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Good Hope Hardwoods - Walnut Slabs & Specialty Hardwood Lumber

Plane Blade Flattening

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Plane Blade Flattening

#1

Plane Blade Flattening

Haakon

>Yesterday I decided to give my LN block plane plade a decent tune-up (been planing some Iroko, apparently full of sand, plus other abuse). So I started by giving the back a serious go with silicon carbide paper (120) on a flat and wet granite slab. I went through successive grits and finally put it to my Norton 4000 and 8000 grit waterstones. At the end the back shone like silverware.

However, to my surprise, the edges seemed to have been rounded somewhat. To me it appears that the blade was literally "digging" into the paper thus the paper was somewhat lifted off the granite on both sides of the blade hence rounding the edges. What's worse is that the rounding gets more pronounced towards the blade edge.

Now, it could be the stones not being flat, however I flattended them before starting plus the unpolished areas clearly bears the unmistakable marks of the paper.

I decided to redo the whole thing, this time using entirely the waterstones and the results were fine, except for the perhaps excessive wear on the low grit stones.

Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem (and at the same time saving my waterstones)?

Thanks

Haakon Haraldsen

Reggio Emilia, Italy

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

#2

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

Steve Schoene

>One help is to glue the paper to the backing with spray adhesive. Using Mylar backed paper, which is not as "spongy" as regular paper also seems like it should be better than regular paper.

You have hit upon one of the key problems with using paper for sharpening. I use a diamond stone to get to "flat". Then polishing with finer stones won't be so wearing. And, take heart that you only have to do the backs once in the life of the blade.

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

#3

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

Sanford Levy

>I have had similar problems. There must be a way around it since so man folk get such good results. However, I am going to try other other methods for flattening and will use the sandpaper only for the last stages and to hone the bevel. Maybe that will work well. Sanford

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

#4

shouldn't be surprised

Bill Tindall, E. TN

>there have been many posts on this forum stating the difficulty (I would say impossibility) of flattening using abrasive sheets. It certainly has never worked for me and I have spent many hours trying. Apparently, from what has been succesful and what has not, the abrasive substrate must be rigid- stones, cast iron, etc. Most people use sotnes. Diamond powder on flat cast iron works well too.

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

#5

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

Dan clermont in Burnaby

>If I understand correctly you have dubbed the blade. This is caused when the outsides of the blade come in contact with "fresh" abrasives which are then abraded before the middle of the blade back gets abraded.

Had a smilar problem and now use waterstones.

Dan Clermont in Burnaby

Re: Plane Blade Flattening

#6

Me too

Tony - Memphis

>I have had the same experience. I bought a DMT DUo Stone for the initial flattening. I then use Norton Waterstones to finish it up. This is working well for me. I use a Tormek for grinding/shaping. I got to try the Norton stones at a class at Lonnie Bird's place and was sold. I came home and ordered the set. They are really nice to use. A bit of an investment, but they will last me many years.

Tony

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