The 2nd Violin . . . She's Back!!!

Sharpening Chisels and Gouges

Tuesday, June 25th, 2019!!!! --- Yes, you read that right --- it took me FIVE years to get back to this long-delayed project:

As a kind of motivation to encourage myself to FINALLY get back to working on this violin (my second), I decided to pull out my Tormek sharpening station and get my chisels and carving gouges ready for this build.

One of the most frustrating things I encountered, while building the first violin, back in the summer of 2001, was not having really sharp chisels and gouges, and not knowing how to sharpen them adequately. I didn't have my Tormek back then (I don't think I even knew about them at all), and I definitely didn't know how to do any sort of sharpening at the time. In building that first violin, I just kind of used what I had (3 carving gouges) and tried, unsuccessfully, to sharpen them by hand. I was pretty much carving with dull tools.

In the spring of 2002, however, I ended up buying a Tormek Supergrind 2000 (probably because of that frustration with my dull gouges). I used it intermittently through the years, but never really knew how to use it well.

ANYWAY....I pulled it out last week, cleaned it up, reread the manual, and watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to use the various jigs with the machine. I finally understood how it worked, and I think I'm getting a handle on it.

As I was relearning how to use it, I put up a few videos on my Facebook feed. Here they are --- I'm definitely still learning my way around the machine, but perhaps you might find these clips helpful (or entertaining, at least).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

 

Wednesday, June 26th, 2019:

 

 

 

Friday, June 28th, 2019:

 

         

 

 

 

 

Saturday, June 29th, 2019:

 

 

 

     

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