From any other youtuber, a 46 minute video on sharpening would have me not even loading it. This one, I rearranged my evening a little to make sure I had time to watch and appreciate. Thank you Shawn, for excellent content as always.

Excellent video and content, Shawn. I've been a hobbyist woodworker since I was a kid (I'm 78 now). For most of that time, I've not appreciated how important sharpening is. I'm a bit smarter (sharper?) now. I completely agree with your recommendations and have some of those items you used. I found the information on handsaws very interesting. I have three handsaws from my Dad, likely purchased in the 1950's. One of my grandfathers was a carpenter; I was impressed with his 9 and 2/3rds fingers. I still have all of mine (so far). This is an excellent series and I'm learning new things. Thanks!

I've seen many of your videos, every time I see one of them I become not only a better carpenter but also a wise carpenter thank you.

Love that Roman mirror side note.

"The inside of the cow, the outside of the cow" you're killing me man 😂

I've been woodworking for about a year and a half and I still very much enjoy these videos

Gotta love those Texas thunderstorms! Thank you so, so much for all the quality content. I will be putting it to good use.

Am looking forward to a sharpening video on lathe tools. I am new to turning and the sharpening systems seem crazy expensive and varied. Your advice will be welcome as you are able to explain things thoroughly but easily. Thanks again for another great video.

I've been doing fine woodworking for 25 years and have pretty much progressed through all of the methods you described and agree with your conclusions. My current methodology is the Norton stones and Veritas jig. Not the only answer, just my answer. I picked up the M-Power Fasttrack Precision Sharpening System and De-Burring Plate from Woodpeckers a couple years ago. It is faster than the, but I'm not impressed with the results, you really don't get a shiny edge. I've definitely got to get a real strop. My current strop is an old belt hot-glued to a flat board. Thanks for that reminder. You've got a great presentation style

Your a good Teacher Shawn :o) Thank you.

I ordered 2 new whetstones yesterday. You have great timing. Your videos are excellent and I’m excited every time I see you post a new one.

Thank you Wortheffort. Very informative and presented in a way to give you perspective.

Like many said before: you are a hell of a good teacher!!! Thank you!!!

Thanks for the great video!

Thank you!

The thought of having to sharpen my tools literally terrified me! I've since sharpened my no4 iron, 2 chisels and a tenon saw. They all cut better than before, especially the chisels and plane iron as I have the cheap Eclipse type guide. The saw took me days before I got the courage up lol but once I started it was done in 10 minutes! The file dropped into the right angle and away I went. This video has simplified things so I'm going to do some more sharpening tomorrow. Thanks 👍

Thanks for another great video Shawn. I have watched about all of your videos, so have seen most of this information from you before. But repetition is an important part of learning. I did miss your work at the whiteboard. Some of the points you were making verbally you have stated before much clearer with a couple simple drawings. Keep up the good work.

Super informative! I hope you do a video on sharpening turning tools, especially bowl gouge! Thanks

THE BEST wet stone (they are splash and go, which is even better) are Suhiro Dabato MD series. they are large, fitting easily the biggest plane irons, and they are very affordable for what you get. They are also top notch and have the best feedback of ANYTHING I have ever used. (diamonds, oilstone, other wetstones) buy a Suhiro Dabato, you will NOT regret it.

For those who don't I say thank you. You always teach us, inspire us to create and always share.

Watched the video although I knew all of that. Just because you're a nice man. I hope you get along well through this crazy time.

Excellent timing! I'm about to purchase a "medium" level chisel set and a few card scrapers. Thanks!

The patter of the rain gives it a bit of atmosphere 😎 - and let’s face it, you voice WOULD BE AUDIBLE OVER A HURRICANE!!!

