Reply To: Plane problems
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This may still be a sharpening problem, and that is actually the most likely issue. It is possible you are not getting the wire burr off entirely. You definitely need to take care of the chip breaker not closing tightly against the blade, but that should lead to the throat clogging with shavings, not dust, so it isn’t your primary problem.
Make sure, when you are sharpening, that you can feel a burr being produced. Ideally, you want the smallest possible, but make sure you feel one is produced. Otherwise, you haven’t reached the edge with your honing. When working the bevel, you should feel the burr by assessing the back. You then work the back and, especially when you are learning to sharpen, you will then feel the burr on the bevel. So, you take a light pass on the bevel…at which point you will feel the burr on the back, etc. I know that Paul shows giving one quick pull and then going to the strop, but my experience learning to sharpen was that I made too large of a burr and it would not come off as simply as Paul showed. It took several back-and-forths to work the burr off. Over time, you’ll learn to feel and produce a lighter burr and then what Paul shows will be possible. Once you’ve raised the burr, you want the minimum work, sometimes just the lightest single stroke, to move that burr over to the other side. Once the burr has been worked back and forth a couple times, the strop can get it off, but my experience is that the strop will not get it off if it is too big, which is common when learning to sharpen.