Phillip Ngan
08-17-2010, 11:05 PM
From the pictures you can see that I have had success in sharpening a plane blade.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_hh0uhac1VlQ/TGtNybJLC6I/AAAAAAAAAds/N-s-07uv7Ag/s640/IMG_3579.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_hh0uhac1VlQ/TGtNyrbNRrI/AAAAAAAAAdw/YGUL_Ao6FJM/s640/IMG_3580.JPG
It was not without challenges. Over a period of a year, I've tried three other times to sharpen this blade, but could not get it to create thin full width shavings. I tried the scary sharp method, then had it sharpened by a Lie-Nielsen person at a tool event, then tried the David Charlesworth method. None of these produced a decent edge. I was pretty comfortable with the technique because I had a common Bailey No5 which could give me the desired shavings (a bit more about this later)
The big difference this time was that I used a loupe to inspect the edge before I started. This was suggested by Jim Koepke (http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1488165#post1488165). Using a light source coming in parallel to the blade plane I could see a couple of bright shining spots on the edge of the blade. These were very small nicks that I could not easily see with my naked eye. My first thought was that these nicks were too small to affect the performance of the plane to the extent that I was seeing. Anyway, I hollow ground away these nicks (I hadn't reground the bevel in any of my previous attempts, thinking that I didn't want to waste my LN blade), and repeated the David Charlesworth procedure for sharpening. The result is what appears in the pictures.
About the Bailey No5. It's not highly fettled. It has a hollow running longitudinally the length of the sole, I didn't much polish the back of the blade. When it planes, it makes a "cheaper" sound (if there is such a thing). But, here's the thing, it performs superbly, always giving thin full width shavings. Which gives me cause to think what it is about a plane that makes it works so well (and what things don't really matter).
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_hh0uhac1VlQ/TGtNybJLC6I/AAAAAAAAAds/N-s-07uv7Ag/s640/IMG_3579.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_hh0uhac1VlQ/TGtNyrbNRrI/AAAAAAAAAdw/YGUL_Ao6FJM/s640/IMG_3580.JPG
It was not without challenges. Over a period of a year, I've tried three other times to sharpen this blade, but could not get it to create thin full width shavings. I tried the scary sharp method, then had it sharpened by a Lie-Nielsen person at a tool event, then tried the David Charlesworth method. None of these produced a decent edge. I was pretty comfortable with the technique because I had a common Bailey No5 which could give me the desired shavings (a bit more about this later)
The big difference this time was that I used a loupe to inspect the edge before I started. This was suggested by Jim Koepke (http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=1488165#post1488165). Using a light source coming in parallel to the blade plane I could see a couple of bright shining spots on the edge of the blade. These were very small nicks that I could not easily see with my naked eye. My first thought was that these nicks were too small to affect the performance of the plane to the extent that I was seeing. Anyway, I hollow ground away these nicks (I hadn't reground the bevel in any of my previous attempts, thinking that I didn't want to waste my LN blade), and repeated the David Charlesworth procedure for sharpening. The result is what appears in the pictures.
About the Bailey No5. It's not highly fettled. It has a hollow running longitudinally the length of the sole, I didn't much polish the back of the blade. When it planes, it makes a "cheaper" sound (if there is such a thing). But, here's the thing, it performs superbly, always giving thin full width shavings. Which gives me cause to think what it is about a plane that makes it works so well (and what things don't really matter).