Reply To: scrub plane cutting iron sharpening
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Hi Carlos.
My story with sharpening might be unusual, I don’t know. I first learned woodworking at school in the ‘sixties, and always sharpened freehand then. I did very little after leaving school until the late ’70s and then not very much. Eventually found my sharpening skill very poor, and I bought an Eclipse honing guide. The guide helped me get an edge, but it wasn’t very good and, especially with the plane iron, was slightly skew. I blamed myself for lack of practice.
One day I read an item somewhere on the internet that suggested that the honing guides were less than perfect (by then probably Chinese made) and could be corrected. I modified my honing guide to remove the skew effect, and thought it a bit better, but still not brilliant.
Since I discovered Paul’s blog and “just do-it” attitude, I’ve returned to honing freehand, and my edges now are better than I have ever had them, even under tutelage at school.
The important aspects are :
1. Get the flat face to a mirror finish, you can’t make a sharp edge against a rough surface.
2. Hone until you get a wire edge. The grade of the honing surface determines the size of that, and the sharpness achieved.
3. Strop carefully! You CAN remove the sharpness.
Free-handing a curved edge is not that difficult with practice. Choose a technique you are happy with and practice it. The figure-eight is difficult to acquire for many, but the sideways sweep works just as well, as does my technique of forward and backward with a side rocking action.
I expect the scrub plane blade is the best one to start with, as it doesn’t matter to the plane if the curve is a series of flats 🙂