What woodworking skill took you the longest to get comfortable with?

It took me a long time to get chisels and plane irons properly sharp.  Even now I still have to really pay attention and use a guide to keep the angles correct on every pass.  I still use the scary sharp method with sandpaper attached to a piece of 3/8" plate glass.

I'm still working at getting consistently good burrs with my flat scrapers.

It took me quite a while to get my chisels properly sharpened, but now it comes naturally with out a guide.

I am still having a problem getting the proper burr pm on my  scrapers.

Ron

For sharpening trouble, look at David Weaver's article.  His published method came from discussions on this forum with Bill Tindalll, Winston Chang, and Wiley Horne.  The method beats scary sharp by a mile in my opinion (and we all know what opinions are like, especially when sharpening!).  The reason I say that is that it gets a blade to that same level of sharp in very little time.  I hollow grind, hone to angle on a medium-ish crystolon stone and then buff.  I've not timed it, but I'm going to estimate under 5 minutes from start to finish on average.   Maintenance level stuff is under a minute, so quick I don't mind doing it.

As to the actual question, the thing I found hardest to do was learn a production mindset.  It's very easy to delay, go too slow, or never even start out of fear of making a mistake.  I still catch myself doing that, but now I know to ignore it.  You can make a new part if you mis-cut.  You can't replace the time spent worrying about avoiding errors.  Working for a pro shop in the late 1990's is what taught me that, and now that I'm over 50 I really appreciate that I don't have time to waste.

Edited 2026-09-28 13:12:47 - Edited DW article credits

Hey Peter, looks like I mis-remembered one of the colaborating people in the article, would you mind correcting that?  It appears I can no longer edit the post.

Peter Martin wrote:

@John in NM, Done.  I used the names David referenced in his article. Is that OK?

Yup, perfect.  I depended on my very imperfect memory!

Quit being obsessed with saving a few dollars. The build may be perfection, but cutting corners on materials will haunt you every time you look at the piece.