Sharpening Question

He Tony
It sounds like your putting to much pressure on one side while your sharpening. A little gun blueing on the the back will give you a very good indicator of how your doing.

-- https://www.artisticwoodstudio.com/videos

Tony,

I’ve found it difficult to flatten on waterstones, they dish much too easily so as you move from one grit to another they have different flatness. For flatting, what works best for me is either sandpaper on granite or diamond stones. I doubt you are doing anything wrong, it’s just your equipment letting you down.

The only part that needs to be flat is near the edge. Depending
on the individual chisel or plane iron, it’s sometime not worth
the effort (to me) to flatten more than the 3/4” or so at the
edge. In a spectacularly swaybacked chisel the lack of a flatter
back may impede usefullness in some cuts, but such deformed
chisels are usually not much good anyway from a metallurgical
standpoint.

All you need to do is get the back flat enough that it can be
polished at the edge to the same grit you hone the bevel
to. Depending on your skill at honing the bevel, you may or
may not be able to get a consistent “shaving sharp” edge,
but that has at least as much to do with your technique
as a fine polish on the back.

If flustered, do the best you can on the back near the
edge and buff the back with jeweler’s rouge.

I start with a piece of 120 adhesive backed sandpaper (porter cable makes some, available at amazon) on a scrap of granite (from a local countertop company and free). Flatten until the shininess is even, and then move on to the waterstones. I also use the granite and sandpaper to flatten the stones. And I’m very happy with the results (huge bald spot on my arm, from testing plane irons)

-- Lucas, "Someday woodworks will be my real job, until then, there's this http://www.melbrownfarmsupply.com"

Thank you all, I am only flattening the last 1” or so of the iron

The waterstones certainly do dish quickly, perhaps I’ll get some diamond stones, got everything else ! :-)

So are you “bearing down”, as it were, or is the weight of the iron and you’re just sorta guiding ?

-- http://wood.mcgivern.org

You dont need much more than the weight of the chisel itself to sharpen. No need to push down very hard at all.

Forget the 400 stone, it is way too soft and a waste of money. 220/400 Sand paper works better because it will not dish.

Tony, it sounds like you’ve bought into all the hype about sharpening that’s uber fashionable these days. In my 40+ years of woodwork, oil stones and wet/dry sandpaper on a piece of glass have served to deliver all the sharpness that’s necessary.

-- Clint Searl....Ya can no more do what ya don't know how than ya can git back from where ya ain't been

thanks Ship, that helps, I’ll give that a try.

Clint, sigh, I’m just trying to learn how to flatten some plane irons and chisels so I can get better at something I’ve grown to really like, bought into all the hype ? Really ? I’m glad you’ve got all this down pat, 40 years of experience’ll do that for you I guess.

-- http://wood.mcgivern.org

I agree that the scary Sharpe system works great and it’s low cost and simple to do.

-- https://www.artisticwoodstudio.com/videos

I forgot to add that you only need to flatten the back of the blade/chisel about 1” from the edge. Going any further is just eye candy.

I had the same problem for a long time. How I fixed it was by making a jig that holds the iron in place while I flatten/polish the back. All I did was take a piece of mdf about 3” x 5” and inserted 4 1/2” rare earth magnets into it with epoxy. Cost me about .40 and it works great. In fact, it works so great that I’ve made several and I give them out to people that take my sharpening class at the local woodworking club. If I can remember, I’ll post a pic tomorrow. Another great thing about this is that its much more comfortable :)

-- Dave, Colonie, NY

Jim, I do tend to agree that the Scary Sharp system is a lot simpler and definitely a lot less messy ! But, by chance more than anything, I started down the waterstone path as part of a gift, so here I am

Shipwreck, I’m only trying for the last 1” or so

sikrap, That sounds great, would appreciate the pic

-- http://wood.mcgivern.org

Well, it turns out that I lied. The magnet are 3/8”. All you do is clamp the mdf down and drill 4 holes with a forstner bit, drop a drop of epoxy in, drop the magnets in until they’re flush with the mdf and you’re good to go. You’ll be amazed at how securely these itty bitty magnets will hold a plane iron and how much easier this simple jig makes flattening/polishing the back.

Well, I’ve tried several times to upload the pics, but it just ain’t working for me. PM me with your email address and I’ll send them to you

-- Dave, Colonie, NY