Sharpening is a fundamental skill required to build a successful woodworking practice. In this weekend class, we’ll focus on how to sharpen chisels and plane blades and introduce you to techniques to sharpen a wide variety of hand tools. This class will focus on sharpening freehand, building skill, sensitivity and awareness. However, for those interested, we will demonstrate using jigs. This two-day course is intended for woodworkers who have started their journey into hand tool woodworking and have begun to acquire planes, chisels, and other edge tools. We expect that you’ll already have stones and some tools that you are prepared to use during the course. Our goal with this two-day course is to get you to practice sharpening enough in the class that you’ll be confident to go home and sharpen your own tools. We’ll look at how you can apply your new understanding to sharpen anything from kitchen knives to hatchets and more! Feel free to bring lots of different types of blades to practice on! This class focuses on teaching mostly freehand sharpening methods, with the aid of hollow grinds produced on a bench grinder. While it's possible to maintain flat grinds on your tools by hand, most find that the bench grinder is a necessary addition to their home sharpening setup. During the weekend, we will cover the following topics and techniques: Basics of sharpening The bench grinder Restoring old blades Introduction to curve blade sharpening Required Tools: Personal protective equipment Pencil Paper or notepad Close-toed shoes Waterstones: 1000 grit waterstone 8000 grit waterstone Stone flattening plate Sharpening tray A plastic box big enough to hold your waterstones. Blades / Tools: At least one plane with blade At least one chisel ½’’ or wider Gouge or any other curved blade tools Knives Prerequisites Bring enthusiasm and an open mind. This class is designed for complete novices up through experienced woodworkers who would like to tune up their skills.