Originally Posted by
Aaron Inami
There have been posts about getting sharpening gear/stones. This is rather important because you can get a $$$ Lie-Nielson plane and even that will become somewhat useless relatively quickly if you don't re-sharpen the blade. There are a variety of stones at different prices, but I chose Shapton Glass. They are expensive, but don't require constant soak in water and you don't have the slew/mess you do with other cheaper stones. At some point, you will need to add in a diamond plate so that you can re-flatten the stone. It definitely becomes an investment. I -think- that you can probably get a pretty good sharpening on a blade if you choose a single 3000 grit stone (experts, correct me if I'm wrong). A combination of grits is definitely better. Then you need a sharpening angle jig unless you want to try "free hand sharpening".
Looking at the Rob Cosman preparation service, it seems like he is tweaking the WoodRiver to approach Lie-Nielson manufacturing quality. He does a couple things that concern me for "new plane users":
- Sharpen the blade using micro-bevels
- Applying a back-bevel (Chatsworth) to the back of the plane blade
If you don't know exactly how Rob did these angles, it could be a challenge to re-sharpen the blade when it dulls.
If you're considering the Rob Consman Prepped WoodRiver, it might just be easier to go for a Veritas #5-1/4 with a PM-V11 blade (actually $4 cheaper than the Rob Cosman Prepped #5).
Aaron,
I agree the Cosman micro-bevels could be challenging, especially since they are likely done without a jig.
The Charlesworth ruler trick may be easier, as the new user can fairly easily establish a new back-bevel angle on such a small area on the back of the blade.
It may all be a moot point as I believe Cosman can only sell/ship WoodRiver planes in Canada.
When a glue bottle is open, your IQ drops 50 points. - Chris Schwarz, The Anarchist’s Workbench