Reply To: Stanley No. 4 – what am I doing wrong?
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Hi all,
As usual I am so grateful to you all for taking the time to help me with this. Thank you.
I have attached some photos (not great but it’s the best I could get with my phone camera!) of the blade and chip breaker/cap iron. On close inspection it did look like I might have been sharpening the blade more on one side – probably pressing harder on the left side resulted in a slight angle. I wonder if this could be causing the issue? I haven’t sharpened the back of the blade at all as yet. Thank you for the video Howard, I haven’t watched it yet but certainly will. Hopefully it will give me some insight.
Keith, it worked fine when I got it, so must be something I’ve done/am doing.
Of course I’m a total novice but I’m fairly sure the blade is sharp – it’s sounding more and more like it’s the sharpening angle that’s wrong. The wood is just PAR redwood. I’ve noticed the burr being referred to a few times in the replies, and to be honest it’s one thing I was aware of when I was trying to sharpen – at no point did I get a burr. I know Paul talked about this in his sharpening video so I know what to expect, but I just assumed it’s because I’m using wet/dry sandpaper (with a bit of water) rather than a stone. Should that not make a difference? If not, I honestly don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I carried on for maybe 5 minutes on each grade of paper but still didn’t get this elusive burr. Maybe I need to do a video of how I’m sharpening so that somebody can enlighten me on what I’m getting so wrong!
Harry, I don’t totally understand what you mean – if it doesn’t matter too much if the angle is a bit steeper than it should be – as long as it’s less than 45 degrees which of course it is – then what else could be causing this problem? Sorry if I’m missing something totally obvious – I’m very confused :/
It’s definitely seated properly on the frog – I place it on and wiggle the lever around so it moves side to side, then clamp it down.
Out of interest – would this honing guide from Screwfix do the job for now (it’s £4.99 and I can get one today!) https://www.screwfix.com/p/magnusson-honing-guide/6342v?_requestid=230780
John, thanks for the link. You’re right, this has happened since I started sharpening so my thought was it’s either the sharpening or something I’ve inadvertently done to the setup of the plane when disassembling or putting back together. But I haven’t adjusted the frog or anything so…
Sven-Olaf, I agree the blade does seem far away from the opening (although it’s not resting on the back) – I did wonder if I should adjust it to be closer, but then I decided it might be best not to start messing and risk making the problem worse than it already is! I haven’t adjusted this since I got the plane so the position didn’t seem to be an issue before. You’re totally right – learning online has so many advantages but when something like this happens, it’s hard to explain and resolve the issue from a distance. My winding sticks have also been used regularly and I’m not sure I’m at the tolerably mediocre level yet!
Thanks again, everyone.
Kirsty
- This reply was modified 6 years ago by Kirsty Sanderson.