Old School Plane Iron Sharpening

[shipwright]

With all the power tools I have at my disposal now I find I never use my old hand tools any more. It's been so long since I sharpened a plane iron that I thought I'd better do one just to make sure I still could. I don't use anything but my hands for jigs and I only use my rough, all purpose grindstone and a double sided oil stone for this task because in the shop where I learned sharpening forty years ago, that's all we had. I had begun to wonder if in fact we actually got those things as sharp as I remembered doing it this way and I wanted to find out. Seems we got 'em sharp enough, although with better equipment I have no doubt they could be even sharper. Here's how I learned to sharpen chisels and plane irons at North Arm Boat Works forty years ago.

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First you establish the angle you want to grind at and set your right index finger under the tool rest at that length. Usually, you would grind a short, steep bevel at the edge first, to get rid of nicks, then a longer hollow bevel to almost the edge, leaving a bit of the first cut showing. To change you just move the guide finger on the iron.

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Once you establish this finger position, you clamp on like your life depends on it and don't let it move until the grind is done. If you haven't let it move, then you will have a nice smooth grind that looks like it only had one pass.

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Then you move to first the coarse side and then the fine side of the stone and holding the iron firmly as above, raise the back until the edge touches the stone. At this point you will see the edge push a little oil out. Now you simply fix your hand angle and work the edge in an circular motion over the face of the stone until a "wire edge" can be felt uniformly across the blade. The last step, and I couldn't photograph myself doing it is to strop the edge on your left hand to break off the wire edge. This takes a little practice but the cuts heal and once you've learned you never cut yourself again. You just slap the edge up against your down-facing palm and then down against your up-facing palm. (Yes JPG, it's the same hand, you keep turning it over and back) The last thing you do is examine the edge in good sunlight (with glasses now) "If you can see the edge, you don't have one."

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This is as sharp as I've ever needed a plane. It makes shavings the length of the board, you can almost see through them, and the finish on the board is better than sanded. I really should start using these things again.

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The plane is a Stanley Bailey No. 6 (Fore Plane - 18")

Paul M

[charlese]

Well, you learned the same way I did way back in high school (1948) as a freshman. I still do it that way with both planes and chisels. (with exception of grinder) Works good enough! However have to admit, I have been tempted to invest in one of those honing guides, and did buy a $20 holding jig to help these old hands at the grinder.

[beeg]

Paul, have ya flattened the back of that plane iron?

[shipwright]

Never felt the need.

Paul M

[eartigas]

Thanks for showing the technique, the photos and the clear explanation. This is very helpful.