Saying hi and some help...

[Peter Cobb]

I want to introduce myself after lurking here for some time.

Woodworking is an activity encouraged by my father and grandfather which I enjoy, mostly building out of ply/manmade boards & pine with a tendency to use handheld powertools, supported (and sometimes requested) by SWMBO.

We moved into our house some months ago and I'm getting my shop set up and going the neander way (our youngest has asthma and the 'shop is right next to the house, I'm trying to avoid excessive clouds of fine particles in the air).

I've bought a couple of bow saws and 2 ECE planes (a gents and a jack) and a set of Narex chisels of Highland WW + a stanley brace (new :() and am getting my teeth into the "to do" list.

The first project is Schwartz's sawbench from Woodworking magazine, top is glued up and I'm laminating the legs. Not having a jointer (tailed or otherwise) I'm working around using the stock "as is" from the Borg.

I'll be posting a couple of questions as they pop up, here goes the first:
Any tips on sharpening the ECE plane irons? They worked right out of the box, but am going to have to sharpen them soon. Wondering about the camber/crown recommended, as the edge definitely grooves the wood. Currently going the sandpaper on granite counter top way (freehand).

Any help gratefully received.
Cheers,
Peter

[Stephen Cherry]

I like this honing guide.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Catalog/ProductPage.aspx?prodid=576&ss=b76ccac8-b0bf-43ab-9c83-5b4939ccbdc1

It's also possible to do a final hone using a flat piece of wood as a strop with polishing compound. Low budget, but works pretty good.

[Phillip Ngan]

If you can get a hold of the DVD "David Charlesworth Hand tool techniques: Part 1 Plane Sharpening" from Lie-Nielsen, it will be really helpful.

He hints that an A2 blade will hold a useful edge for about 30 minutes of work.
The gist of his technique is:

for a new blade, flatten the back with a 800 grit stone.
Hollow grind the bevel at 23 deg, primary bevel is 33 deg, and secondary bevel at 35 deg - using a grinder, 800 grit and 8000 grit stones, respectively.

A small camber is created by applying asymetric pressure while using a honing guide like Stephen suggested.

His innovation is the Ruler trick which save a lot of time flattening the back. The involves laying a thin steel ruler along one side of the stone and drawing the back of the blade across the width of the stone.

[Kevin Lucas]

That honing guide works great for plane blades. Not so much for my chisels (they don't have a good bevel all the way down the edge) cheap plastic handled things. The smaller ones fit nice but not my biger ones. Some where here is a few topics on jigs to sharpen and the best one is a board to always have the projection from the honing jig set. I tried free hand and wasn't too good at it but it all works ) oh yeah no ruler trick for the backs of chisels just plane irons