Sharpening Planes & Chisels

[John Kinnane]

Does anybody have any links to sites where I can learn how to sharpen planes and chisels properly. It is a long time since woodwork lessons at school.

[capt jake]

When you learn, I will send mine to you to have sharpened!!!

I am rather rough at that one...

[BobSmalser]

Look under the "articles":

http://www.woodcentral.com/newforum/msgset.shtml

Do a search here on "sharpening":

http://host65.ipowerweb.com/~traditi2/forum/index.php

And here's a recent discussion about it:

http://www.woodworking.org/Exchange/Forum2/HTML/011366.html

[Charlie Jones]

Try this site- it's an in depth discussion of the "Scary Sharp" method using sandpaper. I use it occasionally and it really works.

http://www.shavings.net/SCARY.HTM

[BobSmalser]

I use Arkansas stones because I have them...but if I were starting from scratch I'd have a glass vendor make me a half dozen plates of quarter inch, and use alum oxide wet-or-dry paper stuck on with spray adhesive and lubed with WD-40.

It's called "scary-sharp" these days, but it is hardly new....many cabinet makers have been doing it that way for almost a century. MDF works, too...but plate glass is better...float glass is the best but expensive and really unnecessary.

Make one big enuf to flatten your plane soles, too.

It don't really matter how you do it so long as you get the bevels right and the secondary bevel sharp enuf to shave hair like this:

Dont forget your chip breaker irons honed to match the blade interface angle exactly (merely lay them flat on the stone):

And the most common blade bevel is 25 degrees with final honing on your finest stone done at 30 degrees....all after you flatten that blade's back on your stones, of course. You don't need a jig....measure those angles with a protractor and memorize the look and feel....if you rock it a bit and wind up with some convex surface on your bevel, it's no big deal...the wood won't know the difference...just strive to do better at the next sharpening as you'll get plenty of practice.

And I can't get excited about 1000-grit sandpapers....600 grit is plenty if you strop your blades carefully on a stitched muslin wheel with some Knifemaker's Green rouge...not a blade here, but you get my drift:

And while I do have a grinding jig for the grinding wheels...I never use it as I don't like the hollow-ground they make....the belt sander mounted upside down in the Workmate with a bucket of water and bevel gage and machinist's square to check my progress works just dandy.

Be sure to use lots of water....turn that edge blue from heat and you've ruined it and need to grind anew.

[Mark Hughes]

Ok, that "Scary Sharp" was just plain hysterical! I was laughing so hard, three coworkers and my boss came over to my desk to see what was wrong! The methodology seems sound, I'll have to give it a try.

[Dave Fleming]

On Sharpening Shipwrights Tools

For the subjects of this topic lets stick with plane blades, chisels, slicks, adzes and drawknives, shall we.

The metal planes owned by most of you have the thin factory type blades rather than the thicker aftermarket blades. Aftermarket blades can be obtained from the likes of HOCK, Japan Woodworker etc..

Factory thin blades are sufficient in most cases...if properly fitted and sharpened. The blade and chipbreaker make up the essential unit.

The type of sharpening stones and or papers is yet another matter to consider. All have strong points and perhaps a weakness or two.

At this time the Scary Sharp system seems to be very popular followed by Japanese type waterstones. The old standbye of natural or man made Oil Stones is seemingly less popular nowadays. Scary Sharp is nothing more than using fine grit Wet or Dry abrasive papers on a flat sheet of some hard material. Float glass, marble, steel or cast iron are all to be considered when setting up to do the Scary Sharp technique. Just how to, is freely available on the 'net', so no need to go into detail here.

The Oil Stone way is still used by many and worthy of consideration.

What ever system and, it each is a system or method of doing, do the research and practice on some old 'klunker' blades before approaching your user blades.

Blades, most all blades, come less than perfect from the factory and must be checked and finessed for the best performance.

