Sharpening Plane Irons and Chisels

Old Traf

Old Traf

Joined
Jun 1, 2013
Messages
184
I just got a new plane iron for my very large jack plane and although it is sharp enough to cut soft wood, I decided to put it on a translucent Arkansas stone. The grind appears to be somewhat corrugated, so I used a sharpie to see if I was hitting the right parts of the iron. The angle I used on my jig was spot on, but after about an hour hitting all the right spots and redoing the sharpie, I still could not raise a burr. I don't want to use too much force, so should I continue on the translucent or back down to a courser stone?

Second Question. After using several measuring methods, and only one major cut finger, I think my good chisel has a 20º angle. Does that sound right?

OT
 
Old Traf said:
I just got a new plane iron for my very large jack plane and although it is sharp enough to cut soft wood, I decided to put it on a translucent Arkansas stone. The grind appears to be somewhat corrugated, so I used a sharpie to see if I was hitting the right parts of the iron. The angle I used on my jig was spot on, but after about an hour hitting all the right spots and redoing the sharpie, I still could not raise a burr. I don't want to use too much force, so should I continue on the translucent or back down to a courser stone?

Second Question. After using several measuring methods, and only one major cut finger, I think my good chisel has a 20º angle. Does that sound right?

OT
Click to expand...

I'd wonder if the translucent Arkansas is aggressive enough to do the job. They have a great reputation as finishing/polishing stones, but may be very slow if much steel needs to be removed. I'd give a coarser stone a try, in order to set the bevel you want and raise the burr; then use the translucent stone to finish/polish it up from there. Depending on what steel was used to make the blade, Arkansas stones may or may not be aggressive enough; if not, some wet/dry sandpaper over glass or on top of your stone may work faster.

Don't know about what's the best angle for a plane iron (or chisels), so I'll refrain from offering any advice there. Perhaps some others experienced with them will also chime in here.


David
 
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Coarser stone is needed to set the bevel and hit the apex.

For soft wood the angle sounds good, I'd probably get some sandpaper instead of using the translucent stone for the finish grit. I've only had one chisel respond well to my Norton Washita stone, very soft steel.
 
Guess I didn't phrase second question very well. I have a couple of old (about 50 years) chisels and I wondered if a 20º angle for a chisel sounds right.

As far as the pland iron goes, I didn't try to measure the angle, I just used same angle as factory.

OT
 
Old Traf said:
Guess I didn't phrase second question very well. I have a couple of old (about 50 years) chisels and I wondered if a 20º angle for a chisel sounds right.

As far as the pland iron goes, I didn't try to measure the angle, I just used same angle as factory.

OT
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Searching online, I found an article titled "Sharpening a Chisel" from Popular Woodworking Magazine. Here's a extract from the text of that article:
(text quoted from -->: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/hand-tools-techniques/sharpening_a_chisel ):

(...)

"For a paring chisel the bevel can be as low as 20° (some woodworkers like the bevel angle even lower, like 15°, but you sacrifice edge strength with a bevel that low). Standard bench and butt chisels are traditionally ground at the factory to 25°, and this is fine for most work, but the edge will last longer if you add a 5° microbevel to make a 30° cutting angle."

(...)
Click to expand...


David
 
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Old Traf said:
I just got a new plane iron for my very large jack plane and although it is sharp enough to cut soft wood, I decided to put it on a translucent Arkansas stone. The grind appears to be somewhat corrugated, so I used a sharpie to see if I was hitting the right parts of the iron. The angle I used on my jig was spot on, but after about an hour hitting all the right spots and redoing the sharpie, I still could not raise a burr. I don't want to use too much force, so should I continue on the translucent or back down to a courser stone?

Second Question. After using several measuring methods, and only one major cut finger, I think my good chisel has a 20º angle. Does that sound right?

OT
Click to expand...

I agree with the observation that a coarser stone is needed to set (re-set) the bevel. I personally don't do a ton of woodworking but when touching up my bench plane and low angle block plane (and chisels as well) I follow the existing angles - I should check what they are. I do them freehand, so can't tell from a jig. I just sharpened up a bunch of my tools over the weekend so I could size a few doors and inset new hardware, nothing like a clean cutting plane or chisel.

Martin
 
You will often find that most use microbevels and very large grit jumps, this is most often done with waterstones because of their fast sharpening ability. Combos such as a 1k and 10k stone are common with wood workers because its fast and effective.

If the stones you have work for your needs then I would simply recommend more sharpening practice. If you feel things could be better them I would recommend waterstones.
 
Thanks all. Guess I will try to match grain pattern from the Arkie to known grits or wet or dry paper then back down on the grits. I couldn't find where the Arkansas Translucent fit in on the Grand Unified Grit chart.

OT
 
Old Traf said:
Thanks all. Guess I will try to match grain pattern from the Arkie to known grits or wet or dry paper then back down on the grits. I couldn't find where the Arkansas Translucent fit in on the Grand Unified Grit chart.

OT
Click to expand...

The main issue with the Arkansas stones is the relative softness of the natural abrasive, instead of grit size. The softness of the abrasive will limit it's effectiveness (cutting speed), as compared to other abrasives, like aluminum oxide, silicon carbide or diamond. In terms of finish produced, the translucent Arkansas is basically a polishing stone, and would produce something like the finish produced by fine/UF ceramics, IF the Arkansas were hard enough to work as well on a given steel as the ceramics (compare to the Fine/UF in the 'Spyderco' column of the Grand Unified Grit Chart).

If using wet/dry sandpaper (most often silicon carbide, but may also be aluminum oxide abrasive), you might work with something in the range of 320-1000 grit. If the existing edge bevel is already pretty good, the higher end of that range may be enough to do what you need. If it needs more grinding to reach the apex and form a burr, then step back down to maybe ~400, give or take. then work back up the grit chain to refine/polish as desired. Wet/dry paper will produce a satin finish in the 400-800 grit range, and begin to polish at around 1000 grit, though the abrasives used will get it done much more quickly than with an Arkansas stone.


David
 
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Old Traf said:
Thanks all. Guess I will try to match grain pattern from the Arkie to known grits or wet or dry paper then back down on the grits. I couldn't find where the Arkansas Translucent fit in on the Grand Unified Grit chart.

OT
Click to expand...

That's a bit subjective, but generally falls around 1500-2000 grit ANSI, should be very close to a Japanese (JIS) 6k. Arkansas stones don't work like anything else out there, so a little tough to pin them down. A good one could be finer, most are probably not. For resetting the bevel I'd go with something a lot closer to 1k JWS or 600 grit ANSI. Realistically, the fine side of a hardware store combination silicon carbide stone should be a good stone to use. If it still isn't fast enough, switch to the coarse side. A soft Arkansas would help with the transition to your translucent, or as suggested, a set of waterstones would be faster. A lot depends on how fine you expect your edge to be. I am not too discerning and did mine on an ACE silicon carbide stone, finished by stropping with the mud wiped from the fine side of the stone after sharpening - on a sheet of paper wrapped around the same stone. Cleanly shaved arm hair and could endgrain red oak and very old pine with hardly a chatter. Was cutting thin ribbons from both woods working with the grain. Am certain more care would have produced a finer edge and even thinner shavings, but wasn't needed for what I was doing.

For wet/dry I'd imagine an 800 or 1000 would be the last stop before your translucent, though you might need to go lower if you're removing a fair amount of steel to match the new bevel angle. A Norton India stone might be a good one to add to the collection for doing your woodworking tools. With a light touch might even get you within reach of your translucent.

Martin
 
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