Sharpness is the key gateway for great woodworking skill. If your tools are sharp you have to exert less force or pressure to push that tool through the material. If you have to exert less pressure you have more control. Skill is all about control of the cutting edge, in the material and in the wood. So it's almost impossible to gain skill without having learnt how to sharpen tools.

Makita Saw Blade

Many people advocate different ways of sharpening tools and getting a good result. Most of these methods are destined for the amateur. The person who is only doing this weekends and evenings and is not troubled by spending a bit longer getting a sharp edge. The professional is not in that category. To the professional, an additional minute honing an edge on a blade is a precious minute lost and an expensive minute to his employer. Skill is really quality with speed and for that reason we don't recommend the use of honing guides or any of the other sharpening paraphernalia that clutters up the workbench of the amateur woodworker. We believe in minimum tools, and sharpening little and often.

Makita Saw Blade

Basically turning a sharp edge is about creating a small burr on that edge either on a coarse sharpening stone or on a grinder, then polishing that burr off. The test of a sharp edge on a woodworking tool, for us, is that those two surfaces, those two polished surfaces, one on top of the bevel and one on the back of the chisel meet at a point and that point is so acute and so well formed that light will not land upon it. The test we use is a visual one. Can I see anything on that edge when I hold it in a bright shaft of sunlight, or an enquiring bench light? This process is not something we can easily express in words. The of key things to learn is how to stand, how to address the sharpening stone, how to hold the blade and how to turn it and rub each side to create the two polished edges.

Sharpening Woodworking Tools - The Professional Way

Makita Saw Blade