Timing Grinding and Honing a Hand Plane Iron (attn: Derek Cohen)

[Harold Burrell]

What no banjo music?

I don't think that banjo music would fit this particular video. By the look on his face, maybe some AC/DC.

[Kees Heiden]

So, I guess we are about the same age. I'm 47 btw.

Here's a video I made about half a year ago and have posted before, but maybe not on this board. About 3.5 minutes. One thing I do differently now is less time on the polishing stone. I was making the micro bevel way to large, only because polishing feels so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ehSrX1Dx78

He, maybe we should all post a sharpening video!

[David Weaver]

Interesting stuff ,thanks . In using the Arky ,you are using more pressure than with a waterstone to cut and burnish at the same time ; the good result with strop is because of that burnishing ?

I don't know what it is exactly. I've made the assumption before (and commented) that the shallow oilstone grooves fan out a flat wire edge and that the geometry of the grooves makes what's left behind after the strop do better. The strop isn't doing too much wearing, it's oiled, too, as I always oil it and wipe it - it's easier to remove any metal swarf with a little oil. It is definitely removing the wire edge, though, but when I wipe the iron with a towel, I do intentionally pull off some of the wire edge when I do that. The less the strop has to do, the better.

The interesting thing, though, is that the strop does not do as much with any waterstone except the very fine ones. The step up from an oilstone is huge, even if you're fairly gentle with the strop. If I had to guess at pressure on the strop, I'd say two or three pounds, as opposed to iron weight only that you might use if you were stropping after a 1 micron waterstone (which is something I don't do, anyway).

i never really appreciated strops so much until I started shaving and saw how improved the edge is off of a finishing stone. If I was using a 1200 grit waterstone front and back of the iron like I use this one, I probably would use a loaded strop. But I don't really like loaded strops too much, other than balsa and a razor.

I am so enamored with this stone and fully understand now why it pretty much wiped out all of the hone slates, novaculites (charnley, etc) and sandstones in the UK. I just could never separate myself from the premium plane irons until the whole cap iron thing, and now I could pretty much do without them.

[David Weaver]

I don't think that banjo music would fit this particular video. By the look on his face, maybe some AC/DC.

I think judson recognizes the tshirt. I got it years ago when I got a banjo from stelling, but you don't want to hear my playing! I started woodworking around the same time, and that really cut out the banjo playing. (my wife doesn't like the noise from woodworking sometimes, but she'll take it over the banjo any day),

[David Weaver]

So, I guess we are about the same age. I'm 47 btw.

Here's a video I made about half a year ago and have posted before, but maybe not on this board. About 3.5 minutes. One thing I do differently now is less time on the polishing stone. I was making the micro bevel way to large, only because polishing feels so good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ehSrX1Dx78

He, maybe we should all post a sharpening video!

I'm about 10 years younger than you, but I feel older

[Judson Green]

Nope I'm not nearly that perceptive. I just thought old time twangy music was mandatory for woodworking videos. But heavy metal would be more appropriate.

[Tony Wilkins]

I don't think that banjo music would fit this particular video. By the look on his face, maybe some AC/DC.

With the subject matter, surely it has to be the Rolling Stones

[Jim Neeley]

The interesting thing, though, is that the strop does not do as much with any waterstone except the very fine ones.

David,

What do you mean by "fine"?

About 15-20 seconds for a tertiary on my 30K Shapton (0.49 micron) and a couple more to remove the burr and I've got an edge that cuts fabulous and looks good under 15X lens. With light cuts it cuts awesomely with or against the grain and I haven't torn random cuts on birdseye.

Are you saying a strop would make a huge addition to that.. or are you considering something in the 8k range as "fine"? If so I would readily agree although I'd just skip the 8 and go directly from the grinder to a 1k for the secondary and 30k for the tertiary. (I usually write 16k/30k since my 16K is my "travel stone" due to price. It works nearly as well except it gives up a bit in edge retention.) <g>

As for the "feeling older", it's not the age.. it's the mileage. I'm 54, but with high mileage. <EWG>

Jim

[Chris Griggs]

Back from Pittsburgh and getting caught up. It was my first time there, nice town...smaller and less urban decay than I expected. It seems like it didn't get killed by decline in industry and the crack epidemic in the way Philly did. Philly is pretty nice these days in a lot of area's but there are still vast expanses of decay and a lot of poverty. I always envisioned Pitt as being similar, but its got more of the feel of an old midwestern city with a strong working class than a big old over crowded eastern city. Not that I don't like Philly. Great town. I was just suprised that Pitt had such a different feel. Had a good time!

