this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Woodworking

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A woodworking community for those migrating from Reddit.

founded 2 years ago
 

I'm very new to woodworking and I'm focusing on learning how to use hand tools. I'm slowly acquiring more tools and setting up my workshop, but I just know that there will be something super useful that I haven't thought about, and won't realise that I need it until I actually need it.

What items can you just not live without in your shop?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Diamond stones for me. I tried the sandpaper on glass method for quite a while and had no idea what I was missing until I got a set of quality diamond stones. Along with it I strop using a strip of denim with green compound.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A denim strop is a new one on me. How does it compare to leather?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

To be honest I’ve never used a leather strop. I discovered this site when I was learning to sharpen knives. The guy behind the site had access to an electron microscope and used it to test different methods. He found that a loose strip of denim (fixed on one end and held in the hand with the other) with stropping compound worked better than a leather strop. I think for straight razors he added a step after with either dry denim or diamond spray. I figured if it was good enough for this guy it’s good enough for me.

I can say the denim works better than stropping compound on a flat wood board.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use denim to keep disposable razors sharper longer based on some random thing I read.. never even thought to bring some out to the shop for stropping. Good tip.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Do you use it dry or with compound for razor blades? I’ve wanted to try it with razor blades but haven’t tried it yet.