A Few Awesome Tools

So I was going through the shop doing the big cleanup and I came across these awesome tools. Obviously they are awesome just because of the kind of tools, drawknife, froe and hatchet, but especially because of where they came from. Last summer I served as Chaplain (Padre) for the Greenwood Cadet Summer Training Center and the Cadet Padres from the Maritimes gathered for training in Halifax. Quincy, one of the other Padres, had been these tools at home and had not been using them, but we had been talking about wood working at the training during break time and realized we were not only friends but also kindred spirits. A while later he showed up at Greenwood with these for me. Wow! Now I need to find a special place for them so I am reminded of a good friend when I see them and use them.

By the way, I could not say enough good about the Cadet program and the summer camps. They too are awesome.

O, the cleanup is posted up with a few new pages here.

Just Keeping On Cleaning

Man alive there is a lot of stuff in this shop. No wonder my wife calls me a packrat. I would hate to think what it would cost to replace this mass of tools and accessories. Of course they were picked up one at a time or received as gifts. Some of them were inherited from my father-in-law who apprenticed as a lad as a wooden ship builder and was an amazing wood worker. A couple of years ago one of my uncles showed up with 3 lathe tools that had belonged to one of my grandfathers. I have an absolutely sweet double bladed limbing axe from my other grandfather and a peavy that my dad used as a kid. Lots of memories.

As I was looking at the assortment of pictures from this cleaning section I came across this lamp stand.

It is really a general purpose stand. It has a weighted base, a clip on lamp, and a movable platform, threaded for a camera, at the end of an arm. This is really handy and I have to do a better writeup on it for the tip section one of these days.

Ready the Band Saw for Wood Turning

After the wood lathe itself, one of the most used tools in the woodturning workshop is the band saw. For many woodturners, after the lathe and the grinder have been bought and set up, the band saw is the next purchase for large machinery. A few simple steps make it a better tool for woodturners and other woodworkers.

Like many woodworking machines, the band saw needs to be set up and periodically tuned for safe and accurate use. Most such machines in the home shop are typically two wheel saws, fourteen inches in diameter. The size refers to the diameter of the wheels and not to the depth of cut which will likely be in the six inch range.

Those wheels will look much like bicycle tires with rubber rims. While they will of course be clean in a new saw, as the tool is used the tires need periodically to be brushed clean of dust which will cake on to them especially from green softwoods. They also need to be properly lined up.

This means they need to be parallel to one another and running coplanar. There should be a means to adjust the distance of the free running wheel, that is, the one not powered by the motor. While this may be form shims, set screws or some other method, it should be noted in the instructions from the saw. A straight edge spanning both wheels, placed immediately before the axles, should touch the top and bottom rims of both the top and bottom wheels simultaneously for the wheels to be coplanar and parallel.

Once this is done, the blade should run at the center of both wheels. There will be an adjusting knob to track the blade. With the saw unplugged rotate the wheels by hand and adjust to track in the middle. Tighten the blade so it can be moved a quarter of an inch at center or follow the instructions with your saw. Each blade will need to be tracked and tensioned when it is installed and may need periodic adjustment during use.

A band saw is useful for wood preparation both for small projects and for large. For small, finer cuts a one quarter inch six tooth blade is a good one to start with for general use and wood up to a couple of inches thick. Heavier green wood for bowls and the like will require a three eighths three point blade or something similar. Like all saws, blades need to be kept sharp and clean for good use. Having a couple of extras on hand is a good idea.

Band saws are versatile for straight or curved cuts and a valuable asset for the woodturner. They are easy to set up and use as well as being one of the safest cutting tools in the shop.

Choosing A Wood Lathe: What To Look For When Sturdy Counts

While it is obvious that wood lathes spin wood around, it is not always obvious to the first time buyer that spinning wood, if out of balance, vibrates tremendously. In addition, wood lathes may be asked to spin very heavy sections of wood and need to be able to withstand considerable force. There are a couple of simple things to look for to ensure that a lathe is sturdy enough for the work at hand.

If you have a small shop and intend to turn small objects, it may seem as if sturdiness will not be a factor, but this is simply not so. Most small lathes turn at high speeds and have a very high minimum speed. Just as on a car, an unbalanced wheel does not seem a problem at low speeds but vibrates at high ones, the same thing happens on a lathe with unbalanced wood or with unbalanced lathe parts. While a small piece on a small lathe may not try to walk across the floor, vibration encourages poor cuts and difficulty in a good finish.

