Cambered blade in Veritas BUS

[Mike Holbrook]

I do my honing on medium and fine Spyderco ceramic stones, finishing on MDF with green compound. They require minimal or no leveling. I checked out Odate's diamond sharpening plates for making cambered blades at Highland Woodworking. They make relatively small cambers and they are relatively expensive. Two or three grits starts getting to be a sizable investment and I decided there was not enough flexibility in that medium. I went with CBN wheels. It has taken a while to get to the point that I can make just about any camber I might want but I think it has been time well spent. I can make a full width/depth hollow bevel on a new plane iron in under 30 min.with all the accuracy I think I need. I don't expect to have to do that but once in the blades life and once it is done I am able to hone very fast.

I also keep sharpening media around that are more rare with the majority of woodworkers. Many of the green woodworking tools have curved blades that need to be sharpened. I have a couple diamond sharpening rods, one round one eliptical. I also have a round ceramic rod and a small elliptical one. I have an assortment of wood dowels and wooden jigs for honing gouges, with compounds, diamond paste... I am fairly well equipped to deal with curved blades and curved hollow ground blades.

Again, my interest in the cambered BU blades mostly has to do with them being easier to move through wood vs more upright frog angles. I am not sure about tear out yet, but cambered BU blades do seem to work a little better for me that straight blades especially when taking off more wood. I think I may be getting some tear out but I can't tell yet if it is significantly more than what I get with a BD blade. The boards I am using have major tear out from a lousy original planing job.

So far I think I like the ease of use well enough to deal with extra tear out. Earlier this AM, I was switching between my BUS and my custom #4 with chip breaker and slightly less cambered blade. I think the custom plane is better but I am not noticing enough difference to worry about so far. Again I am not picky about small amounts of tear out for the work I do. Certainly YMMV.