Sharpening woes - an update

Re: Sharpening woes - an update

Dave Mount


>Glad you got it figured out. While LN and LV make great planes, I'd suggest that it's a bigger kick to get those nice curlies from a refurb vintage plane than from a new one. I mean heck, anyone can plunk down the money and have success with a plane that works right out of the box (at least until the iron needs sharpening again, which puts you right back to where you are now).

As you are not doubt finding out, "sharp" does not have a fixed definition. While getting to "sharp enough to make nice curlies" is a significant milestone, every year that goes by it seems I'm able to get things just a little bit sharper than before, and it always amazes me how much more capable the same tools are when the irons are just a little sharper. . .

I think for someone just picking up hand tool use, one of the greatest advantages of new high end planes is that they work well out of the box with respect to all functional aspects; the only thing you have to work at is the sharpening part. Once someone has a sense for how a properly functioning plane feels, it's a lot easier to tune one into shape.

Have fun reducing perfectly good wood into piles of shavings.

Dave

Re: Sharpening woes - an update

Paul Kierstead


>It must be an awsome feeling to be able to do that using a high end LN or LV plane.

Once you got it down to nice shavings, it doesn't really matter. There is nothing super-special about those LN/LV's, other then being well made with nice totes and no rust out-of-the-box. Take any decent planes, ensure good totes, put a good blade in it, tune it up and you have something as good (or close enough to not tell the difference) as any LN or LV.

You got the magic already.

Re: Sharpening woes - an update

Denis Ch�nard, Orl�ans, Ont.


>Isn't that neat, eh?

Now if you really want to test yourself, try planing end-grain softwood :)

While I don't have much experience with LN planes (except for the 60 1/2 block plane that I own), I have a fair amount of experience with the Veritas planes, owning some myself and having tried the rest.

I have used (or seen in use) planes all over the spectrum, from a refurbished Stanley Defiance #3 to a Holtey 98. While all these will plane wood, at some point the cheaper ones will fail when faced with difficult wood. But what striked me most is the "feel" of the plane. Cheap ones, even while making a clean cut, tend to "shriek" as they plane, probably due to lower mass, thinner blades, less support for the blade, and lower quality machining (that can be fixed, but only to a certain extent). You feel the cheaper plane somehow vibrate in your hand, whereas the high quality ones feel solid and make more like a "woosh" sound. It's a very satisfying experience...

I saw Garrett Hack use a Holtey 98 while making a demonstration. I could hardly hear the plane, it just blew me away! But at over $3000 for one, it has to be this good...

DC