Best Sharpening Method

[Steve Voigt]

Alternatively you can work full bevels and simply work them freehand.

Microbevel are of course very easy if they remain micro.

Here is a video I made doing so;

https://youtu.be/DZ8n6Xfdj1o

20 minutes to sharpen a plane iron? You suck! Paul Sellers could sharpen 10 plane irons in that time, without all those fancy stones! And put on some shoes, you dirty hippy!

(#sarcasm people…calm down)

Seriously, though, I'm glad to see you've gone the freehand route. Looks good to me. Just before the 4 minute mark, I thought someone might have slipped some acid into my coffee, but then I realized it was just the camera.

[Brian Holcombe]

Lol thanks for the humor Steve!

My Jikatabi had the night off (socks being washed )

[Patrick Chase]

The big mystery for many (including me) is finding a simple & predictable way to re-grind the primary bevel, once the secondary bevel gets too big. Taking an expensive plane iron to a bench grinder scares the h*ll out of me..

As discussed earlier in this thread the "safe but still powered option" is some sort of disc grinder. The usual suspects run about 1/6 as fast as a "full speed" 8" bench grinder, but at ~1200 sfpm they're still a heck of a lot faster than doing it by hand.

[Warren Mickley]

As discussed earlier in this thread the "safe but still powered option" is some sort of disc grinder. The usual suspects run about 1/6 as fast as a "full speed" 8" bench grinder, but at ~1200 sfpm they're still a heck of a lot faster than doing it by hand.

How long does it take to grind with a disc grinder, then sharpen a plane iron?

[jim mills]

Any thought on using a 6 x 48 belt sander?

[Patrick Chase]

How long does it take to grind with a disc grinder, then sharpen a plane iron?

Depends. Are you asking about changing the primary bevel, repairing major damage, or just "refreshing" the bevel to make the secondary smaller and therefore easier to hone?

If you're asking about overhead it takes about 30 sec to set the blade in the jig and set the post height on the Veritas grinder. From there it's just a question of how long it takes to remove the material.

Full disclosure: I mostly use bench grinders these days. The disc grinder is mostly used for stuff where I really don't want a concave bevel, as with pigstickers.

[Patrick Chase]

Any thought on using a 6 x 48 belt sander?

The ones I've used run at around 3000 sfpm, or about the speed of a half-speed grinder.

[jim mills]

So when using a bench grinder, are you simply freehand grinding, or do you use jigs?

[Patrick Chase]

So when using a bench grinder, are you simply freehand grinding, or do you use jigs?

These days mostly just a tool rest. That controls angle, and everything else can be done acceptably by hand (I don't rely on the grinder to establish final blade straightness - that's done in a separate step, with stones)

[Derek Cohen]

Any thought on using a 6 x 48 belt sander?

Jim, in 2005 I moved to using a bench grinder and began freehand honing on a hollow grind. Before then I was sharpening a secondary bevel on a flat grind with a honing guide. The flat grind was created with a belt sander.

I created two jigs for a belt sander, the link below was the second version. The first version was published in Fine Woodworking magazine a few years before this.

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Woodwor...erMK%20II.html

This remains a viable, and excellent method for one using a honing guide. Utilised as a grinder only (not a sharpener), with a 100-120 grit belt, it will produce a cool and accurate primary bevel.

Regards from Perth

Derek