The Leather Element: Sharpening 7 Basic Shop Tools

hi I'm Chuck Dorsett for Weaver leathercraft and this is the leather element if you've got a good question for us or a good idea for leather element drop it in the comment box below now this week we're going to talk about sharpening seven basic shop tools now I've been dragging my feet on this one because putting a razor-sharp professional edge on anything is just beyond my skill set and you may very well feel the same way so what we're going to do we're simply going to use the strop and some compound that's going to give us a good clean edge on seven common shop tools now one of these tools is when we don't really think about sharpening but it's a big help all right let's do this let's step over to our pattern table we're gonna look at three products that are going to make sharpening our tools quick and easy now it's gonna be a little bit of a sales pitch here but you'll see where I'm going with the with this now I've got these drops all over my shop problem is I can't ever find one when I'm looking for one so we've got two answers to that first off look at the strop board that is not a dinky little craft store strop board by any means we've got our skive or a flesh side here then we've got our top grain on this side cool thing about this I can hang this on them on the wall on my shop I always know where it is all right jumping over to this drop board now with this all of our edges we've got a concave inside cutting edge and we'll get a better look at that but what's going to happen here is I can't strop flaps it's not going to do any good so we've got some leather on edge I can drop in my compound we'll talk about that here in a second I can simply run my edger down that that's gonna get in that concave area give me a good sharp edge all right what I'm going to place on this I like the jewelers Rouge just the basic white compound works well for me but we've got five levels of compound all the way up to the polishing agent so if you really want to take that blade further you absolutely can so let's do this let's take both of these we're gonna jump over to our main table and use both drops for sharpening our tools now we're going to start with our groover because this is one of the tools we don't necessarily think about sharpening but it's a huge help right so what I've got here let's flip this around and add some good Rouge right down the edge of my strop let's take our groover now we would normally but our guide against our edge and draw that forward let's do this let's go backwards across our strop and let's see how this does clean that off a little bit guide against the edge oh very nice that's exactly what I'm looking for and look at that I can almost cut right through that leather smooth and easy okay so let's step over now to our edgers now this is funny because this is one of those cheap edgers we probably all got one we most likely lament that we ever purchased this okay here's the reason okay what a mess and if you felt that bad edger probably not going to be able to bring that back but let's do this let's jump over to one of our edgers one of our master tools let's draw this down our strop a few times notice - I'm kind of rolling this as I move along so therefore I get a good clean edge all right let's see the difference here look at that takes almost no pressure clean and consistent every time alright one more way to sharpen these and in fact let's get a good look at one of these you'll notice right there we've got the very end we've got that inside cutting edge so it's a little bit tough to get to but let's do this here's one other trick now I've got a nail here and there on my work table specifically for this reason I can hook a piece of our large hand stitching thread let's take some of our Rouge run that on the thread and now I'm going to take my edger and I'm going to draw this towards me straddling my wax thread there we go and that'll get deep down in there particularly on our smaller edges let's see how that did for us perfect that's just what I'm looking for one more edger we're going to look at a bison that or Bissonnette actually I'm not really sure how that's pronounced but the cool thing here same set of instructions for sharpening but the cool thing here is I can draw or push very close it's a good edger good edger all right let's move on we're going to jump over to our chisels very useful tool in our shop absolutely do a lot of hand sewing simple enough with our strop I can simply drag this across now our angle you know what I'm not going to get down to specifics like that what I can do is simply draw I can feel my finger on my strop so therefore flip flip there we go now I can feel I've got a good edge on that now some would say our chisel more blunt force than finesse but nonetheless it's good to have a good edge there all right here's a bit of an obscure tool a French edger now I don't use this very often but again similar set of instructions but I'm going to draw this across my straw now with a lot of our sharpening as our tools move through our leather they're going to pick up proteins just like a ship move it through the ocean it's going to get to burning barnacles on it so really what we're doing is about 70% sharpening and about 30% cleaning the reason I say that so I've got a hard flat edge right there so what I want to do is take just a thin strap same width as my cutting edge I'm gonna keep my handle low and I can simply draw that across just enough to clean off the top side of that edge now it's tough to a tough tool to control but I'm going to do my best so let's bring that in yeah look how much leather that's taking off look at that right down to a feathered edge that is a sharp tool alright moving over to our swivel now will this folks online 6 7 & 8 levels of sandpaper all manner of contraptions to hold this at the right angle with me I'm not looking to cut through my leather I want a sharp edge there but not stay like a hunting knife or a cutting knife in our kitchen so what I can do is I can feel that edge right there and I'm gonna do my best simply to hold my hand at that angle so I'm going to draw that across three or four times flip do the same thing now with this one thing I need to be cautious of is I don't want to put too much pressure left or right what that's gonna do is gonna soften the inside here and the outside here it's gonna give me a rough cut or a very wide cut that's not what I'm looking for all right let's move over to our last two tools now a round knife or head knife it's not a knife I use a lot back to Waddle folks say once you go to a round or a head you never go back to anything it's three tools in one we've got a Sciver an edger and a knife the thing with this dough we're gonna tend to use our outer edges the most so when we strop we need to pay a little extra attention there but it never hurts to work all the way around then we flip same thing and there we go all right so round head again not when I use quite often but look at that edge quick clean and easy cutting all right love to keep that in the sleeve because that's a lot of blade on my table now the last item we're going to look at are our end punches round oblong and English okay the problem here is that we've got a lot of edge here we can absolutely strop our outside and work this around and that's gonna keep a good edge on us but here's one trick and again sales pitch we've got a surface a service very inexpensive where we'll sharpen your tools for you give you a very professional edge but again always certainly can't strop but we've got a beveled edge on the inside so that's one thing that's going to be tough to get to but again we can keep a good edge on that simply by working it across our strop an absolute expert on sharpening the head the round and the swivel I am NOT you can absolutely take those to the next level but for the majority of us this is going to help us keep very clean very sharp tools that's the point he's an outcome our tool makes the whole process easier and the outcome much more professional that's the point I hope this is good information for you thanks for taking time to watch the leather element good luck with your projects [Music]

Channel: Weaver Leather Supply

Views: 78,559

Rating: 4.895165 out of 5

Keywords: how to sharpen leather tools, sharpening 7 basic shop tools, Sharpening a leather edger

Id: phAeANzrP2w

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 06 2019