Question regrinding bevel on a plane iron

[Doug Shepard]

A couple years back I picked up a 2nd blade for my LN LA Jack plane to use with a higher angle for more figured woods. Never got around to regrinding it until last fall and then only partially got through it. I'd like to finish this up once the temps improve in the shop. I know I dont need to grind the whole bevel but I want to grind the whole bevel. I've been trying to get away from using a honing jig to sharpen and it's a lot easier to keep a full width bevel on a stone or glass/paper than a skinny little microbevel. I dont have a grinding wheel setup with wheels wider than about 1" so I've been using a Worksharp 3000 with the coarsest discs (60 grit IIRC) but it's going excruciatingly nowhere. I think I went through 2 discs so far but only have the bevel about 1/3 of the way across. Can I get away with using my narrower width grinding wheels to get it in the ballpark then true up the squareness at the end using the Worksharp when there's less material that needs to get removed? Or am I asking for trouble using a wheel narrower than the plane iron? 2nd option: Could I get away with using the 6x48 belt portion of my combo sander with frequent stops for cooling?

[David Weaver]

Use the belt sander with coarse grit - it'll be a cooler operation temperature-wise, and in my experience, faster than a dry grinder. You can go back to the WS once you're close.

You could also do belt sander for coarse, and then the grinder to bring it to a nice hollow grind, which would make your freehand honing a lot easier. Just dress the wheel and do it with some patience. If you can't touch the edge of the iron, it's too hot.

I think time-wise, it's easier to stick with the honing guide and a small microbevel for BU irons, though. That's just my opinion.

[Mike Brady]

I know I dont need to grind the whole bevel but I want to grind the whole bevel.

Doug, I'm not going to question your reasoning, but I can comment that shortening your iron that much on every sharpening is wasting metal and sharpening media. That is a very thick piece of A-2 steel and you will become very frustrated trying to maintain that bevel, which must be about 3/8" in length. I have a 1" bet sander that I use for that purpose, but I rarely have to do use it because I just have spare blades with several different micro bevel angles applied to the standard 25 degree bevel.

To do what you state, you will have to invest in some power grinding equipment, and learn to use it.

[Johnny Kleso]

I never grind the whole bevel..
It makes too much heat and the thin edge always turns brown or blue and ruins the temper, On a standard bench grinder... On s 10" wet/slow it just takes forever

Sat you want a 30º bevel
Grind 1/2 the bevel at 25º
Grind 3/4 of the bevel at 28º
Grind the last 1/4 at 30º

For me I use jigs to save my stones.
I grind at 25º leaving about 1/32" from edge and maybe grind at 30º the last 1/32" on a really made blade

When I was making 1/4" 0-1 blades from scratch I would start grinding at 20º to cut down on heat..

[Doug Shepard]

Thanks for the feedback y'all. Think I'll try the belt sander next and see how that goes.