I am having an issue with the initial sharpening of Lee Valley plane blades on a Tormek sharpening system. Tormek advocates a straight bevel. They state that the only reason for a micro bevel is to reduce the time needed to sharpen hard to sharpen devices like plane blades. The LV plane blades all seem to come with a micro bevel.
I am having a problem reestablishing a straight bevel on the LV plane blades. Even after carefully measuring the grinding angle, making sure the blade is 90 degrees to its support devise etc., I get a new top bevel line that is not perpendicular to the two sides of the plane blade. Regrinding a whole new plane edge at the normal angle is proving to be a very time consuming undertaking even on a Tormek.
It is possible that imperfect pressure across the surface that is in contact with the stone would cause this. However, I do not seem to have this problem with the older plane blades that I have hand sharpened without micro bevels. I also do not seem to be able to reverse this bevel problem by altering the pressure. The only thing I can come up with is the small micro bevels are off a small amount that gets magnified when that small edge is ground off in the very early stages of sharpening.
I have talked to both companies. Lee Valley sent me a new plane blade, the first ones leading edge was not perpendicular to the sides. Tormek has tried to help with general information about using their equipment which has not helped much with this specific problem.
I wonder if others have experienced this problem? I am also wondering how those here feel about micro bevels vs straight bevels?