Home made sharpening jig

[Cherryville Chuck]

I've been coming across some different designs for plane iron/chisel sharpening jigs lately and they gave me the idea how to make one that is very simple to make and cheap. It uses two skateboard bearings to roll on. Skate board bearings are 608 designation and for best results they should be double shielded (sealed bot sides). i found a site on ebay that sells a 10 pack for under $6 in the US but the best deal I've found here so far is $2.16 each at Canada Bearing. The 608 is 22mm in diameter and 7mm wide with an 8mm bore.

The construction is really simple. I set my saw for about 8mm high and then ran a 1" thick block of wood over it, moving the fence a full 1/8" after the first cut, then a 1/16' for the third cut, then moving it just a hair until I could squeeze an 8mm all thread rod in the groove. BTW, 5/16" is so close that it would probably work just fine. I think there's about 3/100ths of an inch difference. Then the front of the block needed to be beveled so it could tip down and a strip of wood for a clamp got installed.

This is only a prototype so I'll make a few changes with the final model. The base block needs to be narrower. As seen in the picture, the bolster on my test chisel is touching it already. I'll cut it down to 1.5 to 2" wide that way. Width is currently 3 1/2" across and I'll stick with that for now. I made some shallows grooves in the block to aid in lining up the blades and irons square to the jig. I probably also add inserts and try to find some wing bolts or insert studs and use wing nuts for the clamp.

The clamp is currently 1/2' thick wood. The wood grips well but if I switch to a 1/8" steel plate I can use a tiltbox on it to set the honing angle. If I stick with wood I'll go down to 3/8".

Every jig has pros and cons. I have one of the cheap ($10-$15 and pictured below) jigs with the small roller in the center. The roller isn't wide enough to keep from putting a skew angle on blades and irons. Not a big deal with a chisel but possibly a big deal with some plane irons, depending on the application. That jig also won't clamp the old Sheffield English chisels with square sides. The Lee Valley jig is much better with a wide roller but it's pricey and I think some blades it has trouble gripping as I see optional pieces for it.

This jig, with it's 3 1/2" wide stance is very stable side to side so it should keep irons square when honing as long as some care is used when pressing done on the hone. The jigs main con is that because it's wide it straddles stones instead of riding on top. With fairly limited clearance under because of the small bearings. That means it will be necessary to put a frame around my stones to level the jig out with the surface of the stone. This isn't entirely a big deal as it also keeps the stone from walking around so there is a plus to the con. The pictures tell the rest of the story.

[Nickp]

Very nice...inexpensive too...

I gather the space between the bearings was driven by the width of the stone...?

So, for a thicker stone you would use bigger OD bearings...?

[Cherryville Chuck]

Pretty much Nick. Average width is between 2-3” for most any sharpening stone/ hone. Even on a hone as thin as the diamond hone shown the front edge bottoms out and that is the major drawback is that you need to inset the stone into a holder so that the stone is level or slightly below the surrounding surface. However, when you do that it gives you a platform that can be clamped to an end vice or to the edge of a table with F clamps so it has an upside to having to do that. I tried to find a large diameter bearing with a similar size bore and couldn’t find one.

The other advantage it appears to have is being able to accommodate spoke shave blades because it does sit close to the stone. The other type holders are too tall for that. I figure the most it would cost anyone to make one of these is about $10 and that includes inserts and screws for the clamp.

[Bushwhacker]

Very nice Chuck.

Bushwhacker

[Cherryville Chuck]

Thanks David. It dawned on me after a while that this jig would work perfectly if you were using sandpapers to sharpen with. It's lack of clearance wouldn't be an issue using those.

[Bushwhacker]

Plus the little wheels would prevent tearing the sand paper.

Nice idea.

Bushwhacker