Sharpening Turning & Carving Tools

Jim Kingshott

Reviewed by:

Ken Greenberg

I've always regretted that I never had the chance to meet Jim Kingshott. He always struck me as the kind of guy you would like to hoist a pint with and talk about woodworking for hours on end. He's fun to listen to in this video - kind of like Eliza Doolittle before Henry Higgins got hold of her. This works very well for him in teaching woodworking or sharpening, as his conversational style is entertaining and very easy to listen to.

This appears to be the second in a series of sharpening videos, with some minor dependence on the first tape which covers more standard items like plane irons and chisels. If you are already comfortable with planing the simpler straight shapes, you don't need to worry about missing the first tape. In this 1 hour 20 minute video, Kingshott carries on with how to sharpen more complex shapes. These include carving tools, paring tools, and turning tools, presented in that order. A variety of equipment is used. There are high speed grinders (used for HSS turning tools only, thankfully), motor driven felt wheels, and a Tormek grinding system. But most of the sharpening takes place on stones. Kingshott favors oil stones, but does not hesitate to use diamond stones where appropriate. The only type he doesn't seem to use is Japanese waterstones. There's lots of use of slips and cylindrical abrasive sticks as well.

There are many tools covered here - carving gouges get a lot of time as you might expect, but veiners, parting tools and other shapes are addressed. Turning tools covered include skew chisels, parting tools, spindle, bowl, and roughing gouges, and ring tools, plus scrapers.

I initially bought this video for my wife, who wanted to know more about how to sharpen her carving tools. There's no substitute for experience or practice, but we all have to start somewhere. This video is an excellent beginning, and I highly recommend it if you have never been exposed to the intricacies of sharpening the myriad shapes of carving tools. I never fail to learn something when I watch it.