Jointer blade sharpening jig

To take my blades in to get sharpened, I have to drive about 15 miles. So if I can do any of the sharpening by myself, it saves a lot of trouble from taking it in. I patterned my jig after Dan Deulen’s design.

To start out, I glued three pieces of oak together to get a 2 ¼” thick block.

Here I am ripping the block to make the slots for the blades, and shaping the top hand grip. There is a nice “you tube” video by DIY Tyler labeled “Planer/Jointer Knife Sharpening Jig How To” that does a good job of showing how to build the jig.

You will need to make a bunch of practice cuts to get the right depth, angle and placement for the blades.

The 10-24 screw threads are tapped into the wood. Using a hard wood is best for this.

I used 100, 180 and 320 grit sandpaper to sharpen the blades. Then I made a final polish with a  8 ½” x 11” sheet of 50 micron sandpaper, from 3M. After taking the blades out of the jig, rub the back of the blade on the 50 micron sheet, to take the burr off of the back of the blade.

These self adhesive sandpaper rolls work well on the granite. You will find out though, that you must spread a light film of lubricant, like WD-40, on the granite before installing the sandpaper. If you don’t, you will spend a lot of time with a glass scraper and lubricant to get the sandpaper off. No matter what, the sandpaper doesn’t come off easily without some scraping. For this reason, I would not recommend trying to do this on a formica top. I would suggest using glass or granite, or something like that. I picked up a scrap cut-out piece of granite from a countertop supplier. I found using latex gloves made it easier for me to grip the block.

The blue stain on the wood is a result of using water on the final polishing sandpaper. I decided not to use the water anymore, so that I wouldn’t create a problem with the wood swelling.

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