Thanks Admiral

[Fisherman]

I was able to use a #3 that i purchased a couple weeks ago from Admiral. Wow, are all my planes supposed to work like that? It worked perfectly. I guess my Sharp is not sharp enough. It is getting better, but now I know how my tools should work. Thanks again!

[Admiral]

Gee, thanks.

Actually, I only did a quick sharpening of the iron so a bit more attention to it will improve performance, but a lot of what makes a plane work properly is the setup of the frog, attention to the mating surfaces of the frog to the body, as well as the fettling of the chipbreaker's mating with the iron; all of which I must have gotten right with your plane.

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it.

[AHill]

The number one epiphany I think most individuals exposed to hand tools experience is the realization that really sharp tools work a whole lot better than they are used to. Can't tell you how many times folks have asked me what kind of grinder I use on my chisels or plane blades. They are used to "sharp" being what comes off a grinder. It is particularly frustrating to newbies to pick up a tool that isn't sharp and then be unable to make nice wispy shavings. Once a properly sharpened edge is discovered, it opens up a whole new world.

[Bill Wilson]

And there is still a difference between an intellectual understanding of that fact and actually experiencing it. I've done a lot of reading over the past few months and have read that statement many times. Until recently, I had never actually experienced it though.

I bought a used #3 from a gentleman at the October MWTCA meeting. As I was handling it, looking it over, he cautioned me that it was sharp. I brought it home and set it on the bench. I got busy with other things and didn't get around to trying it out right away. I have a few other planes that need some rehabbing and I intended to work on them all this winter. I picked it up a couple months later to try it out and was pleasantly surprised and amazed at how nicely it cut. Now I have a tangible example of what to strive for when sharpening/tuning the others.

[Admiral]

Getting edge tools "sharp" sometimes leads folks down a rabbit warren and the process of getting something sharp becomes an end to itself, as opposed to getting the tool itself sharp, and in my mind this can be a distraction from actually putting the tool to work. The promise of any particular process that works for some will work for you can sometimes just be the Sirens of Greek mythology who lured sailors to the rocky shoals. We've all been there, I wandered through many jigs, processes, sharpening media and even empty promises before I just settled on a process and mastered it, so my advice would be to pick one media, waterstones, oilstones, Worksharp, scary sharp sandpaper, whatever, and one process for using the media, and get good at it; and secondly, jigs are best when they are simple and repeatable.

Sharpening anything is an acquired skill and takes time and some effort, but bears abundant fruit when you get it right, and then you experience the "Eureka" moment when the spotlight in your brain is switched on. I am experiencing just that with saws right now and the difference between a mediocre sharpening job and a good one is simply amazing, and I have folks like Marv and his saw sharpening musings here to thank for that. The web is great, spend some time reading and make a choice then stick with it.

[Patsfan]

I'll agrre with all of that and just add that once an iron is "sharp" and dulls through use, it takes very little time to hone it back. Your time investment up front pays dividends for a long time.

Same is true for chisels.

[Bill Wilson]

A major revelation for me was something told to me by a guy I was watching put on a sharpening demonstration. He echoed much of what you said, but the thing that really turned the light on for me was how he explained the necessity of polishing the back of the chisel/plane iron to the same degree as the bevel. He said that a cutting edge is the intersection of two planes. One is the bevel and the other is the back. If scratches or other imperfections exist on either surface where they meet, the edge will not be as sharp as it can be. For some reason, despite all the reading I had done up until then, that particular point never sank in until he explained it to me.

[Admiral]

Bill, oh, yeah, for sure. One thing however, you don't need the entire back flattened, just the first 1/4" to 3/8" of the back, and in my experience "polished" is too strong a word (and many will disagree with me), but just so it is flat and without imperfection is good enough. "Good enough" is often meaningless and and abstraction at first, but once you get things sharp you'll be able to judge what is good enough and what isn't.

[Kansas City Fireslayer]

I couldn't agree more with the "good enough" statement. It took me some time before I realized this. I had spent waaaaay too much time on chisel backs in the past for achieving a "bit" more sharpness that I later on found out that I typically didn't need for straight grained domestic hardwoods. My sharpening process is much quicker now even though I have sacrificed a very small degree of sharpness. Some won't agree with this but it works for me.

[DonSlaughter]

Well said, Admiral & Fireslayer. First year I started putting my shop together...I discovered 'sharp' from a fellow WW...next year or 2 I chased the method. Went from scary sharp (perfected) system to tormek, water stones...every jig imaginable and FINally found what worked for me....Shaptons followed by charged leather strop on MDF. THEN....I was able to keep tools sharp enough to complete projects....and,now, rarely have to do more than hone on a couple grits and strop one or two tools at a time. I easily bring the edges back to use as they wear. I LOVE sharp. But that's the peripheral to the passion of making with wood.