Wait! Sharpen first with Instructions From Ron Hock

Now you can hone your tools for maximum performance.
This page courtesy of
Eli Griggs
Charlotte N.C.
USA  eli.griggs@worldnet.att.net

Speedball, x-acto and 'regular' tools can be easily and quickly brought back to a near razors edge by the use of honing compound and wooden strops.

These things are so cheap to make that you can have a form fitting hone for every tool you carve with.  Keep these to the side as you work and when your tool needs a bit of touch up, there they are.

Honing compound is a mix of very fine abrasive particulars into a binder that allows the application of the compound to leather, wood, felt, cloth or paper.  The abrasives remove metal and will bring up an edge better, depending on which compound you use, than what can be had with a very fine waterstone.

By the way, I do not recommend the use of powered hones for fine carving tools. Some people swear by them but I think they eat away too much of the tool and round over edges.  Better results will be had with wood hones.

Use the same angles that you carve with for making and using the hone!

All you need to do to use a honing compound is to take some basswood or soft pine (either in a board or as a 'slip-stone') and carve in line with the grain of the wood, with each gouge, a form fitting slot long enough to be of use.

 3 or so inches of travel will be fine for most small gouges.  For 'regular' gouges, turn the tool upside down and gradually work a slot into the wood that is a close form fit as well.  The travel length will be shorter.

Speedball gouges, and some carving tools (V's and U's,) because of the way they are made or need to be sharpened, will not be able to make the reverse slot.  Never mind because you can apply honing compound to wood dowels or slips and get the same results.

To use your new strop, work the compound in slowly and use your tool to in a 'drawing down' action to help spread the compound.

DO NOT cake the compound onto your hone.  If, when you draw the tool down the hone (NEVER PUSH), excessive compound cakes up onto the tool, then you have applied too much.

A well made and prepared hone will turn black as the tool is being used. That is the indication that metal is really being removed. So if you do not see blacked compound then you have applied too little or too much.

Maintain your strop by rubbing in a LITTLE compound every now and again and when the hone wears out, toss it and make a new one.

Make a wood strop for knifes, chisels and flats.  Leather is often used but even with the stiffest leather on wood, there is a small but telling rounding over of the edge of the tool.  Why buy the best edge tool made if you never bring it up to its' potential?

U gouges should be sharpened by laying them on the sides and honing the sides like you would a chisel or knife.  Make a shallow slot for the curve of the gouge and sharpen that part as if a gouge.  Use a small wooden slip or dowel to touch up the inside, honing first one side, then the other and finally the curved area.

V tools should also be sharpened like this but make a small groove in a flat of wood and draw the 'v' of the tool down this.  Use a wood slip on the inside of the tool for the wings and the intersection.

Slips can be easily made by many cutting methods but if you know someone with a framers mitre sawbox then it is a simple thing to make a range of slips in different sizes.  Make several in the shape of Japanese water slips.  Be careful of the woods grain direction.

If you know a wood turner, have him/her turn you an assortment of tapered dowels and use these on the insides of gouges.

The only honing compounds that I recommend are the "Yellow Stone" sold by Woodcraft and chromium oxide, which can be had most everywhere.  For some tools I will use both.

Yellow Stone is peach in colour and cuts very quickly.  Apply it dry to your strop.  It is less fine than the chromium oxide.

Chromium oxide is green like the paint (it's the same stuff, different binder) and give the sharpest edge.  It cuts quickly and is more wax like than the yellow hone.  You can rate this stuff like an 8000 grit stone and if you use it after an 8000 grit waterstone you should gain maximum in edge sharpness for your tool.

If  you can't find the green compound, you can take good quality chromium oxide oil paint and paint it onto a strop or dowel.  When it dries you can use it like a normal hone, though it may cut a bit slower than the above, it will give fine results.