Canadian Contractor - July-August 2015

MAXWELL’S
Stuff We Like
HONE RUN
Create incredibly sharp hand tools
in two minutes or less
By Steve Maxwell
Even in a world dominated by power tools, a
sharp chisel or block plane is still sometimes
essential for the best trim and interior
millwork. And that’s one side of contracting that
clients especially appreciate because they see
it every day. The problem is that creating and
maintaining sharp edges with stones in the old
fashioned way takes way too much time. That’s why
I started sharpening all my edge tools with a buffing
wheel back in the mid-1980s. The process takes
less than one minute to transform a dull chisel into
something that’s sharper than a new razor blade, and
this approach can even remove small chips and dings
from edges without grinding.
My system is based on a pair of round buffing
wheels – one made of hard felt, the other made from
circles of cloth sewn together. Both are spun by a
salvaged 1/4 hp, 1750 rpm motor, driving a ball-bearing
mandrel via a 2-to-1 pulley arrangement, boosting
the speed of the wheels to 3450 rpm. The hard wheel
is used to hone flat or concave edges, and this is
probably all you’ll ever need. I sometimes do carving
in my work, and buffing the inside surfaces of curved
gouges is the only time I use the soft cloth wheel.
52 July/August 2015 www.canadiancontractor.ca