Sharpening to the Edge/Apex

[WilliamMunny]

I was restoring an old Stanley No4 Type 11 (1910-1918) smoothing plane. I was sharpening the chisel blade and it provided a great visual of a major sharpening issue many new people have, sharpening to the apex of the blade. You will find many people complaining that they have sharpened their knife for awhile but it is still not sharp, I hope these visuals will help some people.

Below is an image of the blade, with a new 25° edge on it, arrow pointing to it. As you can see I have just started and it does not go all the way to the edge of the blade.

This second image is after an hour of sharpening. At this point after an hour of sharping this blade is still just as dull as when I started. This is because I still had not sharpened to the edge. The arrow points to a magnified image of still some of the old edge on the blade, with all my sharpening I still had not reached the edge of the blade with the new 25° angle.

When sharpening make sure you reach the edge of the blade. You generally can tell by the formation of a burr, make sure it goes along the whole blade.

For this wondering, here is a before and after image of the plane.

I am not an expert so anyone please feel free to add information.

[Bemo]

Such a great point. I know I've been guilty of this when reprofiling; it can test my patience for sure. BBB made this point once as well. There's a reason Sal and others talk about a loop being one of your best friends when sharpening.

[kennbr34]

This is why I suggest the Sharpie trick to people. It provides a great visual demonstration, and people usually get it right away after doing it. After that, they can usually just tell by the difference in the scratch pattern or the formation of a burr, but the Sharpie trick still remains useful.

[vivi]

This is why I suggest the Sharpie trick to people. It provides a great visual demonstration, and people usually get it right away after doing it. After that, they can usually just tell by the difference in the scratch pattern or the formation of a burr, but the Sharpie trick still remains useful.

I've taught this to so many of the cooks that work under me. Never fails to impress. I tell them use the sharpie trick and get a harbor freight diamond stone to compliment their X000 grit water stones and it totally changes their sharpening game.

[Sanpaku]

For those who sharpen their own collection with some regularity, I'd recommend investing in a jeweler's loupe, before investing in better stones. I bought a Belomo 10x triplet a decade ago, and it has taught me more about what I was doing right, and what I was doing wrong, than any number of internet sharpening tutorials.

[sal]

Hi Sanpaku,

Welcome to our forum.

Many here have been using jeweler's loupes for years.

sal

[Coastal]

If your phone is of recent vintage, its camera is probably good enough. I use the PocketGlasses app with mine.

[zhyla]

You want to avoid creating a burr, especially on a plane iron.

I typically sharpen at 25 deg and then do at least one microbevel at 35 deg. I’ve also done two microbevels at 30 and 35 deg. This helps reduce tearout. It’s also beneficial to camber the bevel, especially for planes where you are taking thick cuts. Rather than try to describe the process I’ll recommend looking on YouTube for the process.

Also this is one type of blade where you can’t overdo the high grits. I take my planes to at least 2000 grit.

The great thing about bench planes is when you do a good job sharpening you can see and feel the results. It’s not like a knife where you can do a sloppy job and still cut stuff.

[mongo1958]

This is why I suggest the Sharpie trick to people. It provides a great visual demonstration, and people usually get it right away after doing it. After that, they can usually just tell by the difference in the scratch pattern or the formation of a burr, but the Sharpie trick still remains useful.

I've taught this to so many of the cooks that work under me. Never fails to impress. I tell them use the sharpie trick and get a harbor freight diamond stone to compliment their X000 grit water stones and it totally changes their sharpening game.

I still need to get to HF.

[N. Brian Huegel]

My latest loupe:
https://www.amazon.com/JARLINK-Illumina ... 8745&psc=1

nb

[Erion929]

My latest loupe:
https://www.amazon.com/JARLINK-Illumina ... 8745&psc=1

nb

Link doesn’t work

I want a cheap one, but not so cheap I can’t see what I need to, lol….

[vivi]

I got a folding steel cased loupe for $10 off the bay. Plenty of options there.

[Sharp24/7]

Loupe over phone screen for sure, it’ll give much sharper (npi) view of what’s going on at the edge.

