Sharpening woodcarving tools by hand or with a machine?

Only really sharp tools are a joy to work with when sculpting wood. If a blade is blunt or even has nicks, it will not cut the wood fibre precisely – the result can look very unattractive, the fibre can tear, a lovingly carved detail can disappear, a surface can become dented or scratched instead of shining like velvet.

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For every wood carver, the question of how to keep the tools sharp or get them sharp again arises right from the start. If you don't want to buy a sanding machine, you can sharpen your carpenter chisels , --> gouges or v-parting tools are traditionally sharpened and honed by hand. Sharpening by hand usually takes a little longer than with a machine, but the result is a very fine finish.

Sharpening carving tools and sculpting tools by hand

If you decide to use your carving tools , sharpening chip carving knives and woodcarving chisels by hand, you once again have a choice. Stones are used for sharpening and honing tools: synthetic (or artificial) or natural stones, water stones or oil stones. In addition to coarser synthetic sharpening stones, so-called diamond sharpening stones can be used to quickly remove severe damage and nicks in the cutting edge or to sharpen very blunt tools. Over time, you will know which sharpening stones work best for you.

Sharpening and honing stones

At bildhau we have selected the following hand sharpening systems for you:

Arkansas - natural stone

Arkansas is a classic oil grindstone that occurs as a natural and artificial stone. The Arkansas grindstones from bildhau are natural stones that we have available for you as bench stones and as differently shaped hollow iron stones. You can achieve the finest finish with a special Arkansas sharpening stone.

Belgian coticule whetstone polygon – natural stone

A natural stone is the yellow  belgian coticule whetstone polygon , which is also called coticule. The water stone is particularly suitable for all phases of sharpening wooden tools by hand. It comes in many different shapes due to the mining conditions. To start with, a single belgian coticule whetstone polygon is often enough to keep your wooden tools sharp.

Art and diamond sharpening stones

A diamond sharpening stone is not a stone in the true sense of the word, but a layer of diamond applied to linen that is mounted on metal, wood or stone. Diamond sharpening stones are very aggressive at the beginning and initially lose some of their grinding power, but are then very durable. They are particularly suitable for coarse sharpening, e.g. if a cutting edge has nicks or is very blunt.

Honing stones

Honing stones are generally understood to be grindstones with a very fine grain (between 500 and 1000), the most common of which include Belgian stones and Arkansas stones .

Honing stones often have special shapes, e.g. to optimally process the cutting edges of gouges or v-parting tools, they are also called profiled stones or moulding stones.

Use honing stones if your tools only need a light sharpening to be completely sharp again, or if you have already pre-sharpened with coarser grindstones. You can use honing stones to remove burrs that have formed when sharpening with coarser sharpening stones.

Leather & razor strops

For the very last sharpening and to remove any remaining, very fine burrs, you can sharpen the sharpened edge with a scraper leather , e.g. a razor strop, or a piece of open-pored wood in combination with polishing paste. This allows you to achieve optimum sharpness. An extra-fine Arkansas stone has a similar effect.

Sharpening woodcarving tools with the machine

If you would prefer to sharpen your carving tools by machine rather than by hand, we would be happy to introduce you to the sharpening system from TORMEK .

For more information on sharpening and honing wooden tools by hand, see our specialist knowledge articles Sharpening tools by hand: Sharpening Stones, Sharpening gouges by hand and Coticule - belgian coticule whetstone polygon and in our video tutorials on the introduction to wood sculpture . 

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