This picture has nothing to do with this blog post, but I just wanted to show off my new Atkins #65 8ppi Rip saw. Made in the 1870's, yeah, its awesome.
Now, onto a more serious topic: I have a confession to make. I have been woodworking for over a year now, and have been using hand tools for the bulk of that time, and yet I had not (until last night) sharpened anything. Now I know that it is important to sharpen your tools, and that sharp tools work better, but sharpening scared me. I remember my dad saying things like "for years I thought I knew what sharp was, but now I realize I wasn't even close". From this I gathered that sharpening was not just important, but also impossibly hard to do well. So it scared me.
Oh, it gets worse; I actually bought a new plane iron so I could keep working on a box and not have to sharpen. As I was planing some cherry boards for a run of boxes I am making, I kept getting tear out and the plane was leaving a really rough surface, clearly this cherry was defective....or the plane is broken...or my technique needs improvement...ok FINE! I'll sharpen my dang tools! Last night, my wife took the older girls to see Batman, and the younger girls were in bed, so I decided to sharpen an otherwise dull evening.
I gathered all the tools that needed to be sharpened, and staged them on the kitchen table, like a so...
Oh man, 8 hand planes, 2 chisels, and 3 extra plane irons. I really should have done this earlier. I knew this day was coming, and have been watching Youtube videos on sharpening, reading articles on WoodCentral, asking the guys at Woodcraft, and reading some of my dad's old sharpening books trying to unlock the mysteries of the sharp edge. The first thing that struck me in all of these resources is that everybody is emphatic that their way to sharpen is the right way, every other way is wrong and will cause the world to explode, and everybody contradicted each other.
The only thing they all had in common was the definition of sharp: when the two planes of an angle meet at a zero radius. I started there. Now, what type of sharpening equipment to use, some use machines, others use sand paper, lapping film, diamond stones, water stones, oil stones, dragon scales, or mermaid teeth. In the end, I just had my mom send me what my dad used: water stones. I soaked them in water for about 10 minutes, then I started sharpening for the first time.
This makes it easier to repeat the angle in the future (you know, next year, when I sharpen again). Once I had the lines marked, I glued more scrap on it to make it more robust.
The one labeled "Mortice" is the distance for my morticing chisel, and also happens to be 30 degrees for a plane iron. The second step was making sure the back of the iron was flat. I first marked the back with a pencil, then worked the back until all the pencil was gone, thus ensuring that the back is flat.
Once the back was flat, I used a thin metal ruler to put what is called a 'mirco bevel' on the back of the iron. I have no idea what this is or what it does, but the Youtube video on the lie-Nielsen channel recommended it, so I'll go with that. Now it was on to the actual bevel. Most of the planes were not that bad, so I started on an 800 grit King water stone, then moved onto a 1200 grit King, and finished on an 8000 grit Norton stone, moving to a new stone after I could feel a uniform bur on the edge. The end result easily dry shaved hair, which was always how my dad demonstrated sharpness, so I guess it's a good standard. I wonder if I could use my #3 to shave in the morning...
This process went pretty fast, and I was feeling really confident, finishing plane irons in no time...until I hit my Try Plane. The iron in this guy is bit rough (hey, it's from the mid 1800's), and I did not want to damage the stones, so I had to first take it to the grinder.
Hand-powered grinder: Pretty cool, huh? Well after I had it cleaned up, flattened, and a reasonable bevel on it, I took it in side. This time I started on a 220 grit Norton stone, and followed the same steps as before. But this time it took FOREVER. This old steel is really hard...
But those old big, fat irons are fantastic. It took over an hour, but I got my beloved try plane back up and running. By the way, the second hardest iron was the Hock iron that is in my dad's Stanley #5, that took significantly longer to sharpen than my Lie-Nielson, or vintage Stanley irons did (But that edge has lasted a lot longer, too).
At this point, things were humming along nicely. I only had one plane left, it was my Stanley #5. I have two Stanley Jack planes. One was my dad's, and the other one I bought. My plan has always been to leave my dad's set up the way he had it; with a tight mouth and a flat iron. Mine, on the other hand, would be set up like a traditional jack plane, wide open mouth and cambered iron. I took it apart, moved the frog all the way back to open up the mouth, and then looked at the iron. It was flat. I remembered that Chris Schwarz said to use an 8" radius on the jack plane (this is from an episode of the Woodwright's Shop he did with Roy Underhill, one of my favorite episodes). I promptly got two more pieces of scrap wood and made a jig to mark out an 8" radius on my iron:
Radius marked, nerves steeled (pun intended), and off to the grinder. It took a little bit of work (it is not easy to use a hand-powered grinder) and a lot of luck, but I managed to get the iron radius-ed, and beveled. Now...To the stones! I looked at my round blade, and my flat stones, and immediately recognized that I have a problem. I started with the back, that was easy, except that I did NOT use the micro-bevel ruler trick, cause that would have been dumb, not that I am opposed to dumb, I actually use it all the time. The bevel, I had to do freehand.
In the Woodwright's Shop episode, Chris locks his wrists and elbows and used his hips to guide the bevel over the stone. I figured I would try that. If my wife were home, I would have had her take a picture of that because it must have looked pretty stupid. It sure felt really stupid. Unfortunately, it worked, so I will most likely be using that sweet dance move in the future.
In the end, I got all of my planes sharpened, and my mortice chisel and my bench chisel sharpened as well. It only took me five hours. But I learned two very valuable lessons: First, sharpening is not really that hard, just pay attention and make sure you are consistent. Second, when pushing the iron on the stone, don't put your finger tips on the edge of the blade. It won't hurt, but it will cut you.
There, I confessed. I promise to sharpen more regularly, and to never buy a plane iron just to avoid sharpening ever again. By the way, the sharpened planes now leave a smooth, tear-out free finish on my cherry boards. All is well in the shop.
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