Don Good, Sharpening and Carving Guru
Don Good has been the speaker for our club meeting two times.
His first subject was sharpening tools by hand using various materials
such as natural stone, diamond and ceramic with ceramic being his favorite.
For the finishing touch, Don uses a leather strop charged with Flexcut
Gold.
Don says that it is hardly ever necessary to use a grinding wheel to
sharpen tools. His statement that
he “could sharpen any tool by hand” prompted me to ask about a lathe tool
that I could not figure out how to sharpen.
This is a Robert Sorby Ring Tool that is similar to the Oneway
“Termite” used for hollowing end grain.
It turns out that Don works at the Woodcraft store in Merrillville on Saturday
afternoons. I took my tool into the
store, but Don wasn’t in yet so I asked the other employees if they could tell
me how to sharpen this tool. The
first fellow did not know. The
second gave me advice that didn’t sound logical to me.
Well, Don soon arrived, took one look and said “no problem”.
He opened several cases of sharpening paraphernalia and produced a
ceramic slipstone. In about 5
minutes he had my tool razor sharp.
The second time speaking at our club he demonstrated woodcarving. He carved the bust of an American Indian in less than one hour. The most important thing that I learned from that demonstration was the importance of using sharp tools. A few years ago I ended up in the emergency room for stitches, the result of trying to carve with a dull knife.
As mentioned above, Don is available most Saturday afternoons at Woodcraft. He will be happy to give advice on sharpening or carving. Several of his carved projects are on display at the store.
Bob Roach
September 2007