I have no idea what I am doing anymore

[Jerry Thompson]

I finally was able to get it all together to try grinding an iron. I got a slow speed grinder. I got a diamond dressing tool. I am waiting on a Norton stone but used the one that came with the grinder.
At first I tried the jig that came with my Veritas rest. It seemed more bother than it is worth. I set about doing an old Stanley iron free hand. To make a long story short I am damn good at it now. The edge is straight with only a tiny speck of light showing through in one spot. It has a burr on the back and no burn.
Having a blade that I never planned on using took the pucker factor out.
I learned how to dress the stone and found it was no nearly as difficult to do as I had feared.
Nest it is too the water stones. It is +103 today so I will have to turn the AC on in my garage/shop and give it a shot later today after my nap.
Thanks everyone for advice and encouragement.

[Ray Selinger]

I did a bunch out of square. I figured it out,my left arm just goes along for the ride, with the right doing most of the work. If I want square, it's a one handed operation.

[Mike Allen1010]

[QUOTE=Prashun Patel;2561722] I believe that through analysis and practice, (thanks Anders Ericsson) realistic goals are attainable. So don't give up...[/QUOTE]

Prashun, your Anders Ericsson reference is recognized and appreciated.

IMHO, I think you're 100% right his recent paper on connection between "deliberate practice and expert performance " is directly relevant/ applicable to woodworking, and particularly the value of a teacher / coach. If I knew how to paste a link here I would. Highly recommended, but not necessarily entertaining read, for anyone interested in what it takes to achieve "expert performance" in any field.

Best, Mike

[Prashun Patel]

Mike, I heard about him on a freakanomics podcast with Malcolm gladwell as a guest. They were discussing the subtleties of the 10000 hour rule. It was the reason I started taking private ww classes.

[michael langman]

Jerry, Sometimes it is hard to accomplish something when we let other things get in the way.

Visualize and Feel. Think in your mind that the chisel is out of square, and the direction that it is.

Feel the chisel being out of square against the face of the wheel.

Hold the chisel as light as possible in your hands to feel the out of squareness, but tight enough to have complete control of the grinding action.

In your mind you want to imagine a plane of levelness that is square, and the chisel feels offset to that plane of levelness.

Go away and come back again if you feel frustrated and do not feel successful.

[paul cottingham]

A couple of things or consider, but bear in mind, I am likely the least anal retentive person here. How badly is it out of square? Is it bad enough that the wood cares? Or is this just something that bugs you? Is there a particular reason (that I've missed) you aren't using a jig? Even an eclipse is a nice cheap, simple easy to use jig.

[Jim Koepke]

A couple of things or consider, but bear in mind, I am likely the least anal retentive person here. How badly is it out of square? Is it bad enough that the wood cares? Or is this just something that bugs you? Is there a particular reason (that I've missed) you aren't using a jig? Even an eclipse is a nice cheap, simple easy to use jig.

LOL! One of my favorite chisels is out of square. So today while it was being sharpened it was biased on the stone to correct it toward square. It made me think of this thread and made me smile at the realization that it will most likely be at least another hundred trips to the stones before it changes noticeably.

jtk