Sharpening Woodworking Tools

Leonard Lee

Reviewed by:

Ken Greenberg

You would not expect a 71 minute video to capture all of the information in Leonard Lee's 245 page Complete Guide to Sharpening, and you would be correct in that assumption. Instead, Lee focuses on the most basic tools in each category - chisels to represent all edge tools, for example. He really goes into three areas with any depth - chisels, knives, and scrapers. This allows the viewer to apply what he or she has learned about those three tools to other things that may need to be sharpened. As you might expect from his write-ups in the Lee Valley catalog, he is an enthusiastic water stone user. All of the sharpening here takes place on water stones or the Lee Valley narrow belt sander.

There is focus on the following topics:

1. The Importance of edge shape
2. Choosing correct bevel angles
3. Abrasives
4. Sharpening chisels (and to some extent plane irons)
5. Sharpening knives
6. Sharpening scrapers
7. Flattening stones

Lee is, like most woodworkers, pretty entertaining to watch, and he is suitably opinionated. While he makes use of many Veritas products as you would expect, he frequently shows one, explains its use, and then says "but I never use one of these - I just do it by hand." Quite refreshing.