Larger lathes tend to have lower minimum speeds and thus allow for less vibration in unbalanced pieces. However they also are generally bought with the purpose of handling larger pieces of wood and thus more weight. A bowl blank of forty pounds is not unusual on a lathe with a twelve to sixteen inch swing and can literally walk a light lathe across the floor of the shop.

The solution to the problem is to have a lathe sturdy enough to handle the work. It starts with a good foundation such as a stand that is well made and heavy enough to not move under the forces of turning. Sand is a good vibration absorber and many turners design their lathe stands to hold hundred of pounds of sand.

The lathe itself should have lots of cast iron and steel in its construction. Stamped metal parts tend to give little support. Good welds should be looked for. Check with your woodturning friends and find out what lathes they use for the type of turning you intend to do and then find out if they are satisfied. Good bearings are a must and even more important are the bearing housings. Bearings are easily replaced but not where they live in the lathe.

One of the best tests of sturdiness is common sense when looking at the lathe. If it looks solid it likely is. This would not be just a catalogue look but rather a chance to stand at it and see if the steel is substantial and the iron castings are solid and well finished. The mechanisms to hold the headstock, tailstock and tool rest should be strong and lock firmly. Speed controls should move easily and switches readily accessible.

The final test of the lathe will happen as you turn on it. Many turners will push the envelope of size and speed and safety is each individual's responsibility but much of it can be ensured with good planning and a little foresight.

Five Tips for Sharpening Your Wood Turning Tools

One of the first things that woodturners realize, especially if they come to woodturning from other types of woodworking, is turning tools need to be sharpened early and often. In most cases they need to be sharpened a lot more often than other cutting tools and the skills needed are different than those to sharpen most other tools. Here are five tips to help get sharp tools quickly and easily for the wood lathe.

First of all there is the need to recognize a couple of angles, thirty and forty five degrees. Almost all cutting woodturning tools will use these angles and the few that do not will be glaringly obvious. Gouges and skews cut wood. Roughing gouges and bowl gouges are generally sharpened to forty five degrees and straight across. Many woodturners start with spindle turning and spindle gouges are sharpened at thirty degrees. Some turners try to sharpen roughing and bowl gouges to that same thirty with terrible results and are amazed when someone shows them the magic of forty-five.

Second is the need to keep things simple, especially at first. Stick to what has worked for centuries. Woodturning is over three thousand years old and most of what is done is tried and true. This is not to say that there have not been changes but it is good to start with the established norms before branching out. For instance, there is the other typically used grind for a bowl gouge that has long wings and a bevel that alters from about forty five at the edges to seventy in the center. A straight forty-five works beautifully and is a lot easier to do at first.

Then there is the sharpening of scrapers which are the real exception to what appears to be a sharp edge. They are sharpened almost square at about seventy to eighty degrees and the burr that is raised is the cutting area. It is quickly broken away and resharpening is needed often.

This brings up the fourth tip and that is to be satisfied with an edge that is sharp enough to remove wood and still hold up to the punishment of woodturning. For this a grinder is the best tool to use as a sharpening station. Equip it with an eighty grit aluminum oxide wheel and ignore the usual whet stones and honing strops. It can take a lot of time to get a razor edge that will disappear in the first second of turning.

Fourth, use a jig. Freehand sharpening is an art and craft in its own right and it is easier to learn to turn with sharp tools from a jig rather than trying to learn both crafts at once. Jigs will also teach the movements that are needed for freehand turning if the need arises. They can be either cheaply made in the home shop or purchased from just about any woodturning supplier.

Fifth and perhaps most important is to relax and take it easy in the sharpening. It is a part of the turning process and meant to be enjoyed. If an edge comes out wrong it is a simple matter to try again. A little time, a little attention and a little steel and back to the wood again.

Sharpening is not hard and woodturners have been getting a sufficient edge for over three thousand years. With a little practice you will be joining the group and the shavings will fly from a good, sharp edge.

Choosing A Wood Lathe: Remember The Budget

Buying a wood lathe sounds like a simple proposition. Check the budget, look at the lathes in the budget category, choose the one that seems good and away we go. However, like most things in life, it is not that simple. One of the more difficult things for the beginner or first time buyer, is knowing how to gauge the budget in the first place.

