Sharpening stone tools by machine

To make your chisels – hand tools as well as compressed-air tools – back into shape or sharpened with mechanical help, we offer you at bildhau two sharpening systems: one is a grinding machine, the other is a grinding wheel that you can use with an angle grinder or a drill.

Sharpening stone tools with the grinding machine

If you want to sharpen your chisels with a sanding machine for stone tools, make sure you use the right sharpening stone. Usually the machines come with a sharpening stone that is suitable for sharpening forged steel tools.

If you want to sharpen carbide tools, you need a sharpening stone with a softer bond, otherwise not enough abrasive grains can reach the surface of the wheel when grinding – your tool will not get the desired sharpness. So you may need to change the grinding wheel depending on which tools you want to work on. For sharpening claw chisels made of carbide, there are extra thin and tapered grinding wheels so that you can reach the spaces between the teeth.

If you find that your grindstone for forged steel tools is not removing enough material after some use, you can dress the stone so that enough sharp abrasive grains come to the surface again. If there are too few abrasive grains on the surface, the friction may generate a lot of heat and your forged steel tool may become too hot. For dressing you can use a dressing stone as well as an appropriate diamond tool. In our experience, the diamond dresser is much more effective, so it is definitely worth the investment if you have a lot of grinding to do. 

Sharpen with the grinding wheel and angle grinder or drill

If you do not own a grinding machine and do not wish to buy one, you have the alternative of sharpening your stone tools with a grinding wheel on the angle grinder or the drill. To be able to handle safely, we recommend that you hold the drill with a drill holder or the angle grinder with a ball joint holder well to the workbench or a table, so that you have both hands free to guide your stone tools.

Diamond grinding wheels are particularly practical for this type of sharpening: These grinding wheels have a perforated surface that not only provides cooling, making it almost impossible for your chisels to get too hot and burn. You can also, when the disc is in use, see through it, so to speak: This way you have full control over the stock removal and the grinding angle.

Our tip for the perfect sanding angle: Before sanding, draw exactly how you want to sand with a black pencil. Through the perforation of the disc, you can see when the black paint is gone and thus enough material has been removed for the correct angle.