Too bad a visit to your shop didn't work out....maybe next time I'm out that way.

So that's David Weaver. After all these years, we finally have a face. You look much less like Ron Swanson than I envisioned

Anyway, cool videos. In first one you can hear the beautiful purr of the Baldor.

So he 2nd video was QS cherry. What are you planing in the first video BTW?

[David Weaver]

A strop doesn't do much of anything for a shapton 30k unless you're using it to shave (in that case it will move a razor up a notch or two in the hanging hair test - which is also really only useful for shaving sharpness - it will also cut way back on the razorburn - shaving straight off of a synthetic stone is a good way to get razorburn).

An 8k waterstone is a good example - the edge should be better off of a clean strop or from palm stropping - and you can usually see glints of a wire edge on A2 or something else alloyed. An edge gets better off of a 1000-1200 grit type waterstone but it's not satisfactory.

[David Weaver]

Back from Pittsburgh and getting caught up. It was my first time there, nice town...smaller and less urban decay than I expected. It seems like it didn't get killed by decline in industry and the crack epidemic in the way Philly did. Philly is pretty nice these days in a lot of area's but there are still vast expanses of decay and a lot of poverty. I always envisioned Pitt as being similar, but its got more of the feel of an old midwestern city with a strong working class than a big old over crowded eastern city, not that I don't like Philly. Great town. I was just suprised that Pitt had such a different feel. Had a good time!

Too bad a visit to your shop didn't work out....maybe next time I'm out that way.

So that's David Weaver. After all these years, we finally have a face. You look much less like Ron Swanson than I envisioned

Anyway, cool videos. In first one you can hear the beautiful purr of the Baldor.

So he 2nd video was QS cherry. What are you planing in the first video BTW?

Yeah, the baldor is actually a little out of balance I put the pink wheel on and have been too lazy to do anything about it, but it's not like it's going to walk off.

I thought you were coming next weekend. Let me know when you're out here next time.

You're right about the city - not so much crack as philly and detroit and only ~ 2.2 MM people in the metro area with few in the actual city. To the south and west is some major rust belt depression, though. And there are some small neighborhoods in the city (east end, homewood, parts of the north side) that would remind you of philadelphia minus the crack - not safe places to be.

The wood was some piece of face frame scrap, whatever I had laying around.

[paul cottingham]

Interesting videos. But I have to admit you were somewhat less larger than life than I expected.
:-)

[James Taglienti]

David you mentioned at one point that you had a couple different grades of washita- how do they compare? What about soft arkansas?

[David Weaver]

David you mentioned at one point that you had a couple different grades of washita- how do they compare? What about soft arkansas?

Chris has a pike #1 that I had, and I have another vintage finer pike type washita as well as a woodworker's delight and mechanics friend. Sometimes I think the three other than the vintage very fine one are a little different, but it may be that one is just in a finer state (from use) than another. They all settle in fairly fine if you let them alone and they all make an edge comparable to this.

I also have a vintage soft and a couple of versions of modern softs, and they will not make quite as fine of an edge. The structure of the pike mine stones is a little different.

If I had to guess anything about all of the washitas, there is a chance that the two pike branded stones were a little more similar, but they all have the same very porous structure that soft and hard (not translucent) arkansas stones don't have.

The lilywhites are through the roof on price, though, and the video would've been the same with the woodworker's delight (which cost me $17 on ebay, vs the $100 or so the lilywhite cost).

At any rate, only vintage pike mine type washitas (pike, norton/behr manning, woodworkers delight, mechanics friend, carpenters delight (friend?)) seem to perform like this, and I'd guess that all of my washitas came from the same place at one time or another. Anything that smiths or buck, etc, sells marked washita are not pike mine stones and should be avoided. They must just be low density softs. Dan's softs are to be avoided, too, and the good softs can be used as a very coarse stone or as a finer stone, but they won't make an edge as fine as the pike mine stones.

[Steve Bates]

I'd prefer to listen to TOOL.