Wood lathes are more individual than many other woodworking tools. While there are certainly many models of tools such as table saws, for example, there are certain features expected in particular price ranges and the saws will be fairly uniform in that range. It is expected that one may purchase one, put it in the work shop, and go to work. The wood lathe is a different proposition.

While most wood lathes in a given price range will generally be similar in quality this is not always so. A mini lathe will usually be better quality than a full size lathe in the same cost bracket, for instance. Two lathes of the same price may have different mechanisms for controlling speeds and overall quality of the lathe with the more expensive speed controller will likely be less than that of the other machine. It is necessary in the budget to question what is wanted in the lathe for weight, quality of construction, type of speed control and size among other things.

All other things being equal among lathes, there is the extra strain on the budget to consider. That table saw will be ready to work right out of the box, but not so for most lathes. The typical wood lathe comes with the basic machine ready to run and with centers and a faceplate to hold the wood, but without tools to cut the wood nor any means to keep them sharp. Again in contrast to the table saw that came with a blade that rarely needs sharpening and then by a professional shop, the lathe comes with no tools and no means to sharpen them even though they will need frequent sharpening. It often comes as a surprise to a beginning wood turner that in some circumstances tools need to be sharpened every couple of minutes.

So the budget will need to stretch to a set of woodturning tools, a grinder and a set of aluminium oxide wheels at the very least, not to mention sundries like sandpaper and finishes. All of these should be allowed for in the budget before shopping for the wood lathe. It should be noted that a decent set of woodturning tools or a four jaw chuck may each be more expensive than a beginner's wood lathe.

It is possible to get started turning wood on a modest budget. Some reasonable planning is necessary but many woodturners have begun on light lathes and used them for many years.

Simple Tool Rack

I had a question lately about making a tool rack for woodturning tools. Generally I have seen three variations on the theme.
1) a series of tubes on end to take the tool shafts. The tubes may be in a bucket or box.
2) a box similar to a shallow drawer, sometimes literally a shallow drawer with dividers to keep the tools from rolling into one another and ruining the edges
3) a board with holes drilled into it to accept the tool shafts. The board is usually fastened to a wall or near the lathe.

I like the latter concept as it is quick to make and convenient to use. However, even easier is to pick up one of those tool holders at the discount bin of the hardware store. They seemed designed to hold all sorts of screw drivers and wrenches or the life but the holes seem to fit things life standard lathe tools, knock out bars, tommy bars for chucks, lathe wrenches and the like.

Sharpening Wood Turning Tools (2)

As Derek was saying (see his site by the way at Seafoam Woodturning )The motions used in freehand sharpening are similar to those we use in turning. For instance, to sharpen a roughing gouge one

1. presents the tool resting on the grinder table (that rest in front of the wheel) with the flute up and the tool not yet touching the wheel.


2. if right handed the handle is held in the right hand against the right hip


3. the left hand steadies the tool on the grinder table


4. raises the handle until the heel of the bevel touches the wheel gently and a hair more until sparks move over the edge


5. roll the tool to the right as sparks move over the edge


6. roll the tool to the left as sparks move over the edge

In theory the tool has moved through the same motions as cleaning a fine shaving right and left. The sparks coming over the edge indicate that a sharp edge has been formed and you are ready to turn.

In reality I find this is the time turners move the tool in wide arcs as they inspect the edge for sharpness and for facets on the bevel. If you are unsure of your sharpening enough for this to happen, you will likely consider

1. the edge not good enough


2. too many facets on the bevel


3. the angle has changed

and back to the grinder you go until you have really messed things up or give up in disgust and go to the work anyway and find the edge works fine, but could have been better.

One of the big problems is simply you moved before returning to the wheel. The practice is sound but it needs practice. Try a couple of things.

1. practice the motions with the grinder off. Feel the bevel on the wheel and do it several times. So it takes a few minutes; hopefully you are going to do this for the rest of your life.


2. ignore the facets. No one else will see them and they will not really affect the final cut no matter what the jig using people like me say.


3. ignore the angle. You have not likely changed it enough to matter. A degree or so is not the damage most people think. If you are off five degrees or more you really need a coarser wheel to reshape it and that is another subject.


