28 January 2009

Round Tuit and the Following Wind

Some time ago now I got hold of a couple of Veritas spokeshaves and very pleasant they are too. For years I'd been using the standard Record offerings which are truly appalling...I even tried shimming the bed with veneers to reduce the gap a bit, with only limited success. As they were, you could quite easily drive a Challenger tank through the mouth opening and they were diabolical to use, so at the first opportunity, they were unceremoniously ditched and were replaced by the LV adjustable 'shaves with nice, chunky A2 steel blades. Having done a bit of work on the Grommit cabinet though, the blades are now in dire need of good hone. The problem I've found (and I don't think I'm alone here) with any of these sorts of tools, is blade honing, more specifically...holding them! It's long been a bit of a puzzle to me how you can hold a small bit of steel at a predetermined angle on the stone, so that there's none of the dreaded 'rounding over' of the bevel. I use a modified 'Eclipse' style guide (I can hone freehand...it's just much easier with a honing guide) and use the 'ruler trick' on the back. A while ago, a good pal lent me the Veritas small blade holder to try and this worked quite well, but being a bit parsimonious in these affairs (and not being a collector of honing guides...Paul) I haven't got a round tuit yet of purchasing one, (if you don't know what a round tuit is, all will be revealed shortly!
Last night then, I was having a delve (as you do) in my sharpening drawer and came across a forlorn and long neglected adjustable wooden holder, designed to hold my old Record 'shave blades for freehand sharpening. The cogs upstairs do take some time to start to move (it's an age thing) but it slowly dawned on me that this could be the solution to the problem...with a little bit of a cunning fettle it could be just the business to hold the blades and fit in the honing guide. I just need to finish it off tonight and give if a test, with any luck and a following wind, this little problem ought to be sorted out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I do believe you're having a go at me, Rob ;-) Mind you, I do have rather a lot of honing guides......

Cheers ;-)

Paul Chapman