Smoother ?

Knocking off the corners....

HC Sakman

>...of the blades that are used in the planes (doesn't matter if it's a #2,#3,#4,#5,#6,#7 or #8) to "surface" boards, is a good idea to prevent sharp overlapping blade marks. Any plane that is used for jointing edges should have sharp square corners.

Chico...

Re: Smoother ?

ThomD

>I do use pressure, I also grind. I would try to avoid owning a plane blade that could be filed. I did turn out some O1s that were soft, tricky business at times.

Not with a file...

Scott Burr in rainy Ben Lomond,CA

>I radii the corners of smoothers and jointers with a grinder then sharpen the blade flat. Jack planes get a camber on them.

That's right...

HC Sakman

>I forgot to mention that. Round the blades' corners off while you're on the sharpening stone/sandpaper or whatever you're sharpening with, no file though.

Chico...

Re: reading and learning

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>I usually read articles on sharpening just because I figure I don't know everything yet. I read a lot, and sometimes I read something and for some reason it just doesn't sink in, but I read that article on sharpening and it sunk in. So the next time I was planing I looked carefully at my panel, and did see that there were some planing tracks. I just scraped them off like I usually do, but the next time I sharpened my smoother I tried doing it just the way Chris wrote in the article. I rounded the corners with a file. I didn't think it would work well, but actually removes the corner somewhat slowly with very good control of how much is rounded. And then to hone it, if I remember right, he also said to alternate putting pressure on the sides so the iron would be slightly rounded. This is another thing that I tried and works well. What I ended up with is a smoothing iron that planed better than I had ever planed before, so I guess I learned something, and will try and remember to do it next time.