Sharping kit

[Mark E Smith]

Anybody use one of these from Highland Woodworking to sharpen their plane irons. I am thinking of getting one, but wanted some real world user opinions. Seem like a good cost effective solution to buying every piece separately.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/sharpening-kit-for-plane-irons.aspx

edit: Moderators this is probably in the wrong area, feel free to move to the correct area. lol...didn't look real close, thought old iron meant old planes ... probably needs to be in jigs and fixtures section

 

[Roger Tulk]

i have all the pieces, bought separately from LV. My waterstones are 1000 and 4000 grit, and give me a razor sharp edge and good thin shavings. I use a Nagura stone for flattening the waterstones. This kit looks pretty complete, and a good deal.

 

[Paul Hubbman]

If you haven't made up your mind yet, i second that this looks like a good deal. The only things i'd add would be the nagura stone (suspends the metal particals in a slurry instead of letting them build up on the water stone's surface - especially on the finer grit side) and a 12" square piece of double strength or thicker glass.

The glass is a nice flat backing to lay a wet piece of medium or course grit wet/dry sand paper to. If you need to grind a clean edge on a plane iron or chisel that has nicks in it, doing so on 800 or 1000 grit water stone will make you an old man. Instead, you can place a piece of medium or course grit wet/dry paper on the glass and run the side clamp guide with the iron or chisel in it over that to grind past the nick in the blade, giving you a fresh clean shape to hone on the water stone. Simply move directly from the sandpaper to the stone. If you google "scary sharp system", you'll find some demonstration videos and better instruction. It works great.

Also, when needed, the sandpaper on the glass backing is a great and quick way to flatten your water stone.

And the glass is relatively cheap.

I just tuned up and sharpened all of my planes and chisels over this past weekend using this process. I had to flatten my stone once along the way. It's really great to have all your tools so sharp that you can easily shave with them. The bevels are a mirror polish when you're done. Don't forget to spend a little bit of time flattening the back side of your plane irons and chisels as you go. It works best if both sides of the cutting edge are polished to the same degree.

paulh

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

If you want to have it fast and not spend time building it go for it. However, you can also download on the same link the building instructions, as well as a video in showing how to use it.