4. most important of all, do not move your hands from their anchor as you look at the edge. The left stays on the tool shaft and the right on the handle at your hip. That way you become the jig and the tool returns to the same place each time

I hope this helps. More thoughts to come.

Sharpening Wood Turning Tools

There has been a discussion in progress over rec.crafts.woodturning dealing with some of the ins and outs of sharpening wood turning tools. I thought I would post a few of my views.

First of all, there is no definitive way to sharpen out tools and the same person will use different methods of sharpening say a skew versus a roughing gouge. I, for instance, would sharpen a skew free hand but use a jig for the roughing gouge, at least most of the time. A bowl gouge I would almost always sharpen with a jig for long wings but likely freehand for straight across but sometimes would reverse that. While I would like to give coherent reasons for doing so it probably depends more on mood than logic.

One of the problems that beginners have and continue having as they begin turning is the mastery not of sharpening, but of sharpening turning tools. Many turners begin their woodworking careers with flat work of some sort. There router bits and table saw blades are generally sent out for sharpening while chisels and plane irons are sharpened with an assortment of stones or sandpaper and possibly a few jigs. There also tends to be a fairly long interval between sharpenings. Not so with wood turning.

A wood lathe simply moves wood over the edge of the tool faster than does most other wood working methods. Wood turners also tend to use wood that is rougher than flat woodworkers and it may still have bark and grit in it. The edge of the tool simply does not last for very long under such circumstances.

Flat workers tend to use grinders to remove large amounts of metal under circumstances such as dents and nicks that call for a tool to be reshaped. A wood turner uses a grinder to quickly sharpen and get back to work. The fine edge of the wood plane simply disappears under the speed and fury of the lathe but the edge from the grinder lasts sufficiently well and cuts sufficiently well to be considered more than adequate for the job.

So a grinder should be thought of as a sharpener and only enough metal should be intended to be removed so as to leave a good cutting edge. For this reason some turners think a slow speed grinder is best for the job as it is cooler to work with and supposedly removes less metal. Others such as myself like a high speed grinder as with high speed steel heat is not an issue and I only intend to remove enough steel to leave a good edge. Enough is enough whether one uses a fast or slow grinder.

Over the next few days I will add some thoughts on free hand sharpening versus the jig.

Ball and Icicle Christmas Ornament

I just finished a few of these for a Christmas show coming up this weekend. They are a lot of fun and reasonably quick to do. Most of the turning is done with a straight chisel made from a carpenter's bench chisel. I read about the straight chisel in Peter Child's bood The Craftsman Woodturner some years ago and ground one from an extra 1" scraper that was lying around. These are great.
Some of the head work is turned with a 1/4" round skew made from a tool bit I got from Enco. This one I was shown by Bob Rosand a few years ago at a show in New Hampshire. It is a gem for small work. I also used a 1/4" skewchigouge (sorry about the name, it was not my idea) made from another of those tool bits. In my opinion it is better than a detail gouge.
Unfortunately I have not had time to shoot videos of the process but I will try to get a chance in the near future.

Tools for a Beginner

As I was considering the roughing tool, I was also thinking of the perennial question of what tools a beginner should get, since most lathes come without tools. The following article has a few suggestions.

Wood Turning Tools: getting good ones may be beginner’s Luck

As wood turning has become more popular in recent years the manufacturers of wood working tools have developed a bewildering array of tools for the wood turner. This already bewildering array has become even more confusing for the beginner than for the experienced turner who has a few special tools that are used all the time. Beginners have yet to discover what direction their turning will take them and what tools to use on the journey.

Wood turning is split into two general fields, spindle and face plate turning. While most lathes come supplied with the rudimentary holding devices for the wood, they rarely come with cutting tools. A good, general, beginner’s set would include:

• a 3/4" or 1" roughing gouge for making spindles round


• a 3/4" or 1" skew for making those round spindles smooth


• a 3/8" or 1/4" and a ½ “ spindle gouge for beads and coves


• a 1/8" parting tool for separating work


• a ½" to 1" round nosed scraper for some finish cuts


• a 1" straight scraper for facing off some work


• a 3/8" bowl gouge for face plate work

Most beginner sets on the market will have some combination of the above although they seldom have a bowl gouge included. Again, most beginners start with spindle turning and become proficient at it before attempting bowls. There is no particular reason for this and a basic bowl is no more difficult to turn than is the typical candle stick. While a 3/8" bowl gouge may cost as much as some beginner’s sets, an Oland tool suitable for the beginner and advanced turner alike is easily made in the home shop and a simple on-line search will bring up the directions for construction and use.

