Polishing the flat side

Hi Lee,

Flattening the back of the iron can be an exhausting task! Just keep going until the scratch marks are constant across the back. It’s not a quick process but you only need to do the first 1/8″ or 1/4″ or so. No need to polish the whole back.

Something I’ve done a couple of times to speed the process up (I’ve also got the 220 grit diamond stone) is to get a piece of 80 grit wet/dry sand paper, stick it to a known flat surface (granite tile or somesuch) and use that as the abrasive. It’ll hog off more material and you can put a splash of water on it as lubricant. Once the scratch marks are constant, go back to the diamond stones, work through the grits and finish on the strop.

Good luck!

George.

Hi lee. For initial flattening of planes and irons I use a 220 grit belt from an electric belt sander.As someone suggested you need something flat either a piece of slat,granite or something similar.I cut this just short of the internal dimensions of the belt and then fit two small blocks of wood ,one each end to tension the belt.The advantage of this system is that you can move the belt around as it wears . I mount mine in the vice to give a firm base to work on.

The nice thing is that this flattening is generally a one-shot deal.The chisel and plane irons stay flat once worked and now you only need work on the bevel from here on.

Ron, well lets just say that it took me all weekend and two packages of 220 grit sandpaper to get them flat.  I was rather dissatisfied with them.  You know your in trouble when the back has a paisley pattern.  I’ve been slowly buying the stanley sweetheart socket chisels lee valley sells as they fit my hands a lot better.

I only concern myself with the 1/8 to 1/4 in. immediately behind the blade. I want this to be flat and polished. No need to polish all the other stuff. What you want to avoid is a “belly” on the back of the plane.

Somewhat more controversial is to avoid quite a bit of back flattening (for plane blades, not chisels) by using the David Charlesworth’s “ruler trick.” As long as you have no belly on the back, the ruler (very thin ruler) trick results in high polish only on the cutting edge. It diminishes the area of concern to only the very edge. Some people don’t like the idea of the ruler trick. But, like a lot of things in woodworking, there’s more than one way to do things and get similar results. I use the ruler trick for plane irons.

Here’s a Lie-Nielsen video on sharpening. The ruler trick is illustrated around the 2 min 15 seconds mark. Although the illustrator uses water stones, the same thing can be done with oil stones or diamond plates of equivalent width. The stones used in the video are 3 in. wide.

Curt,
Not sure about the hardness of the steel. Woodcraft’s website advertises Wood River planes with A-2 steel. Not a steel expert but A-2 is considered really hard. Nevertheless, the flatness of the lapping surface and the lapping abrasive makes a big difference.

Curt,
I’d be greatly disappointed to pay a premium price for A-2 and the it not be milled well. I have a few Lie-Nielsen planes with A-2. Luckily, they have all been flat and pretty well polished. Definitely usable out of the box. Same with Veritas. However, if they weren’t flat, I’d send them back.

I’ve also rehabbed some old Stanley’s. Never had a significant problem unless the previous owner had lapped a belly on the back. I really like the steel in older Stanley’s. Easy to sharpen, takes a keen edge, and stays sharp for a reasonable period.
Gary