Cambering plane blade

[Scott Winners]

I a not sure I have much to add here other than look at (and feel) your own surfaces. I have three planes I think of as scrub planes that can take off a lot of material in a hurry, around 3, 6 and 9 inch radii. I do have some planes that are ground straight across, my #8 is one of them.

MY smoothers, my #3 and one of my #4, are ground and honed straight across except for maybe an eighth or so on the corners. My honing guides all have one wheel on center, so I can tip the guide and make a reproducible angle at the corners. If you are using a General style guide with two wheels, you will need a shim, perhaps 1/8 thick for the right wheel to roll on while you bevel the left corner of the blade, and vice versa. Do NOT lose that shim.

There is a certain amount of experimentation required at this level. Kudos to you for advancing from sharpening novice.

[Richard Hutchings]

I always sharpened by hand and had no problems doing it. One day I decided to try a guide so I bought the Veritas MKII along with the camber guide. I found that I love it. I'm never in a hurry when sharpening so the setup doesn't bother me. I'll never go back to hand and eye sharpening, I love the repeatable results of this tool. Shoot me.

CamberGuide (800x600).PNG

[John Kananis]

Richard, quite the opposite for me. The mkii initially got me to sharp but once I figured out sharpening by hand, I just go right to the sharpening medium. Also unlike you, I'm always in a hurry when sharpening... there's usually something I have to get back to. It's a nice device though, best guide I've tried.

I always sharpened by hand and had no problems doing it. One day I decided to try a guide so I bought the Veritas MKII along with the camber guide. I found that I love it. I'm never in a hurry when sharpening so the setup doesn't bother me. I'll never go back to hand and eye sharpening, I love the repeatable results of this tool. Shoot me.

CamberGuide (800x600).PNG

[steven c newman]

No guide? No Problem..
Friday's rehab, cambered edge.JPG
Iron is in a Stanley No. 5, type 14/15..SW logo. Free hand sharpened. Has a shallow Camber, not much, just enough..this is for a Jack plane...
Friday's rehab, jack plane.JPG
About the time Stanley used Cheeto Orange on the sides of the frog.....same time that Millers Falls came out with RED frogs?

[David Zor]

I always sharpened by hand and had no problems doing it. One day I decided to try a guide so I bought the Veritas MKII along with the camber guide. I found that I love it. I'm never in a hurry when sharpening so the setup doesn't bother me. I'll never go back to hand and eye sharpening, I love the repeatable results of this tool. Shoot me.

CamberGuide (800x600).PNG

I'm in the same place Richard. I finally bought the Veritas honing guide with both rollers about a year and a half ago and found it easy and intuitive to use. I get more repeatable results than before, I don't have to do any thinking and it honestly doesn't take any more time at the stones. I find that I take fewer passes with the guide than I used to freehand since I'm confident that the performance is repeatable. With the guide I'm not spending any additional time and I'm saving wear on my stones. This goes for both straight across and cambered honing. In fact, it was the heavily cambered iron on my jack plane that I had the most trouble with freehanding and that was the impetus for me buying the Veritas guide with the radiused wheel.

As to the original poster's question, I think that Jimmy Harris answered it well in the 4th response down. I also use a grinder to set the radius for a scrub or fore plane. Then I use the camber guide wheel to follow the radius set by the grinder.

[Mark Rainey]

Thanks for sharing your experience Dave. Several different approaches on an important topic.

[David Zor]

You hit the nail on the head! There are many different “right methods”, pick the one that works for YOU. Sharpening is not a competition, just a pitstop on the road to woodworking.

[mike stenson]

Sharpening is not a competition,

It is here. Here, sharpening methods are like mountain bike wheel sizes. Pick one and be a @ about it.

[glenn bradley]

Lots of voo-doo . Like many others I just put a bit more pressure on the outer edges. I just want to lose the tracks not make a scrub plane . I do have the Veritas MKII with the camber roller and it can be handy but not absolutely necessary for me.

[Richard Hutchings]

I just enjoy the perfection of it, whether it's better or not doesn't matter to me. It's real nice tool.