What Do you Sharpen Your Planes With

[Tom Winship]

I'd like to start a poll on who uses what medium for sharpening their handplanes.
1. Waterstones
2. Oilstones
3. Sandpaper
4. Diamonds
5. Other

[Lloyd Parker]

Oilstones (Norton India, Followed by a Translucent Arkansas)

However, for some edges I do use a 8000 grit waterstone for finishing.

[Pam Niedermayer]

All of them as needed.

Pam

[Jim Koepke]

I have used all of them at times and still do.

Mostly use water stones and sandpaper.

jim

[george wilson]

Diamond stone,then black ceramic,then white same,then,strop.

[Harlan Barnhart]

1000/4000/8000 waterstones then strop with green compound on leather.

[Roger Benton]

water stones all the way. 1000, 5000, 8000. veritas mkII as well. made the transition from 'scary sharp' method almost a year ago and i'm happy so far. i use the japanese super stones from tfww, they don't need to soak you just spray a little water on them and you're ready to go. for the three stones and the honing guide it's a big hit to the wallet but it works, and will keep working for quite some time so to me it's totally worth it.
I do keep a few plates of glass with 150, 220, 320, 400, 600 sandpaper for dealing with big nicks or new vintage tools that look like they've been sharpened on the sidewalk.

[Don Naples]

A Lap-Sharp of course.

[Mark Berenbrok]

Scary sharp and finish with waterstones.

[Scot Ferraro]

Oilstones for me -- I have always thought that water and iron do not mix and worry about rusting. However, I have been looking at the Shapton GlassStones and might give them a try.

Scot

[Michael Peet]

I started on water stones and moved to scary sharp. Veritas Mk II honing guide in either case. It's easier to get a bigger work surface with sandpaper than stone; even my big water stone is barely wide enough for my spokeshave blades.

I do keep my water stones at hand and use them on occasion, but 99% is on the sandpaper.

Final honing on strop with that green stuff.

Mike

[Jon Toebbe]

I started out with sandpaper on scraps of marble tiles, and still use coarse sandpaper for "nick removal" type chores. This summer I got turned on to ceramic stones (Spyderco) and stropping with green rouge. It's less messy, and yields very good edges.

More important than the abrasive is the technique. Practice, practice, practice. I'm sure my edges would look rather poor to some of the sharpening gurus out there, but they're definitely getting better over time!

[Steve Hamlin]

Same as chisels, I hollow grind on a wet grinder and freehand hone on either arkansas or waterstones, depending what's closest.
I do use a guide (Kell or Veritas) if I want to reestablish square or a specific skew angle
I don't ruler trick, but do use a back bevel if I want a higher EP on a bench plane, or a more durable edge on a block plane.
Have only recently started using the grinder regularly, before that I was working a single bezel, working from coarse to fine on either arkansas or waterstones. I repaired major damage and reshaped using coarse sanpaper on glass.

[Richard Dooling]

Same as George. It was on his advice that I have my love-hate relationship with my Spyderco ceramics.

Mostly freehand these days.

.

[Johnny Kleso]

All of the Above plus High and Low Speed Grinders that I think are a must if you dont want to kill your Hand Stones...