I'm having the same problem as Jesse- The center grinds faster. The gouge is sharp, just misshapen. I've used the sharpie trick, and have given extra strokes to just the edges. Now I have a gouge that looks like the "happy worm" carving exercise. 🙂 I must be using more pressure at the center of the stroke since I'm confident I'm getting all the way to the edges.
So, how do you fix this? Is this like a moulding plane and I should grind dead across the blade at 90 degrees to the edge, rather than 25-ish, to get it flat, then re-establish the bevel?
...just to add: The size of the defect is small, so when I say "grind dead across at 90 degrees," I could likely do it by hand with a fine or medium stone and then use the fine or medium to get the bevel back. I'm just not sure if that's the right way to go about fixing this.
Hi Ed,
It is possible that you pressed too hard at the center and not enough at the outside corners. If the sharpy trick definitely showed it touched the whole bevel surface, then that is most likely the issue. The way to resolve it from that point is to run the gouge along the stone, lightly pressing as the center of the gouge passes the stone, and pressing harder towards the outside corners (basically a reverse of how this shape was created). However, now with the "happy worm" shaped edge, you will most likely need to start over. The only issue I have with flattening the blade at 90 degrees is that if you don't figure out the correct movement on the stone, you will "find" the happy worm again. It will appear nice and straight for a while, but if the cause of why it became misshapen in the first place is not sorted out, it will simply come back again. The most important thing to do is to make sure you are making a very even rotation with equal pressure as you run it along the stone. Go ahead an try grind the blade to 90 degrees, then try and make a very smooth and even rotation on the stone. Keep adding the sharpy mark to make sure it stays correct. I hope this helps.
Ok, it's fixed: A few minutes edge-on on the fine, then on the superfine to get the bevel back, and then sharp on the xx-fine. Looking edge-on showed where material had to come off to get a uniform bevel back.
I think this may have less to do with pressure and more to do with timing. I think I might be twisting through the wings quickly and dwelling in the center, so even though the sharpie comes off because I'm covering the whole edge, the center wears faster because it had more time on the stone. So, I slowed down and focused on being smooth and even, feeling more like a pendulum, and watching the water squeeze out from the edge uniformly back and forth as I rocked to help stay even, if that makes any sense. I doubt I'm cured, but we'll see if I mess up less. 🙂
I'm also starting to wonder if some of the original bad shape (center worn back) developed on the stop.
Glad you hear you fixed it! The main thing to concentrate on is consistency of movement.
It's possible that stropping could have affected it, but it was most likely altered from the stone. It would take a long time for a strop to actually change the shape of the metal. Slightly rounding of the bevel occurs if you only use the leather strop for weeks or months, but I have never seen that actually cause the tool to become misshapen as you have described.
Just thought I'd inquire: When you were undercutting these leaves, there seemed to be quite a gap under the terminal leaf ... when I have such undercuts I use pairs of thin wedges of some soft wood (pine, balsa or cedar??) to fill the gap ... sometimes I separate the carving from the wedges with some spare leather with suede side against the carvings ... any reason you don't use such an approach? Would that be something to avoid in future carvings? Really have enjoyed this series, now I just have to figure out hot to use some of the carvings to form the gridwork I want to do to cover the glass panel on our personal elevator "shaft" door ... thanks again for all the details you share with us ... rmh
I use a board with holes in it, too but the holes are in an even grid 2" apart. Then I drive homemade wedges (maple) between the carving blank and the peg to hold the wood in place. If the hole is too far from the blank, I place a small piece of scrap wood against the blank and drive the wedge between the scrap wood and the peg. Using four pegs, you can hold the wood very securely, but change the position of the blank easily if it needs to be moved. But I have nailed thin strips of wood to the lower left corner of the peg board so that I can fit the carving blank into the corner and secure the blank with only two pegs and wedges.
Mary
Does holding your chisels and gouges on a magnetic strip magnetise them? If so, does this cause problems when sharpening i.e. attracting particles of metal onto the tool?
Thanks
Colin
Hi Mary, great lesson, I struggled with getting the angle correct on gouges until you showed how to lock the arm against the body. I am finding that the center of the gouge is getting ground down lower than the edges, what do I need to do to get an even edge across the gouge?
thank you.
Hi Jesse,
Usually that means you are not rotating the gouge enough and the outside corners of the gouge is not touching the stone. Have you tried to use the Sharpy marker method? It will show you exactly where the bevel hits the stone and you will find out quickly whether you cover the whole surface of the bevel.
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