Carving tool advice

[John]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone on this group might be able to advise on the best way to go about getting some hand-carving tools sharpened.

My mother inherited these tools from a puppet-maker, and has been using them for a while (although probably on some harder wood than they are designed for). They are now blunted and some have small chips missing from the blades.

Some of the chisels are are V or C shaped and quite fine, so I'm not really sure how one would go about sharpening them.

If anyone has any experience, or can point me to a professional that deals with this kind of thing we would be very grateful.

I've attached some photos to show what we are dealing with.

Many thanks,

John

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[Ollie Boyd]

Hi John, I believe all can be sharped on the Tormek (if/when you're trained on it). MS already has the jig for the chisels, the curved gouges would probably want this jig- 'tormek svd-186'  or to be done freehand. Maybe MS already owns a gouge jig, I don't know. You can use it to grind past the damaged sections at the tips.

I speak not as an expert but it seems that carving tools are designed for regular sharpening so it might help your mother to give the sharpening section in  'Woodcarving tools materials and equipment' by Chris Pye a read as it discusses many manual and machine sharpening techniques. It can be had used for <£5 delivered. Then she can sharpen every time she needs.

Those Pfeil tools are well made and will manage any hardness of wood if used with care.

Kind regards,
Ollie

[BrainFizz Routing & Making]

We have all the jigs available from Tormek available within MS.

There’s a couple of jigs for various gouges, and also skew chisels, and even the swank neck gouges. Carvers are rebound for having a crazy amount of  odd ball shaped tools, and any that cannot be sharpened on the jigs can be sharpened free hand on the wheel. We also have the shaped leather wheels for touching up and removing the burrs.