[N. Brian Huegel]

Sorry. Try this one. They are on sale!

https://www.amazon.com/JARLINK-Illumina ... 835&sr=8-2

[z1r]

I'll add to this by saying, I was having a heck of a time sharpening my 'lil Matriarch. It was sharp as can be nearer the pivot but as you worked your way forward toward the tip it would stop cutting. The Sharpie trick is great but, remember to reapply the sharpie often to see your progress. As you can see in my pic, a reapplication of the sharpie and a couple of strokes on the Sharpmaker show exactly why it was tearing and not cutting toward the tip.



As Doug would say, it will cut! Now at least.

[bbturbodad]

My latest loupe:
https://www.amazon.com/JARLINK-Illumina ... 8745&psc=1

nb

Link doesn’t work

I want a cheap one, but not so cheap I can’t see what I need to, lol….

I used to use those cheap generic one's like the one linked earlier and if you can afford something like this https://www.amazon.com/BelOMO-Triplet-F ... 0O&th=1the difference is night and day. I can see the edge so much better with this 10x loupe than the 30x/60x it has more depth of field and lets in more light so it doesn't need the led lights like the cheap plastic lens loupes.

[bbturbodad]

I found an old 30/60x loupe like the one above that I still have and compared it to both a 10x and 15x Belomo loupe and there's no way the magnification claims are accurate on the 30/60x loupe. The 10x Belomo appears to have about the same magnification as the 30x lens and the 15x, which I don't recommend (unless you also have the 10x), appears to have about the same as the 60x lens. The reasons I recommend the 10x over the 15x is it's wider field of view, greater depth of field and is much brighter.

[Traditional.Sharpening]

I found an old 30/60x loupe like the one above that I still have and compared it to both a 10x and 15x Belomo loupe and there's no way the magnification claims are accurate on the 30/60x loupe. The 10x Belomo appears to have about the same magnification as the 30x lens and the 15x, which I don't recommend (unless you also have the 10x), appears to have about the same as the 60x lens. The reasons I recommend the 10x over the 15x is it's wider field of view, greater depth of field and is much brighter.

This is good information, IMO. Many of the cheap loupes marked over 10x are really just 10x loupes with incorrect name to sound better. You really don't want more than about 10-12x for this purpose and if you really want to illustrate that point then try a Belomo 20X. I have one and its near useless for this application. Better yet would be to get a handheld USB microscope such as this....

https://www.dinolite.us/products/usb-mi ... ic/am2111/

[JD Spydo]

This is why I suggest the Sharpie trick to people. It provides a great visual demonstration, and people usually get it right away after doing it. After that, they can usually just tell by the difference in the scratch pattern or the formation of a burr, but the Sharpie trick still remains useful.

I've taught this to so many of the cooks that work under me. Never fails to impress. I tell them use the sharpie trick and get a harbor freight diamond stone to compliment their X000 grit water stones and it totally changes their sharpening game.

It never fails to amaze me how many people who use knives for whatever reason really don't know how to properly sharpen the blade they use. The Sharpie trick along with the book "The Razor Edge Book Of Sharpening" by John Juranitch totally changed my approach to properly sharpening an edged tool. So many people never grind down to the edge/apex>> even though they believe they are.

People that tell me that they are not good at the skill of sharpening are simply letting me know that they just simply don't know the basics of sharpening. Most certainly good magnification tools along with high quality sharpening gear really changed my skill set in a very short time. But learning the basics of the skill sure changes the game completely.

[Bemo]

My latest loupe:
https://www.amazon.com/JARLINK-Illumina ... 8745&psc=1

nb

Link doesn’t work

I want a cheap one, but not so cheap I can’t see what I need to, lol….

I used to use those cheap generic one's like the one linked earlier and if you can afford something like this https://www.amazon.com/BelOMO-Triplet-F ... 0O&th=1the difference is night and day. I can see the edge so much better with this 10x loupe than the 30x/60x it has more depth of field and lets in more light so it doesn't need the led lights like the cheap plastic lens loupes.

A little cheaper than Amazon and still has free shipping: https://belomostore.com/