Roger Tulk
Member
- Messages
- 3,018
- Location
- St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Yesterday I honed two plane irons, the one from my rabbett plane, and the one from my new block plane. I had honed the rabbett iron previously, but after using it to make a rabbett, decided it could use a little touch up. I put it in a guide thingy, and rubbed it on my 4000x waterstone for about 5 minutes, until I saw an actual wire edge form (very, very, small - but definite.) Then I rubbed off the wire edge like a good honer, and put the plane back together. I haven't tried it yet, but I am sure it is good.
I started the block plane iron, which had probably never seen a sharpening stone before, on the 1000x waterstone, at 30º. It quickly began to sharpen the very end of the bevel, then that progressed across about 2/3 of the bevel. At this point it appeared very sharp by the old Boy Scout test method, and caught my fingernail in just the way a sharp blade is supposed to, but I had been honing for about 20 minutes, and there was no wire edge. I finally went to the 4000x stone and polished the bevel until I could see my face in it, a little at a time. I put it back together, and again got wonderfully thin shavings, even without getting a wire edge. I didn't test it by shaving hair off my arms, as my keeper doesn't like the bald patches on my arm, or the blood, but I am convinced of the sharpness of this blade.
So, should I always expect a wire edge, and how important is it to the sharpening process? I've been sharpening knives for years to razor sharpness, and usually only produced wire edges on low carbon-steel blades.
TIA
I started the block plane iron, which had probably never seen a sharpening stone before, on the 1000x waterstone, at 30º. It quickly began to sharpen the very end of the bevel, then that progressed across about 2/3 of the bevel. At this point it appeared very sharp by the old Boy Scout test method, and caught my fingernail in just the way a sharp blade is supposed to, but I had been honing for about 20 minutes, and there was no wire edge. I finally went to the 4000x stone and polished the bevel until I could see my face in it, a little at a time. I put it back together, and again got wonderfully thin shavings, even without getting a wire edge. I didn't test it by shaving hair off my arms, as my keeper doesn't like the bald patches on my arm, or the blood, but I am convinced of the sharpness of this blade.
So, should I always expect a wire edge, and how important is it to the sharpening process? I've been sharpening knives for years to razor sharpness, and usually only produced wire edges on low carbon-steel blades.
TIA