Thread: Need sharpening help - Southern Brisbane

G'day Jisk, If you want to drive over Kenmore way I would be happy to give you some sharpening tips.

Cheers
Michael

Jisk, others know more about this game than me ... AFAIK a diamond stone is wasted if the main task is to flatten the back. SS is the way to go, and yes you can use the Veritas Mk II jig with it ... just take it easy on the forward stroke.

If you do want to go the diamond stone route for routine bevel work, check out ebay international. A guy in the US sells the DMT 10" dual grit for less than a locally bought 8" (though it doesn't include a holder).

Originally Posted by rsser

Jisk, others know more about this game than me ... AFAIK a diamond stone is wasted if the main task is to flatten the back.

I wasn't looking at the DMT stones in the carbatec catalogue to buy them - more out of interest, and noticed the huge price difference with mine.

I have a real rough silicone carbide stone that is good for getting the bevel back round abouts. Leaves a nasty burr on and so on but it means you are set to start on the water stones.

Then I work through waterstones. King 800, 1200 and 4000 (they sell this one as 6000 but it is really 4000). I do have a King 8000 as well but only use that for Japanese blades it doesn't seem to make any real difference to high speed steel.

The plate glass and wet and dry is important to have though so that you can keep your stones flat. Very important. The other thing is to just muck around and muck around with it, experience will teach you and you will amaze yourself how much there is to know about this.

Studley

Originally Posted by mic-d

G'day Jisk, If you want to drive over Kenmore way I would be happy to give you some sharpening tips.

Cheers
Michael

Cheers Michael. Kenmore is a bit of a drive from where I am (Greenbank) and Dean has sent me a PM - he's a bit closer.

Thanks anyway!

Originally Posted by Studley 2436

The other thing is to just muck around and muck around with it, experience will teach you and you will amaze yourself how much there is to know about this.

I am quickly learning how true this is. When I ordered my planes and bought my chisels, I didn't even consider that I had to sharpen them. Naive, I know.

Based on what everyone has said, my current plan is to go and see Dean to get a demo on how to sharpen, then get some plate glass and W&D to have a go myself with equipment that I know is good. Buying stones from the start is going to end up being a big outlay before I can get a decent edge, I think. If I'm still frustrated and want to get that perfect edge I'll go ahead and get a honing jig and some waterstones, or stick with the W&D if that's going to work and not cost too much.

Sound like a plan?

Is 600mm x 200mm glass, approx 60mm thick overkill or not enough?

How big is your plate glass rsser?

Sounds like a plan jisk.

Re the size of the float glass I went for 10 cm x 80 cm x 1 cm thick. Not cheap. If doing it again I'd go for a metre long and 11 cm wide .... helpful if you ever get hooked on flattening the soles of planes (now there's some hard and tedious work!). Some folk use the cast iron tables of their table jaw or jointer. I'm not keen on getting grit or water near mine.

Happy stroking ;-}

Oops, something went wrong with my calculations to say 60mm thick! I lost a decimal point somewhere from inches to cm to mm... I'll go with 10mm thick and similar dimensions to yours.

Time to call some glass suppliers.

Thanks heaps.

James.

Pleasure.

My glazier said 6mm thick mounted on something solid wouldn't flex but I've gone for the extra thickness. Reason is that it's very easy without a true surface just to take a bit more off the corners (and this also happens easily if the paper is not stuck down all over). This is exactly what you don't want when flattening the back and is a b*gger to remedy. On the bevel side of a jack plane iron it can of course be helpful to avoid leaving marks on wide boards.

I picked up a sheet of glass from the local glazier during the week, some silicon carbide sandpaper (in 80, 120, 360, 600 and 1200 grit), and had a crack at flattening the back, although got called in for dinner by SWMBO before finishing. Food cannot wait .

When flattening the back, should I stay on one grit until the back of the blade shows scratches that are completely uniform, with no high or low spots, before moving on to the next grit? So theoretically I will be spending more time on the lower grits, right?

BTW - I haven't even had a go at the bevel yet and already the blade is sharper than I was getting with that crappy stone. Excellent!

Originally Posted by jisk

So theoretically I will be spending more time on the lower grits, right?

right

Generally time spent is 80% on your lower grit 20% on all other grits.

When flattening the back, should I stay on one grit until the back of the blade shows scratches that are completely uniform, with no high or low spots, before moving on to the next grit? So theoretically I will be spending more time on the lower grits, right?

Have a read here:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/d...lappBlade1.asp

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks guys.

Derek, great article. It cleared up a lot, especially with the photos. A couple of questions:

- Why emery paper when shavings.net and the taunton article have silicon carbide? Is there a difference?
- Does using the veritas rouge make a tangible difference to the sharpness and effectiveness of the blade?

James