Sharpening Stanley router (171 1/2) plane blades?

I’m sorry to say that it’s all down to a good, old-fashioned hand-job – but not rocket science.

These blades don’t fit into any jigs that I’ve seen, so the choice of holding it is down to your own preferences. The choices are:

1 – grab it inverted in your fingers while you work away on the edges of stones….. Awkward, to say the least.
2 – mount it up-side-down in a vice and rub away with the medium of your choice….. easy to cut your fingers.
3 – use a vice-grip or small hand-vice.

The basic technique is to firstly flatten the back, or foot, of the blades, down through the grits to remove the inevitable manufacturers’ grind-marks. It needs to be dead flat and you do it once to this level, thereafter just maintaining the finish near the cutting tip, but ensuring that it is flat at all times – no bevel at all.

When the blade is mounted in the plane, check that the cutting edge is dead in-line parallel with the plane’s base with a straight edge – if it’s tilted, you’ll get a streaky cut from the corner that digs in first. You may need to correct this before sharpening the bevel.

Next, turn it over and do the same to the bevel. It’s possible to do this on a flat stone, but in my opinion, the best tools for these shaped blades are the small diamond-grit flat paddles that (I think) are made by Eze-Lap. They are not too expensive and last for years with a bit of care. When the blade is mounted in the plane for work, the foot (underside) should be slightly tilted, so that only the cutting tip is in contact with the wood.

The pointed blade (seldom used for anything useful) is treated the same way except that when installed in the plane the foot must be dead flat – if not you’ll get streaky cuts from the tip cutting first; the opposite of the flat blade. It’s used – supposedly – for working into corners, but the ordinary blades can do that…..

Finally, if you’re prepared to spend some effort, you can improve the work-action immensely by making a thin wooden base for the plane. The metal bases of many of these planes were seldom fished flat and often have machine marks remaining which adds to friction in use.

Good luck

Paul usually takes small incremental shavings as well. I’ve noticed that angling the router so the blade is skewed when cutting helps. Grain also plays a part in how well a router will cut. Sometimes my router cuts very smoothly and then other times it doesn’t. When it cuts rougher I’ve noticed the grain was just as difficult to plane on the surface near the the area that I’m using a router. I usually always have to take small incremental shaving when routing. I use a chisel to remove most of the waste wood and then finish with the Stanley router.