The back of the blade, that part that fits with the chipbreaker is many times ignored and is the first part of the blade that should be worked on. Lay backside flat on sharpening surface and make a pass or two across the sharpeing medium and then look at the blade. Chances are you will see shiny and dull areas close above the back of the cutting edge, this tells you that the back is not flat and will not mate tight with the chipbreaker. This is ***the critical area*** to be made as flat as possible. If this area is not flat and the corresponding edge of the chip breaker don't meet tight, chips or shavings from the work will become lodged in between the blade back and the chipbreaker and cause you much grief. Don't forget that the edge of the chipbreaker should be sharp too, so that it makes a tight connection with the now flat blade back.

Once this critical mating is been achieved the next area is the actual cutting edge itself. On thin blades, I don't try to hollow grind the edge at all. Just make it a nice straight sharpened edge. On the thicker aftemarket blades I would definitely consider hollow grinding the cutting edge, depending upon the wood to be planed.

Chisels should be looked at similar to the plane blade. Flat backs nicely polished do make a difference in use. Here again Flat or Hollow grind is a matter of use. For paring with thin bladed chisels I personally would not hollow grind the edges and, for hefty Mortice type chisels again I don't favour hollow grinding. The edge is under a lot of strain and whilst the Mortice type is good and stout in cross section, there is a potential for weakening the edge with hollow grinding. On most other chisels a

hollow grind might be considered.

Hollow grinding the edge is of course followed by honing with progressively finer grit materials. You will wind up with a fine cutting edge. .

Slicks are used as a paring tool and I favour a nice conservative hollow grind followed by honing.

Adzes are a bit of sharpening problem nowadays for most of us. In other times, a yard would have a big old hand powered or one converted to motor power, grinding wheel. The width of the wheel would be shaped to fit the narrowest adze blade used,

usually a 3 inch flat adze. All other size adzes either lipped or flat could be ground on that wheel as well. Final honing was with hand held stones though in a pinch I have seen fine Mill Smooth metal files used for all sharpening. Dressing a Lipped Adze was no easy task. It took several stones, one just to hone the inside corners where the lips turn almost 90 degrees.

Drawknives rarely needed the grinding wheel as they were used mostly on dressing already milled stock and there was less chance hitting a stone or a pocket of grit with one. Fine circular oil stones with one handle held in the crook of arm and smooth strokes of the stone would bring the edge back to shape in not much time. If more severe sharpening was needed then a jig or fixture was not uncommon mounted on one side of the sharpening bench. It held the drawknife bye both handles and allowed the shipwright to use both hands on sharpening the blade.

Note: these comments are brief and don't in any way completely cover the subject.

[John Kinnane]

Thanks to everyone for the in depth replies. It looks to me like the 'Scary Sharp' method is the way to go. I'll have a go tonight and let you know how it works.

Happy New Year To All

[ken connors]

i guess my method of blocking up the belt sander in the bench vise and grinding it down with 120 grit isnt going to get me into the woodworkers hall of fame, but it sure seems sharp when im done.

[capt jake]

I will qualify by saying I haven't read the entire thread, but on polishing, I was taught by a well respected wood turner to use a circular disc of MDF and a wee bit of polishing compund.

As anybody knows, MDF is murder on tools, thus this has work very well for getting the finish I need on my gouges for the lathe.

I will need to try this on something else, once I get them sharp!!

[BobSmalser]

Here's a good place to begin learning about edge tools.

A "high-end", well-tuned Stanley 60 1/2 that works like a dream...and it was free when I acquired it 30 years ago, and would cost mere pocket change today.

Note the odd mouth adjusting knob...it's the elevation wheel from another junk block plane. The Stanley was missing mouth plate and knob and was free...I merely filed out another one, brazed on a stud to mount it and affixed it with the old wheel I happened to have on hand.

The end result was a tad shy of perfect flush with the sole, so I built the bearing surfaces up with a tad more braze, seen as a bright spots in the pic.

It remains my only block plane to this day.