Hi All,
I received my first plane for Christmas. Nothing fancy, just a Stanley Block Plane. What is the best way to flatten and sharpen it? I don’t have any sharpening tools or a grinder now. I have only used power tools up until this point. I feel that this could be the start of something fun!
John
Replies
Put a powerful magnet on the back of the chisel to act as a handle. Then place different grits of silicon carbide sandpaper on flat glass. Go thru the grits until the back is a mirror. Then buy a pane iron jig with a roller and sharpen with the same glass/sandpaper set-up. A search here on sandpaper shrpening will yield lots of more details if you desire.
Sandpaper sharpening is also called by the name "scary sharpening" so search using those words, too.
I use both scary sharpening ($15, give or take a dollar for a complete setup) and now I'm playing with the WorkSharp machine ($200). For chisels and irons (the plane blade) up to 2" wide, the WorkSharp is probably the easiest way to create and then maintain the edge for a beginner as it has practically a zero learning curve. (Now THAT should stir up a hornet's nest of opinion :) )
Mike D
Welcome!
Take a look at this video we just published as part of our Getting Started in Woodworking video series. It demonstrate in detail one sharpening method for chisels and hand plane irons.
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/getting-started/sharpening.asp
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
clarence_dad,
Let me add my voice for support of the scary sharp method.. with next to no knowledge or skill you can do a great job cheaply
you need a piece of flat glass about the size of a sheet of sandpaper.. (the thicker the better.. Often you can get such a piece cheap at a glass shop since size doesn't really matter.
a little oil (it sticks the sandpaper to the glass)
and one sheet of each grit of wet or dry sand paper from 320 right up to 4000.
I think I bought my set up a decade ago for $10.00 and put everything in a big plastic bag. I pull it out whenever something needs to be really sharp..
I have a Tormek sharpening sytem I probably have close to $1000 invested in and the only time I use it any more is on intial sharpening.. I always finish up with the scary sharp method..
If you do go to the scary sharp method, in addition to what Frenchy said, you'll need a good sharpening guide like the Veritas Mark II to easily set and maintain your angles.
Something that I discovered when using the scary sharp method is that I don't tend to catch the edge in the sandpaper if I turn the guide around and push the back edge of the bevel forward, rather than push the blade's edge forward. When I do that, I can confidently "scrub" the edge on the sandpaper both ways, without catching the edge, greatly speeding the process.
Mike D
I’ll put my two cents worth in. I use a cheap, ($49.00), 6” Delta high speed grinder with a 60 grit white wheel and no jigs, (tool rest only), for a nice hollow grind. A hard white Arkansas oil stone, again no jigs, that I inherited from my grandfather, (maybe $30.00 new), and backs are flattened on a Norton “India” oil stone and that is it . Learn to do it by hand and eye and you’ll not have to rely on fancy jigs, it is not at all difficult to do. That takes care of all my knives and woodworking tools including all those A-2 blades in the L-N planes. I like to keep it VERY simple when it comes to sharpening and personally I believe sandpaper is for smoothing wood, not sharpening, but that is just me. There are as many ways to get a good edge as there are people who sharpen.
Here is a cheap but effective system ...
http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/dCohen/z_art/sharpSys/sharpSys1.asp
Regards from Perth
Derek
I never used 1200 grit or 4000 grit on wood, but it sure does wonders on my chisels!!
James
Napie,
You old retrograde, you. You've gone and stole my secret method, that has been in use for the last 200 yrs. I was gonna patent it, no-one seems to have heard of it lately.
A trip to the wheel from time to time, to renew the hollow as it gets polished away. Pull a couple stones from the drawer, couple drops of oil, work the bevel on the fine India til you feel a slight burr pushed over onto the flat, then a few passes over the white Arkansas on each side. Back to work.
No jigs, no dubbed over edges from the paper bulging up in front of the blade, no packets of multi grit paper, spray adhesive motor oil plate glass slabs, no buckets of water or stones to flatten the stones, no need to work up a slurry. No need to postpone the whole dreary time consuming task of sharpening til you have a half hour to get the stuff out set it up and put it away. No mystery.
Ray
That is how my Dad and uncles did it. Too bad us young wippersnappers can't seem to make that work.
