Mark Hennebury
Sharp is like crack cocaine for woodworkers. Once bitten there is no limit to the extremes one will go to get more. My foray into addiction and madness started in the 60's in England when I was young boy taking woodshop at school, my father was a skilled finish carpenter so the illness was inherited. I had good teachers at school and at home and got the occassional pat on the head, so the die was cast and off I went happily into the abiss. I learned about wood structure and joinery and handtools, I loved every minute of it. I sharpened plane blades and chisels and filed saw teeth. I used oil stones initially for sharpening edge tools and managed to get pretty good results, but nothing was good enough, there was always the allure of a mythical perfect edge...waiting to be found just around the corner, so I searched and experimented continually. I got frustrated with sending tools out to sharpening shops, I realized that the guys that ran them really didnt understand the concept of SHARP! So Determined to go it alone I got Japanese water stones and various wet / dry grinding machines, lapping films, pastes, granite surface plates. I ended up with a shop full of sharpening and grinding machinery, I had a regular bench grinder, a double wheel horizontal wet grinder, a benchtop industrial tool and cutter grinder, a floor model tool and cutter grinder, a bench top Hitachi straight knife grinder/lapper It didnt stop there, it wasnt over yet. One day I got a Hitachi routerTR12 I believe, came with a free 1/2" straight cut two flute router bit, made by Kanefusa of Japan. The router bit stopped my heart! When I looked at it I could see myself and the entire room behind me it was like looking into flawless mirrors. The carbide tips were flawless! Nirvana! a was immediately sucked into the world of SUBMICRON! micron size carbide particles and grinding wheels HooYah! The shavings and surface made by this router bit were incredible. I asked several shops if they could sharpen to this level, none could. I tried to get superfine grinding wheels to do the job myself, nobody stocked them. I called a company that custom made supersabrasive wheels and learned that superfine wheels alone wont work, i would need better machines, heavier more precise, to do that quality, so I got used 2000lb Hembrug tool and cutter grinder from the National research lab and a 4' x 6'x 8"thick 2500lb cast iron surface plate also from the research lab. At this point in my psychosis i was becoming antisocial feeling alone isolated, on the wrong planet. I continually tinkered and questioned all tool geometry, i cut up and modify all of my tools and machines. My handplanes would be unrecognisable, I experiemented with thickeness planer blades, with different grind angle and back bevels, sometimes putting several different knives in at the same time. I have several supersurfacer grinders that can put an incredible finish on planer blades, But i often just sharpen them a few times in the head by hand to touch them up. I have a 20" jointer that i actually sharpen a bunch of times by running a hand held water stone over the knives while its running, I am of course not recomending it or suggesting that anyone try it. It works for me and does a great job. Thicknessplaners and jointers can do a great job even on birsdeye maple and other tricky woods. You apply the "chip bender" principals to them also, i saw thicknessplaners from japan years ago the had precision set chipbreakers.

You can get good edge on a plane blade or supersurfacer blade by hollow grinding and using your jointer table as a lap. or you can use a cnc grinder/ lapper or anything in between. They both work. How far and for what reasons you want to go into the "void " is a personal choice. There are always new tool materials and sharpening processes to explore. The only question really is what are you doing it for. If it is for practical purposes or the eternal quest for the absolute. For practical purposes 120grit on an orbital sander is quite acceptable.

One point that might be of interest about supersurfacers: to adjust the knife depth, the knife is tilted slightly increasing the bedding angle. Think about that for a bit.

Maybe one of you could recomend a good care facility for an old sharp addict.