straightening a skewed plane blade

[Prashun Patel]

I just bought a used plane that came with a blade that is in good shape - except that it was sharpened at a skew angle. Do people do this on purpose?

Anyway, what's the proper way to true the edge? The skew over the 2" blade is about 1/16".

[Mike Henderson]

I just carefully grind it out straight. You can use a water grinding wheel, diamond stones, or a dry grinding wheel if you're very, very careful not to overheat it.

I don't think people do it on purpose, it's just that the lateral adjustment allows them to use the blade so they aren't careful to grind it straight. And that brings up another option - sharpen it straighter and use it with the lateral adjustment. Over time, and with sharpening, it'll get straight.

But I'm too anal to do it that way. I grind them straight.

Mike

[Richard Niemiec]

Take a small square and a Sharpie and draw a reference line on the back of the iron. True up to that line, then regrind the bevel until just before you get a burr; finish up on stones or scary sharp. That's the way I do it.

[Joel Goodman]

If it's only a little out of square and you are without a grinder you can sharpen it with a honing guide at a slighter higher angle and end up with a sort of tapered micro to not so micro bevel. Over time the taper will lessen with repeated sharpenings.

[Peter Evans]

If grinding it square - first grind the edge with the blade at 90 degrees to the wheel, and then grind the bevel. If you grind straight and bevel in one go you are bound to overheat the steel.

[Phillip Pattee]

Shawn,

Unfortunately, sometimes blades are ground deliberately skewed to compensate for a blade bedding problem. If it's done deliberately, then the blade might be sitting high on the side where the blade is longest. You didn't say what kind of plane it was, but if you can remove the frog, do so and check that its face is flat and square to the sides. It may need some filing to fix a problem. If it's a block plane, completely disassemble the thing and check for the sqareness of the back of the mouth with the sides of the plane. If the back of the mouth isn't absolutely square, it may indicate that one side of the bed is slightly high. File the side where the mouth is farthest forward to bring it square. If there was a problem that someone skewed the blade to compensate for, this should fix it.

[george wilson]

Grinding square first is the correct way to go. Using a dry grinder,I dip the blade every 2 seconds. This is with a coarse white wheel. Gray wheels are very inefficient,and burn much worse,while grinding much more slowly. When the edge starts getting thin,it can heat up before you can react. I dip the blade in water,leaving it on the blade. When the water on the edge sizzles,dip instantly. The temperature is rising extremely rapidly when the blade is getting very close to finished,because the very edge has very little metal in it to disperse the heat. It will burn more quickly than it will transfer to the thicker metal.

[Bob Strawn]

Here is my trick to keep the blade cool. I take a plant fiber paint brush, wet it, and hold it on the blade as I grind it. It keeps water on the blade, the second it starts to dry, I release pressure on the blade and wet the brush again. This can help you maintain angle on the blade, and allows you to keep the blade at or below the boiling point of water.

If you grind a bit of the brush, no harm done, synthetic or animal fibers can be messy, plant fiber is best for this.

Bob

[Prashun Patel]

Thank you, Everyone. I'll try my luck on the grinder, armed with a wet brush...