Make a Proper Whetstone Holder

The following account should be treated as work in progress. The come to me while I'm waiting for the bus, while I sat at the toilet bowl, or while I was skiving at work.....

Why?
My rubber footed whetstone holder skids around when the kerosene overflows to the feet of the box. Short of clamping the stone directly to my vise, I decided to find somthing to hold the stones firmly.
Rather than buying an adjustable one made of rubber and steel, I decided to make one. Why pay when you can make a customised one? ( and a handsome one at that..) It gives your tools some workout. It uses some of the scrap you've been saving for dunno what. I need an excuse to make something.

I did not put in any dimensions in the chicken scratchings below. Like I said, its a customisation. Built it to accommodate your longest stone.
Having said that, it may not work for you.

Some folks like to sharpen with a stone that comes glued to a box. In fact, I'm still doing it with that pre WWII Pike Washita. All the gunk that overflows get captured in the box. Cap the box when you're done. You hold the box, not the stone. Both your hands and the benchtop remains clean, relatively that is.

For me, I have an assortment of stones (previous post on stones) to tackle the smallest slitting gauge knife to the 10" drawknife. So my stones are between 4" to 8" long.

From the drawing board:

Movable jaw slides to acomodate your stone's length. Lock-down by tapered key thru mortise below jaw.

If you prefer a steampunk look, use a wingnut. Broaden the base of the jaw so that you have room to turn the wingnut.

Alternate base design for clamping

I am also playing around with the amount of chamfer vs. strength for the jaws.

This is best done between breakfast and lunch on a Saturday.

Comments

SHARPENING WITH ARKANSAS STONES

What on earth are they? A user made box of assorted Arkansas stones. They are America's answer to: The Wales' Welsh Slate (Dragon's Tongue); The Scotch Tam O'Shanter; The English Charnley Forest stone; The Japanese Tenin Toishi; The German Thuringian Hone; The Chinese Guangzhou River bedrock; The Belgian Coticule; You get the idea. Local rocks that you use to sharpen mama's kitchen knives. A collection of smaller pocket-sized Arkansas stones In this entry, I will not try to tell you what you probably already know. What is the point of describing that oily rock you already have under your bench, in your drawer, in a can of kerosene? Note also, that the sharpening I describe here is best applied to woodworking in general. I am an amateur handtool woodworker. Sharpening a straight razor would be entirely another branch of science. I do not profess to know all there is to know about sharpening or Arkansas stones; I simply failed

An Essential Pocket Knife : The Stockman

You're so right. I should be writing about Whittlers instead of Stockman knives. Afterall, this is a wood working blog. But do you whittle the whole day? Perhaps. Can you peel an apple with a whittler? Maybe, but not as well. What if you forgot the butter knife at a picnic, or you somehow need to spey or neuter an animal in an instant?.. (ok, I'm pulling your leg, but I'm referring to the ubiquitous spey blade in your stockman.) A stockman knife (Also called your Gandpa's EDC) will do all of the above with ease, and it will WHITTLE. My shallow pocket and minute brain says that Whittlers are for collectors. Try buying a Stag handled split-backsping whittler. They are not cheap. This is one of the forty stockmen I've purchased online. The other 39 are on their way. And yes, I have issues. The stockman bug maybe. Wait till my wife sees them: I like to imagine myself as a craftsman first, woodworker second. Now you see why I bought this brand. Looks so

A Case for Chisels: Stanley 5000 series

“Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.” -John Ruskin. Substitute the word "books" with "blogs", and perhaps you should stop reading. I did my part and you are warned. No, I can't refund 4 minutes of your life. F or the most part of my woodworking life, I've kept my loose chisels in felt lined drawers. (I mean excess chisels purchased on impulse: Those of cast steel, those of boxwood, those octagonal London snobs, those ergo grips that promises an orgasm with each mortise, the socketed, the tanged, the handle-less tangs, the long paring ones, those curious crank-necks, the basic pig stickers, the vintage ferrule-less-...you know. I know. Some folks have too many hammers or smoothing planes or trammels. I'm a chisel guy. But the ones that are constantly on the move live in a canvas tool roll. I like the look of a chisel roll, except that the edges tend to slice the

The Far-Eastern Wood Butcher: Prime cuts from the far east.

Search This Blog