dumb question?

[joseph quijas]

Havent posted much on here but I had an idea the other day and wanted to run it by here to see what some thought...
Here goes (and I apologize in advance if there some blatantly obvious reason why one wouldnt do this).

Why wouldnt it be beneficial to use a cotton wheel (with green compound) for the final honing of a plane blade (or instead of a leather strop)?
I ask as I use this to touch up my chisels as I carve (not a big carver, amateurish at best) which several on the boards have recommended. So far it seems that this works great for carving chisels as it keeps the chisel extremely sharp.

and for those that are wondering, My highest waterstone that I have is a 10,000; dont have the coinage for the 30,000...

So why not use this for a plane blade?

Thanks
Joe

[Jim Koepke]

I think there are some that do.

Because of the flexibility of the fabric, it can tend to round the edges if done too much.

This is another one of those things that needs just the right touch. That is why it will work wonderfully for some and others will swear it is the worst thing one could do to a blade.

Everyone's mileage will vary.

jim

[David Gilbert]

Joe,

Our local Rochester Woodworkers Society had Marc Adams give a workshop earlier this year. He used the system that you describe for his chisels and plane blades. He felt that it was very effective both in terms of the time and the results.

Cheers,
David

[Steve Branam]

One of my reasons for using a strop instead of a powered wheel is that I want something completely portable. So it can be used in the shop, in a friend's basement, at a craft show, or in a school cafeteria when doing a community adult education class.

That's one of the fun things about doing everything absolutely by hand, it allows you to work in any venue.

[David Keller NC]

Joe, as a fellow carver and also a dedicated hand-tool worker, I can suggest one very important reason. If you round the bevel on a carving tool, it really doesn't matter that much. Within reason, you can can simply lift the tool's angle to the wood a bit more and keep right on carving.

However, do this to a plane blade beyond about 35 degrees (not hard at all on a powered buffer), and the tool will simply refuse to cut. The reason is that a certain degree of clearance angle is necessary behind the blade's bevel, and if that clearance angle gets too small, the plane will simply skip and chatter. If the blade's advanced sufficiently to force a shaving, then it will dig in horribly.

That's why I don't use a buffing wheel on my plane blades, though I do use it on carving tools.