One of the greatest changes in wood turning tools in the last hundred years or so has been the metal used to make the tools. Unfortunately it has also become a source of confusion for inexperienced turners. There are three main groups of steel used for the tools; carbon, high speed, and powdered. The best buy for both beginners and experienced turners is M2 high speed steel, usually written as M2 HSS. Since this is also the most common type available it is easy to buy and a good deal. Carbon steel is harder to sharpen without losing its temper and powdered steel is likely overkill at a premium price.

The important thing to do is to get the tools and start making shavings. Some experience will develop a preference for certain tools in certain settings and will also develop a lot of enjoyment.

Once again feel free to post the article elsewhere as long as due credit is given.


&copy;Darrell Feltmate,<a href="http://aroundthewoods.com">Around the Woods (aroundthewoods.com)</a>; used by permission

will work well in the html code or just

©Darrell Feltmate, http://aroundthewoods.com, Around the Woods, used by permission

in straight text.

Roughing Gouge: getting started

I am beginning a section on the web site about Wood Turning Basics. Here is an article I wrote about the roughing gouge which will be updated with pictures and video for the site. Any comments are appreciated.

Wood Turning Tools - Roughing Gouge

The wood turning tool first reached for by most beginning wood turners is a roughing gouge. While it is obvious that most things produced on a wood lathe are round, wood tends to arrive in a more of less square fashion. Even it comes to the shop in the form of a log, it is generally cut more or less square before mounting on the lathe so it must be roughed round. Hence the use of a roughing gouge for the first wood turning tool.

It should be pointed out that the roughing gouge is a spindle turning tool, not for bowls and other face plate work. As most lathes come with a spur center and a tail center for spindle turning and most beginner sets of wood turning tools do not contain bowl gouges, most people begin their wood turning obsession with spindle turning.

A roughing gouge will look semi circular when viewing it from the tip. It should have a deep flute and even thickness walls. For normal turning needs seventeen or eighteen inches from handle end to cutting tip is good and a 3/4" or 1" width should made a good general purpose tool with the 1" more versatile for most turners.

The tool should be sharpened straight across with a 45° angle. Every part of the edge can be used by rotating the tool. In past years the wood turners would continually roll the tool and found that there was more time between sharpening sessions because the work was distributed over so much of the tool tip. With the advent of modern high speed steels this is not as great a need because they stay sharp so much longer than the old carbon steels, but it still gives a greater length of time between sharpening the tool.

For your first cuts with the roughing gouge

1. a wood block about 10" long and 2" to 3" square is mounted securely on the lathe


2. you are wearing a face shield


3. the lathe is set to a low speed, between 400 to 600 rpm


4. with the lathe OFF, place the shaft of the tool against the tool rest with the tool nearly vertical and the tip of the tool well above the top of the wood


5. rotate the wood toward you with your left hand while holding the tool with the right


6. notice the tool does not cut the wood


7. continue to turn the wood as you slowly raise your right hand pivoting the tool on the tool rest. When the tip of the tool is about 45° to the floor, the tip will begin to contact the wood and cutting will start.


8. repeat the motion with the lathe turned on. The tool should be approaching the wood about 1/2" from the right side of the wood.


9. as the wood begins to cut, roll the tool to the right while slightly raising the handle and the wood will cut


10. continue with another cut beginning a bit farther left and a bit farther left and so on until you are about 1" from the left end of the wood


11. repeat the motion but rolling a bit to the left starting from the left end of the wood

At this point you will likely find that the wood is not yet round but is a bit far from the tool rest for comfort. With the lathe off, move the tool rest closer to the wood and repeat the above exercise until the wood is round. Very likely the surface of the wood will be fairly rough from the roughing gouge. While experienced turners can get a fairly smooth surface from the tool, it is better at first to use the roughing gouge as its name implies and quickly get a round albeit rough surface.


Feel free to use this article as long as acknowledgment is given.

&copy;Darrell Feltmate,<a href="http://aroundthewoods.com">Around the Woods (aroundthewoods.com)</a>; used by permission

will work well in the html code or just

©Darrell Feltmate, http://aroundthewoods.com, Around the Woods, used by permission

in straight text.

