a little trouble with my new waterstones, so I thought Kirby's book might give me some insight since it's specifically about waterstones. I should add that I'm not a big Kirby fan, having found his articles in Fine Woodworking to be highly opionated and non-empathetic with beginners.

This book is much the same as his articles. He dismisses the use of sharpening jigs, does not discuss any of the problems you might face with waterstones or even sharpening in general, and doesn't offer much detail or reasoning to back up his recommendations. I could go on, but basically I found this book to essentially be a subset of the sharpening information contained in Hack's and Lee's books, which are significantly more detailed and contain a wider breadth of information.

Here's the whole book- Buy a grinder. Sharpen your blade. Use a waterstone, and make it sharper. Here's some illustrations.
Not very helpful. It didn't really cover anything for amatuers, but it didn't give much to a pro either. 2/3rds of the book is his view on how to set up a bench grinder.

Kirby gives a lot of insight into sharpening woodworking blades. The work station options that he includes in this book are simple and functional. I was able to put together the sharpening station in just an afternoon. Even after a few modification it works out perfectly. The control that he talks about having on the tool while sharpening was very helpful. By following the steps outlined in this book, it give you a good start with developing your sharpening skills. I can easily see how the use of the waterstones are superior to my old oil stones. The blades become sharper faster and retain their edges longer. Overall I think it is an excellent reference for both the novice and the experienced woodworker. Let's face it, you can only enjoy woodworking when you have finely sharpened and adjusted tools.

I purchased this book to learn to get a keen edge on my tools in a minimum amount of time. This book offers a number of good pointers, although much of the advice is also to be taken with a grain of salt (the uselessness of sharpening guides, for example). Overall, a good book. The size and readability make it perfect for the workshop shelf as opposed to the office library.

I have bought several books in an effort to sharpen my chisel and plane blades. I now don't know where they are. I know where this one is. Its in my shop. This book can be read in one hour, and remembered for a lifetime. It's simplicity is magnificant. I now know the basic elements of sharpening woodworking tools, and thoes basic elements permit me to put a razor edge on my tools. It will let you do the same.

One of the unfortunate facts about cutting tools is that they need to have a sharp edge to work well but using them takes away that edge. This is a wonderful little book by an expert woodworker explaining how he puts back the edge quickly so he can go back to work right away. It describes every detail including inconvertible facts as well as the author's many opinions. It's a complete system; it doesn't leave out any steps. Even though not every technique is useful to me I wouldn't leave anything out because that would inevitably leave out techniques that were useful.

With the help of this book I learned to hand sharpen chisels and plane irons. (I didn't try setting up a grinder the way he suggests.) Rather than trust my skill completely I used a honing guide from Lee Valley. I spent a very pleasant summer afternoon in the backyard learning how to sharpen with waterstones, a stack of dull chisels and plane irons, a bucket of water and a yapping puppy. I got wet and the yard got messy but I don't think anybody minded. A very rewarding afternoon, except when the puppy ran off with one of the pages. I don't know if the chisels came out sharp enough to shave with but they slice softwood like butter.

This book does an excellent job as a teacher for three reasons: It is written by somebody who knows what he is doing. It explains all the steps clearly and it doesn't leave out any. And I came out of the process fairly skillful at something I didn't know how to do before.

This book will disappoint you if you don't buy it with the right frame of reference. It isn't a chatty book that starts out with pictures of a trip to a Japanese quarry, etc... Nor is it a dithering book that gives you every method know to man to do something. Nor is it a book by a master Japanese woodworker with a real understanding of waterstones. This series of books is designed to give in-depth coverage of one person's way of doing one thing.

So if you have no interest in taking a master's advice, and just want to be entertained, not the best read. But if you want a practical and fast way of getting your tools to the level of a master studio craftsman and teacher, then this is a possible path.

A lot of top craftsmen, at least those who write etc... actually do a lot of tool reviewing, promoting and such. So it is natural to fall into the assumption that expert craftsman have a thousand opinions about tools with no fixed technical adress. Really good workers, find something that works, and then get on with the work.

Kirby mostly wrote for Fine Woodworking when it wasn't a magazine that catered to beginers

If you want sharp tools and don't give two hoots about all the theory and gab most books offer on the subject, this is a good read. The text is clear and the drawings are very useful. Plain and simple, it guides you toward all it takes to get your chisels and plane blades sharp and keep them that way.

I found this book to be of great interest with the abundance of B&W photos and drawings also with the sun topics of the subject matter covered. Things that people will not tell you or talk about are covered in this book. In forty years in and out of the shop and art community I never new that a grinder isn't used to rough sharpen a tool. Also how to read the label on a grinding wheel. He covers the so called inside secrets. I do not know about the plane blades but the knife, chisel and gouges worked for me. I can only see that my sharpening skills will increase way beyond the cost of this book. I own it and use.

The title is misleading in the extreme. this is a book about how to grind tools. It is also about building simple jigs. It has hardly anything about waterstones. It basically consists of telling you that they are used wetted with water and build up a slurry and that you should go from a coarse to a medium to s smooth stone. Well no kidding! No mention of a Nakura stone to produce extra slurry on a fine stone. No suggestions on holding a consistent angle while freehand sharpening. One good thing it tells you is that synthetic stones may be a better choice than natural stones.
If you sharpen a great deal of tools instead of knives (I don't) this may be a good read. For others, it is completely worthless.