Mike D
Mike,
In 1971, I got my first full time job in a futniture shop. One day shorly after I started work, I asked an older gent working there, "Mr Grim, will you teach me how to sharpen this spokeshave?"
"Walll," he replied, " Come on over here. Ya won't learn any younger!" And so my education began.
Not just sharpening, but any skill, must be practiced. And Mr Grim's words still apply. Get out there with those oilstones.
Ray
Ray, Ray, Ray! Stop that. You're pouring ice cold water all over the vast tool sharpening hype business and gizmo selling industry.
Who's ever heard of sharpening being simple: a grindstone, a couple of bench stones, and flipping the iron or chisel in the palm of your hand to knock off the last of the wire edge.
Next you'll be extolling the virtues of my sloppy old two minute "sharp'n'go" methodology.
It's just not good enough Ray. Your methods are far too simple and techno free. Whatever will the world come to if people started to believe that sharpening actually is quite simple. That would never do. Slainte. Richard Jones Furniture
Richard, mate,
Shhh! Wait'll you see my new marketing ploy: The "No-jig-sharpening-method's first sharpening JIG" (patent pending) It will be a large box, containing a picture of me--- ( on second thought, perhaps you can supply a photo of yourself, mine would end up out in the buyer's garden plot scaring crows away from their corn)--- using an oilstone freehand. Holes in the lifesize cardboard cutout for the user's arms to fit thru. $149.95 plus shipping. Cash or money order only, please, in advance. No returns. See our ad and review in FWW's upcoming sharpening jig issue.
Ray
Too cheap Ray. Double the price. If my image is on the front we'll have to quadruple the price, and it'll be worth it, ha, ha.
The Holy Grail of atom splitting chisels and plane irons is only available for unaffordable sums. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
Edited 12/30/2007 1:39 pm by SgianDubh
Ray,
Does that price include an instructional DVD? If you want to get to that other gent across the pond you will have to include it free! I've heard it through the acanthus leaves that he's about to become rich and famous!
He'll have all kinds of money and you do know about his issue with new tools right?
He, he, he, he
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
The DVD is 300 USD add'l. That's because it is cut with a CNC, in the back of SWMBO's GMC. So send $ PDQ or at least ASAP, and keep it on the QT --price goes up when word gets out.
Ray
Richard,
Yay!
I've noticed my sales of Granite Flakes has taken a nose dive since that Ray man posted his technique. I was so looking forward to retiring next year. Now it might be the following year as a result of that man.
I also think the he and Napie are conspiring to undermine the sale of gizmos and sleight of hand marketing schemes. Now I suppose all my customers will revert back to jewelers rouge.....................
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Yeah, it continually amazes me just how overly complicated the simple act of sharpening a chisel or plane iron can be made to be by some people, (the better to sell a bunch of nonsense gizmos IMHO). Good Lord, this is an activity that is as old as woodworking itself. It takes very little practice to get proficient at it, in fact it is far easier than cutting just about any joint and is simpler than using a smooth plane to finish a surface. Krenov’s “The Fine Art of Cabinet Making” has one of the best descriptions of simple sharpening techniques I have ever read.
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Personally I’d rather work wood than screw around with a bunch of paraphernalia and greasy sandpaper at the sharpening bench. Oh yeah, I also grind all my turning tools by eye not a jig in sight, including fingernail bowl gouges, and they cut straight from the wheel, no honing required. Blasphemy no doubt…
I forgot - some folks use the scary sharp system with the sandpaper dry. Others - me included - feel better putting oil on the sandpaper to float away the metal swarf (is that a real word?).
For the oil, two clean, non staining and non smelly alternatives are - drugstore mineral oil (the kind that you take when you are feeling, well, not altogether regular) - the other is baby oil - unscented when you can find it (baby oil IS mineral oil in another bottle). Both are cheap, don't make a huge mess, and are easily cleaned up.
By the way - it takes far less oil than the beginner suspects is needed - no need to actually flood the place - use drips, not glugs.
Mike D
Mike
I use the oil for another reason.. a little oil hold the paper to the glass like it's glued down.. but peels up easily when you go to the next grit..
frenchy,
but peels up easily when you go to the next grit..
I have 5 pieces of float glass, with different grits glued to each side. All side 1's have grits 120, 150, 180, 220 & 320. Side 2's have 4,000, 2,000, 1,000, 600 & 400.
