Reply To: Sharpening plane iron: several newbie questions

Hi Boris,

it looks like you don’t get your blade sharp enough. Easy way to test this: does it cut paper without effort? You should be able to slice a sheet of paper in one movement. I would recommend you put a polishing compound on your leather. I live in Belgium and use this one:

Don’t buy from Amazon though, I only paid 11 euro for it. Don’t worry too much about the burr. I sometimes have it too that the burr isn’t gone completely. I switch back to the bevel on the fine stone, and then pull the back on the stone again to reduce it a bit further. Normally, when you strop you should get rid of it entirely.
I suspect Paul knows exactly when to stop sharpening, so that the burr is very tiny. That way he gets rid of it even before stropping. It takes some sensitivity to know when to stop, I guess.

cheers,
Stijn