I started out with sand paper but yeah, it gets expensive. Buying a stone is a good first step, or at least it was. You bought a wetstone with two sides, I bought 3 with different grits. I got myself The sund Tiger King stones in 220, 1000 and 6000 grit. They worked great and still do but I don´t use them in the workshop anymore because you have to soak them or store them in water and they make a hell of a mess. I use them for kitchen knives because in the kitchen I have a sink nearby, so it´s not as big of a mess. But yes, they work great and I can get a razer sharp edge with them even without a strop with chrome oxide buffing compound. Another downside of wetstones is to keep them flat. When sharepening a kitchen knife, flatness really doesn´t matter. Even when the stone is one millimeter out of flat, I still get a good result. I my opinion flatness doesn´t even matter a lot when sharpening chisels but plane irons are another story. So I was back to sand paper and the piece of glass to flatten the stones now and then. I knew about diamond plates but damn, those were expensive when I started out. Because of the mess I switched to a 2-sided Norton oil stone. Even the fine side is pretty coarse but the stone is so hard, the achievable sharpness is acceptable. Only for some applications like carving I need an edge sharper than that. Later I bought finer oil stones up to 4000 grit. That´s enough even for carving tools, since I can still use a leather strop. A few drops of oil on the stones don´t make a mess and they stay reasonably flat for a long time. But still, diamond plates are the future. I bought 3 DMT plates as Paul Sellers recommends. I don´t want to go back. The diamond plates stay flat, they take off material really quick and so far I haven´t worn one out. I also bought a credit card sized one with 600 and 1200 grit to hone my turning tools but my favorite are the small and dirt cheap EZE sharp diamond sharpeners with the plastic handles. I use them on my skews, scrapers, turning gouges, knives and carving tools. I used them for over 2 years now and they´re still not worn out. I wouldn´t recommend sandpaper for sharpening to anyone starting out, since diamond plates are really cheap nowadays. I´ve bought a set of 6 diamond plates from 200 to 2000 grit for only 20€ on Amazon. They´re pretty thin but when used on a thick piece of reasonably flat plywood they´re good enough even for plane irons. I´ve been sharpening with those cheap diamond plates now for over half a year and so far they still work fine. I´m not only using them for sharpening but also for shaping parts made from all kinds of metals and also pieces of bone to make guitar saddles. They replaced sand paper and files for many applications. I think they´re well worth the little money they cost. I got lucky and learned from a carpenter how to sharpen. I learned to sharpen without any jigs and I´ve never bought one because I never saw the need. But It´s a learning curve, so for beginners without the help of an expert, a jig might get them started and they can focus on developing other skills because you can´t learn everything at the same time. The carpenter who taught me sharpens his scrapers a bit different. He removes the burr with a file as you do but then he removes the burr from the filing with a fine oil stone and gets those 90 degree corners really crisp before he makes a burr. He usede to do it with a screwdriver but he switched to tungsten carbide. Even the oldtimers appreciate that stuff.

I love the rain background my man. Doesn't come across best on the cam mic but I still like it. Great vid!

Thank you for the videos. I for one really appreciate them.

Learnd a lot...love it

the nagura stone is really for cleaning, you dont have to use them every time. when i need a pristine edge ill break it out, but mostly, i just go straight to the water stone itself.

Awesome video - always worth my time - Thanks

Awesome! I was hoping you would make a video on this. Love your work! 👍

Thanks , Sir , for the lesson

Unbelievable teaching wow

Man I needed this. Thank you!

a very good video thank you for sharing it

I love your videos, and they are very useful for newbies like me! one small thing, you repeat many times that "all sharpening is about getting 2 planes, going forever to infinity"... well, it's not to infinity, as you see, they meet quite soon :-) it's more about, having this radius of "dullness" very small..... so that can act properly (as an edge or a wedge :-) ) Thank you, fantastic serie! (and by the way, it's never about infinity even about the radius (atoms and so on...)... but this is quite a minor point)

Thanks man that helps a lot 👍 .

Nagura Conditioning Stone used to flatten the waterstones.

I gotta fight for the scary sharp system. I like it. I started out young with my dads old India stones. With some old granite counter top material, I made some flat stones and used lapping paper. I sharpen my hand plane roughly once a project and my pocket knives once a month. SO my stone set gets used roughly 2-3 times a week. That lapping paper lasts me easily 2-3 months assuming you set it up properly. I also get a sick kick out of lending a friend my pocket knife, and it easily slicing through flesh like butter.

Have an old, over 100 years old, sharpening stone. It is shaped like a bone. It is a dull white. Do I use water or oil on it??

