Friday, November 10, 2006

Extreme sharpening

If your think woodturners get worked up over sharpening their tools, you need to check out this report in Popular Woodworking about Harrelson Stanley's Planing Contest and Sharpening Tour.

Apparently, planing contests are taken really seriously in Japan, attracting hundreds of contestants and thousands of spectators. The shavings they make are typically 1-3/4" wide, 7' long and as thin as 3 micrometres. That's scary, and I wonder what the finished surface feels like.

It all makes me wonder if a 'longest shaving' competition would be a good event for a turning club. Or maybe the thinest, heaviest, widest? There are of course some challenges, such as collecting the shaving without it breaking as it leaves the lathe at speed. But it might make for an evening of fun.

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Categories: clubs, sharpening, woodworking

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