I have had issues off and on with my plane sharpening, trying to follow Paul’s method. I finally discovered I was making a very simple mistake, and I thought it might be useful to pass on. It arose from abandoning the honing guide and going free hand, which is very liberating. What I finally realized was that sharpening at 25-30 degrees means holding the plane much lower to the stones than I thought. So I made a small wooden block at a 30 degree angle that I could fit right under the blade before beginning to sharpen. That gave my hands the precise feeling of how high I could lift the blade. It was a lot lower than it looked to me on the videos, and i am sure I lifted blades up at times just to get the burr going when I was in a hurry. Anyway, the wooden block really helped me, and I spent the time re-sharpening all my planes, and it felt like a miracle.

Best wishes to everyone!

• This reply was modified 9 months, 1 week ago by amgrima.