Originally posted 13 June 2013
I bought an Ellsworth sharpening jig and wanted to get the dimensions correct for sharpening it properly.
I already had the Wolverine base under my grinder. I was thinking about buying some steel and making my own jig. I measured the tube and found it was 3/4-inch square. I decided to try to make it out of wood and am happy with the results.
I found a 3/4 x 1-1//2 oak scrap and cut a 3/4-inch square stick off it about 12 inches long. I then took a piece of cherry scrap, and setting my table saw blade at 45-degrees, put notches in the center of both the top and the bottom of the cherry. I placed the oak stick in the Wolverine base and placed the cherry block on top of it next to the grinding wheel and measured to the center of the wheel. I then deepened the notch on the top pf the block until it was exactly 4-inches below the center of the wheel. Here is the result.
I cut thin piece of cherry scrap and glued it to the back of the block and glued the block onto the oak stick, and I had my jig. Not shown is a gauge that I cut that is 4-inches by 7-inches to place the block the correct distance from the wheel whenever I put the jig back into the Wolverine base.
The gouge needs to stick out of the front of the jig exactly 2 inches. At first, I placed a pencil mark on top of the jig, but was not hppy with the level of consistency that would provide, so I drilled a 3/4-inch hole in the cherry block.
I got pretty close to the 2 inches.
The calipers say 1.999.
So to try it out lets see how the angle matches. Almost perfect.
Sweep left…
Sweep right…
And you’re done.