Free wood turning advice

A while ago I took a text book on wood turning that had been written in 1919 and reformatted it for the web. It is available for free down load from Project Guttenbergbut works better for the web with a little tweaking (ok a lot but it was fun). Lately I have seen it for sale on the web as the greatest thing since sliced bread for learning wood turning. There is some great stuff in the book and it is a good read for turners both experienced and beginning, but it is a text book. It requires someone to show you some of the dos and don'ts of turning as you go.

In fact, I think the value of the book is twofold. One is to give us an outlook on the history of our craft in the early 20th century and two is for the wealth of line drawing projects in the book. Many things are dated but they are still good. Some of the projects are things like chisel handles for chisels that have a tapered socket and for boxes to hold hat pins. But a good handle is easily adapted and a nice box is a nice box.

One thing the book is not is a primer for modern turning. Bowl gouges were not around when the book was written, nor were 4 jaw scroll chucks nor High Speed Steel tools. Sharpening jigs were virtually unknown, certainly not in the forms we now have them. Many of the modern finishes and for that matter abrasives did not exist.

This is a good book and a lot of fun, but not the be all and end all of learning to turn wood. With a good instructor and some editing it would be a good text today. Gradually, I hope to have the projects presented on the web page in some form as I did for the table lamp.

Presently I am working on the pages for a mallet based on those in the book. Some of the differences include using a set of auxiliary jaws for a scroll chuck to be sure the handle is centered correctly and making one with an oval handle. Over the years it would be good to have all the projects with pictures and at least some with video. I am also working on pages for the use of the various tools now available. It is a lot of fun, and I intend to keep it free. It seems more in the spirit of wood turning.

Wood turning

I got back in the shop today for a while and started turning some cooking spoons for a friend. They are about 13" long with a slightly offset handle. Unfortunately, now that the turning is done, it is time to carve the bowls of the spoons. Not my favorite thing, but necessary. I will eventually get a page up about it but I am also trying to get some beginner pages up on tool selection, sharpening and the like. It is a pleasure to be turning spindles again. Maybe I will put the faceplate stuff on indefinite hold and do some more spindle work. We'll see.

Wood Turning Tools

Lately I have found myself looking at the wood turning tools in some of the catalogs that we likely all get. The range of tools is a bit overwhelming for me and it must be a shock and a half for new wood turners. Still, with the exception of a few of the specialty tools, they all fit a couple of categories: roughing gouges, parting tools, spindle gouges, skew chisels, hook or ring tools, bowl gouges and scrapers. The rest seem to be choices of sizes and steels. There are a few variations in the shape or depth of gouge flute, and the argument over flat or oval skews seems to be in fine form, but really there does not seem to be a whole lot new. Over on the rec there has been a discussion over how many tools a turner uses and for most of us, once you get away from the size issue, we have a couple for bowls,a couple for spindles, and a couple for hollowing. The more I look at them, the more I think that when my roughing gouge, which is the commercial tool I use the most, finally gets sharpened to useless, I will buy another beginner's set of tools. For the price of a rouging gouge I can get a decent beginner's set with roughing gouge and others that, If I have no use for them myself, can be used by students or given away.

Sharpening thoughts

HI. Sorry it has been so long since last post but things have been busy. At the moment I am in a bit of a quite time before I go to camp next week. I volunteer to do spiritual direction for a week each summer at Camp Pagweak in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. A lot of fun but a tiring time. This year it is day camp with a bunch of 6-9 year olds and counselor trining in the evening.
I have not been turning a lot lately. I broke a bone in my foot a couple of weeks ago and standing for a while is a literal pain. It has been getting a bit better and I got a garden mushroom done from a piece of spruce log.

Anyway, I was reading on the newsgroup a message from a guy who has figured out the fun of turning. When the edge starts to feel a little dull, sharpen. The shavings come better and the effort disappears. I know you can lean into a cut and force the wood, but how much time does it save in the long run. When would bother to force a dull plane hoping it would make as nice a cut as a sharp one? So sharpen. I like a jig although I do some freehand. It only takes a few seconds to sharpen and the work is a game with sharp tools. Relax and cut.

I have some ideas on how I sharpen over on the sharpening pages If you do something different I would like to know.