The Complete Guide To Sharpening
by Leonard Lee

Review by Mark Gezella – August 2004

Each month I usually peruse the library cabinet looking for something different, something interesting, or something I had briefly seen before that I want to investigate further.  Reading these types of selections is as much a luxury as it is objectivity.  However, this month I was on a mission.

If you're like me (I hope not, but...!) you tend to start a project at the last minute and rush to get it done in time.  This usually means any tools I need are applied in their current state without any initial preparation.  The knife with the dull blade is used with greater force, the gouge with the rounded corner is used with a bias toward the sharp corner...you get the idea?!  I recently tried carving a small object for my wife's birthday and found these and some other tooling to be in less than ideal condition.  But, since I had started way too late anyway, I did what I normally do - proceed with haste and lend greater effort to a cut rather than taking the time to properly sharpen the tool!  I decided afterward to cease this sort of nonsense and attempt to "hone" my sharpening skills. However, what I really needed, besides some basic discipline towards keeping my tools sharp, is a good reference on how to go about maintaining what I have.  I was hoping the library would have something that could help, and alas - I was not disappointed!  All of this leads to what I found for this months entry...

"The Complete Guide to Sharpening" is exactly what it claims to be, accomplished by over seventeen chapters worth of information.  I won't go into all of them here, but suffice it to say it begins with in-depth subjects such as the "meaning of sharpness" and the "physics of severing fibers", devotes chapters to virtually all types of major common cutting tools, and wraps up with milling cutters and other miscellaneous shop tools.  And believe me, there's a whole lot going on in between!

I can't really think of an edge tool that the author doesn't cover in the book.  And the author, Mr. Lee, is quite the authority when it comes to tools, sharpening and the like.  You probably recognize the name; Leonard Lee is the President of Veritas and Lee Valley Tools, the latter being incorporated in 1977 (I think Veritas came later ?).  He's also an accomplished woodworker and toolmaker.  Lee Valley Tools has a neat website - I like to browse the link on their home page that shows past catalog covers with descriptions. Their website is www.leevalley.com.

As you might expect, there are many tool comparisons among chapters; Mr. Lee goes to great length describing grinders, honing devices, etc.  He also describes things like how to identify tool steel by the type of sparks that fly off a grinding wheel.  Which leads me to the pictures - which are very cool.  I've seen tool and metallurgy books before that show the ubiquitous tool-edge under a microscope, but the collection in this book transcends that big-time.  There are pictures of tool edges, but what's great about this book is an appendix at the end called "Chip Classification" that has a bunch of pictures of magnified cuts in action (taken from two doctoral thesis').  I found it fascinating to see a blade taking out a slice of wood fiber by fiber.  I've never quite seen it depicted like that before.

I think my favorite chapter is one that describes how to sharpen axes, adzes, and related felling tools.  There's an interesting inset that describes what not to do with an axe...the author chastises some poor woodsman with a picture of what was left in a stump!  He also tells an interesting story about how meticulous his father was with tools and how an uncle abused a fine implement on a cold Canadian morning that rendered it useless.

Mr. Lee finishes with an "Afterword" that contains a couple of amusing paragraphs which allow him to humbly admit to leaving out some tooling.  His example is of a "nicker-spur" on combination planes.  I don't want to spoil it for you, but it's a humorous send-off with a vote of confidence to boot!

This book has been part of our library for awhile, but it's one of those timeless references that prove their worth again and again.  It's a hard-bound edition that provides much relevant information on sharpening essentials (including homemade jigs).  If you have any questions at all about sharpening, or would just like to see some examples of how it's done by the masters, take a look - you won't be disappointed.  "The Complete Guide" is currently available for checkout in the Guild library.