[Loch-ruadh] tool sharpening

Sluggy! slugmusk at linuxlegend.com
Thu Feb 7 15:23:56 PST 2002


Bill Osterheim wrote:

> I am not good a drill bits, though I do fine on the augar style.


I have sharpened many twist bits to good effect. The larger they are,
the easier they are to work with. There are two keys to successfully
recycling twist bits: grind them to the proper angles and use a very
light hand. They are very easy to overheat; drill bits are often damaged
beyond practical repair by continuing to attempt to drill with a dull
bit. It gets hot, ruins the temper and then, even if you sharpen it, it
will never hold an edge. Likewise, it is very easy to overhead a bit
when trying to sharpen it.

A slowspeed water wheel is probably the single best tool for these and
other sharpening tasks. The slow speed and water combine to keep the
metal cool and lubricated, plus the slow speed lets you be human.
Inexpensive ones can be had at Harbor Freight, probably in the $70 range.

Anyway, sounds like a fun workshop to put together. I remember fondly
killing a deal of time at Polydore's putting a usable edge on some
diagonal cutters that we used in a chainmaille workshop.

Sluggy!

--

"No dignified person would voluntarily submit to it; the people who do
submit to it are usually defective to begin with and come out of the
process moderately deranged, if not actively insane." - Dave Barry, on
running for president




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