Hone/lap progressively up Side 1, flip 'em all over and continue on up the grits (or down if you prefer to call it that).
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 12/29/2007 9:32 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Bob,
I don't trust glue to spread out as flat as oil does. If it's not stone flat then you wind up with something less than perfect edge. I'm sure yours probably are but my luck I'd have slight dips here and there due to the thicker viscosity of glue compared to oil..
Since you have paper on both sides you can't even look at the back side to ensure that it's flat with uniform glue thickness..
However like everything else, What I do isn't the only way to do it..
"I don't trust glue to spread out as flat as oil does." Frenchy, I'm going to try oil as you suggest. Bob may be using spray adhesive -- that's what I have used, because I couldn't get water to hold the sandpaper still. Didn't think about oil, so will definitely give it a try. Spray adhesive works well, as you can vary the "permanence" of the stick by how long you wait after spraying to stick it down.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Forestgirl.
Thicker motor oil, 30 wt is what I use but I'm sure any motor oil will work. You might be able to get something whimpy like WD40 to hold it in place But I haven't tried it so I can't say for sure it will work..
Since the oil attracts dust etc. when you are done tuck the whole thing in a sealed ziplock type baggy..
"...it takes far less oil than the beginner suspects is needed...use drips, not glugs." Or a spray bottle, even easier to get even but sparse coat.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Ah, a spray bottle! I've got to try that. I use a little mustard bottle with the drip cap - works pretty good - then I use the roller of my MK II to spread it around.
Mike D
The spray bottle was a natural thought when using water to lube the paper. It was so much quicker than trying to drip-drip-drip in a wide pattern, and on the W/D paper, the drops seems to keep their surface tension and just stand there (giving me the Bronx Cheer I'm sure).forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Mike,
When I started with scarey-sharp I used Liquid Wrench. Then I switched to just plain ole water. Have been using it ever since with no problems that I am aware of.
And, it cleans up a whole lot easier and quicker than any oil. I even use the water to hold the "sandpaper" or finishing film (3M) to the glass.
Alan - planesaw
I hadn't considered water. I learned the scary sharp method via the article that Forestgirl's link takes you to, and that utilized mineral oil.
I'll have to try water with Forestgirl's spray bottle - that should eliminate the oil-soaked paper towels I'm always so careful to wet and put in the trash outside.
Swarf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarf
Clarence (my brother's name, BTW) -- at some point you'll be flattening something, say a plane bottom -- that's going to take a more aggressive grit than your plane blade. Don't make the mistake I did and start with something whimpy like 150 grit or 220 grit. You'll be there forever, and swear off plane fettling for good, LOL. I've bought some aggressive Norton paper that's made for metal, but haven't tried it yet. Something to keep in mind; will report when I've tried it.
Scary Sharp ("sharpening" might not get so many hits from Google) is a great way to get started inexpensively and it works just fine. If you're a subscribing member to FWW, here's a sandpaper sharpening article for you.
If you want a jig to set the angle, but don't want to wait for an order to arrive, here's a shop-made one.
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http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/showthread.php?t=9336
Here's an illustrated how-to on sharpening the way its been done since the Bronze Age. There really aren't any good substitutes, as training yourself to sharpen is training yourself to work wood. If you can't see the flat you made to the cutting edge bevel on the stone, and correct your hold to put it where you want, how do you ever expect to do the same with a chisel on wood?
Jigs are a slippery slope, as you need several to sharpen odd shapes like skews and gouges, and you'll soon enough run into an edge tool for which you don't have a jig. Learn how to do it the old-fashioned way, and you can sharpen anything, anywhere, easily, which facilitates touching your tools up as they need it. Keeping your stones set up near your bench for quick touchups precludes wasting shop hours dedicated to sharpening.
I can't think of a more important basic woodworking skill than hand honing. Teaching yourself now will pay dividends later.
That said, most shops need a grinder to sharpen hard planer blades and the like, and you may find this flat-wheel grinder a better value than many. You can remove the blade holder to quickly and easily flatten chisel backs or freehand any cutting edge bevel. Highland Hardware sells a coarser wheel for rough work made for these.
http://cgi.ebay.com:80/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280188298715&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123
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Edited 12/31/2007 2:44 pm by BobSmalser
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