I don't know who originally coined the term scary sharp for the practice of sharpening tools with sandpaper but it's been in popular use for a long time and it's true you can get a tool that is incredibly sharp with relatively inexpensive sandpaper and maybe a bit of strapping to put on that final polish but sometimes that can be a long and tedious process especially if you have to remove a lot of Steel to restore a old or damaged tool like one that's chipped or even to prep a new tool for its first use such as flattening the back today I'm going to show you a variation of the scary sharp process that is significantly faster and more effective in the long run it'll also be cheaper because it will wear out less fine grit sandpaper I highly recommend watching this video to the end it won't be very long but it may just be the game changer you have needed to get those razor sharp tools that have eluded you so far it's all pretty simple I have a 5 16 inch thick piece of tempered plate glass now this gives me a perfectly flat surface which is essential for proper sharpening and I've got four adhesive backed sanding discs stuck to it in four different grits I have 320 400 600 and a thousand now up to this point this may all seem pretty standard for the scary sharp process right sandpaper on something flat but the key to this variation what changes everything in my opinion are those 320 and 400 grit discs because these aren't typical sandpaper these are special proprietary grit made by 3M they call it kubatron 2 because these discs are covered with precisely shaped tiny ceramic cubes the corners of those cubes stick up like little pyramids and they are super hard so those two factors combine to create what I think is the perfect abrasive not just for wood but for sharpening tools today I'm going to prep a brand new chisel what a lot of folks don't realize about tools like this is you often have to do a lot of work to get a new chisel ready before you use it the first time it's not just a matter of honing and polishing the bevel you also have to do the same thing to the back of the tool because a truly sharp edge is the Confluence of two polished planes not just one the problem is new chisels and the same could be said for most older vintage chisels that you find second hand don't come usually with flat backs it may look flat this one certainly does but look what happens as I rub it on the Sandpaper just a little bit notice how the scratch pattern reveals a deep Hollow in the back where the reflection appears don't now I'd rather have a hollow than a big lump to grind away but the fact remains that all those shiny spots have to be worn down to the same level as the dull spots for this back to be truly flat and for this chisel to be truly scary Sharp I'd normally have to spend quite a bit of time on a tool in this condition but watch what happens when I use the 320 grit kubatron disc I'm going to apply pressure at the end of the tool as I start moving it across the paper I don't even have to lubricate it it cuts Fine Dry you can already see how fast it's removing the steel because the metal is beginning to collect around the tip every 15 seconds or so I check my progress and you can see the dull spot is beginning to shrink this is happening much faster than with other sandpaper in my experience if I do feel the progress is slowing I can clean the grit with a Gum Eraser and then get back to work as I said this chisel needed a lot of work but I still got it finished in about five minutes a typical chisel with a back that starts out in a little better shape than this one was would require even less time than that now by way of comparison a chisel in the condition this one started in I'd normally expect to spend about half an hour with regular 320 grit paper and I have to change that stuff out too maybe even three times if I didn't have cubotron paper though I would probably speed up the process by just stepping down to a coarser grit of regular sandpaper but then I'd have to step back up through more grits which would require more time more paper and more hassles the cubatron 2 allows me to start with a high grit use less paper overall and spend a lot less total time and now that the bulk of the work is done in the back is flat I can move through the remaining three grits relatively quickly I spend less than a minute on each and I worked my way up to a thousand now you might have noticed that only the first two grits on my glass were Cube trying to sandpaper that's because it was those two grits that did the bulk of the work that removed the most steel especially that low grid the 600 and the Thousand grits remove very little steel they're just polishing out the scratch marks so a less expensive aluminum oxide disk worked just fine for those two high grits not that the cubatron discs are terribly pricey I think they're around a buck 50 each and depending on how much steel you have to remove you might get several chisels out of a single disc in fact you can get the plate glass if you need it along with two of each of the four grits in a kit that my friend Mike over at Taylor tools put together it's a whole sharpening system for around I think 25 bucks plus you're supporting a great small family business from Missouri I've partnered with them for years and they are really worth supporting of course you can also use this same setup to hone the bevel I like to do it freehand but you could use an angle guide again the 320 and the 400 cubatron two grits cut so well that it only takes a few Strokes on those so it's easier to do it freehand and then I follow up with my 600 and a thousand I always like to finish up with a leather strap and some paste and then I'm cutting wood like butter today I really wanted to focus on the back of the Chisel that is where this kit really pays off it is such a nightmare job because it's such a large surface and you often have to remove so much steel so having a fast inexpensive way to do it will make a huge difference in how your tools perform try it for yourself what do you got to lose the links are below this video in the description and also pinned to the top of the comment section see you next time I've used a lot of featherboards over the years but the bow feather pro has really caught my attention the fingers easily bent in the feed direction that produces just the right amount of pressure for a smooth and even feed rate but should something go wrong and the saw decides to kick that board back at you the unique curved shape at the top of the fingers combined with that living hinge at the base produces a cam-like action that greatly increases the pressure and virtually locks the board in place the manufacturer claims five times greater pull resistance than a standard featherboard but I think it's more than that it's really a unique design that honestly has changed my attitude about how useful featherboards actually are is anti-kickback devices maybe
