Chips are flying

Heck, I had to look up Tide Pods. I see that young people are still the same as they were in my time - still doing stupid stuff. In my time, though, we had this little thing to distract us called the Viet Nam war. When I came back I was alive and still young but I was old in my soul, at least too old to eat soap!

HSS lathe tools simply have three flats, each of which meets at an intersection. The better and more precisely they meet, the sharper the tool is. It isn't hard to do but you gotta' do it. I suggest you hone all three flats and when they are dead sharp, hone a nose radius with a diamond stone that runs from top to bottom in a gentle radius, then hone the top once again. That tool will draw blood with almost no pressure, trust me.
 
Mike , I was taught that if you could see where those 3 flats met with a loupe , the tool was not sharp . My old co-worker ( George Spraque ) was a guy who had to be absolutely perfect ! :grin: If someone ever needed a G job made , he'd break out his electronic indicator and machine it like it was space flight material ! He did make a many a part that went into space for NASA though . :)
 
The edges of my tools will not reflect light. I can't get them sharper than that. I recently bought a digital microscope and will give it a look one day. I would have liked to meet your friend George!
 
I have done woodworking for 30+ years. I have a set of Sheffield steel wood chisels from England. I use a piece of 1/4" plate glass and 3M Wet-or-Dry sandpaper. Starting grit depends on the condition of the edge. If it is a new chisel I may start at 150p but the edge would need to be in poor shape for that coarse of grit. I eventually work my way up through 2000p. For wood chisels, I put a micro bevel on them so resharpening only requires redressing the micro bevel. The sandpaper is held to the plate glass with water which also provide lubrication during the sharpening process.
I have not seen anyone mention this technique on HM for sharpening HSS. Maybe it would not work for metalworking. :dunno:
 
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