I found a whetstone kit at the orange big box store a little over $40.00. There are two combo stones 400/1000 and 3000/8000 along with other bobs and bits. They say it's for kitchen knife sharpening, but the size of the stones are 2.28 in x 1 in x 7 in. Will these be okay for sharpening chisels, plane blades, etc?🤨

Are we supposed to keep the Japanese stones in water all the time? Or just wet them down when using them? Nice overview. Presented well. Thank you

I just started Woodturning and don’t want to invest in a sharpening jig can you please make a video on hand sharpening and all the grind and what they do

Once again, thanks, especially the bit about sharpening hand saws. I have just bought a few on Ebay and the teeth are all there, they are old and poorly maintained. I will need to remove service rust, do have preferred method for that. If the answer would be an essay then ofcourse I wouldn't steal your time. 😎

I have a lot of stones collected from all over. My confusion is which one is a water stone or oil. In particular the majority of the stones I have have the consistency like the grinding wheel on my grinder. Would this be a water or oil stone? Great video and I am learning!

With regard to the travel-sized diamond stones that you recommended for beginners, can one sharpen a plane iron alright with those? Thanks, great video.

No joke, literally every tool I've tried to sharpen I think I've made worse

Thanks Shawn. When you can no longer strop, but the edge is still intact, do you use all the diamond plates, or miss the coarser ones? If the latter, how do you know which one to start at, or is that just experience. Regards, Adam

I have been woodworking for a couple of months, very novice. I am currently using sand paper but will be purchasing a diamond stone. What type of liquid should I use?

Do you have a video specifically for sharpening lathe tools?

A 15$ combination water stone on Amazon, 400 and 1000 grit, that's all you need to start, and that's what I still use 4 years after. 30 seconds sharpening (12-16 strokes) and I can shave my arm hair all day long :D . A secret that no one will tell you: releasing the pressure on the stone, it will practically elevate the grit of your stone, and it will grind the burr without folding it further. Start with 3-4 strokes with medium pressure on the coarse side (400 grit in this case) to create a very tiny burr, then again on the same side of the stone (400 grit) do another 3-4 strokes but WITH VERY LIGHT PRESSURE. In this way you are virtually "changing the grit" of the stone. You are always on a 400 grit side, but very light strokes reduces the penetration of the abrasive in the steel, and you will thin that burr without folding it further. Then do the same on the 1000 grit side. 3-4 strokes with medium pressure, 3-4 strokes with very light pressure. If you have not applied too much pressure, you will end up with a bevel that will shave your arm hair, without a folded burr, without the need of "sharpen the back of the blade". My two cents. As always, thanks for sharing this.

Hi, Great tutorial. But, what did you spray onto your stones?

At first I thought you had forgot about hollow grind when you talked about two planes. I have never tried hollow grind on chisels, but use one always on a hand plane. Because I never sharpen the plane blade by hand, the hollow actually forms one side of the edge. No honing after either. But then I can feed the blade in increments under .001” so I get the edge very fine off the grinding stone. The reason you get different edges from stone and diamond grit is the way nature makes diamond behave. It frequently has nowhere near the sharpness of the stones. This is because of its internal fracture planes. Also some diamond grit fractures more easily than other diamond grit. Also, believe it or not, not all diamond is the same hardness. Some grit will actually wear flat on top, making it very difficult to cut with. It is difficult to determine what type of grit was used to make the diamond “stone”, so you don’t know what to expect. Grit supplied by De Beers is normally the best.

What do you use on the leather strop the white stuff?

That thunder was loud, the God of dull tools is not pleased.

The "correcting" stone you are looking for is a Nagura stone. You are correct that it starts with an N!

I got my double sided diamond stone off of Amazon for around $25

I don't know what you mean by saying '2 lines going off to infinity'. Apart from that, I thought it was an excellent video.

Can you sharpen a lathe chisel by hand?

I disagree that stones are the way to go. If you’re looking to get students into the craft, the hassle of having to flatten the stones is crucial to get a great edge - it adds a variable that’s unnecessary. I started with an $8 12x12 marble tile, a can of spray adhesive, and wet/dry sandpaper in 400, 800, 1600 and a small leather strop. I think for all the packs of sandpaper, tile, leather, adhesive, and jig was less than $50. Getting 4” strips each to make a 3 grit flat surface, I have TONs of supply. Remember too, people just starting out aren’t going to need to do it everyday and when they are ready, they can move to diamonds. Using the 3 stones, reflattening and putting liquid to a beginner creating a sharp edge (pond sharpening) is a lot of hassle and some extra risk of injury that may not be needed.

I"m only a little bit afraid to sharpen my tools, ha ha. But I'll stick with it.

Ah, I miss Texas thunderstorms!

What happened to the woodworking school?

it aint wood working if you aint got the horse butt....