Sharpening Tool Bits

[Sagebrush Steve]

I've been prepping a Green River fish from the 18" layer.  It is one of the unprepped slabs I bought at the Tucson Fossil Show.  I've been prepping it by hand using a couple of pin vises with carbide needles I bought from Paleotools.  It's slow going doing it by hand but it keeps me busy.  Last night one of the needles chipped out a piece from the tip.  I tried sharpening it with an ordinary file but it didn't make a dent.  So I went over to the local Harbor Freight and picked up a Diamond Honing Block .  By using one of their ubiquitous 20% off coupons it cost me only a little over $10.  It worked great--I had the tool sharpened again in just a couple of minutes!  It's such a small needle it's easiest to see what you are doing under a microscope, but I would highly recommend it even if you don't have one.

 

[caldigger]

Good for you. Got the little booger sharp again. Now get back at it!

We will want some pictures. Maybe progressive pictures of how the prep goes along.

[Sagebrush Steve]

1 hour ago, caldigger said:

Good for you. Got the little booger sharp again. Now get back at it!

We will want some pictures. Maybe progressive pictures of how the prep goes along.

No, you don’t want pictures.  If you saw pictures you would revoke my Member of the Month award and drum me out of the Forum.   Better to keep the pictures to myself and let everyone imagine I’m incompetent rather than post them and remove any doubt.  

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for the tip, Steve!

Gotta love Harbor Freight!

I'll pick one up this weekend! 

Cheers!

[RJB]

Ive been using some cheap diamond files for awhile now to keep my air scribe tips sharp.  Years ago i use to sent them to Paleotools to resharpen, but when the price went up to $10 per tip to resharpen, i had to rethink.  A set of 6 of these diamond files was $6.00 plus shipping.  have done many a resharpen job with these.  Great idea.

 

RB

[jpc]

I use similar ones as RB shows.  And diamond wheels on a Dremel for bigger carbide tips (PaleoTools tips).  

 

[Ptychodus04]

I use a silicon carbide wheel on my bench grinder to sharpen my carbide needles.

 

I prefer a flat chisel tip on my hand needles. I find a conical point will over penetrate easily whereas the chisel is a little easier to control.

 

I grind away and quench them in water.

[LiamL]

On 16/02/2018 at 8:18 PM, jpc said:

I use similar ones as RB shows.  And diamond wheels on a Dremel for bigger carbide tips (PaleoTools tips).  

 

I've just bought a dremel to sharpen my TT tip, what speed do you do it on?

[jpc]

4 hours ago, LiamL said:

I've just bought a dremel to sharpen my TT tip, what speed do you do it on?

I have an old one-speed....