honing guides

[Robert Culver]

ok im looking at picking up a honing guide I have poked around at several sights and see the one that lie nielson carries looks like a generic guide and is sold under several different companies for different prices I also heard that lee valley may be coming out with a new one as well but maybe I have bad info . Any advice I see lie nielson has a video on how to "Tune Up" the one that they sell???

[Chris Griggs]

When I use a guide I'm personally a fan of the basic generic side clamping guide...like the one LN carries. Cheap, effective, quick and easy to use. At $12 or whatever sears and amazon sell them for you probably won't have any bad feelings if you decide you want to get something more elaborate later on.

[Paul Saffold]

I bought one of the generic guides from Rockler and was surprised it did not need any tuning. I also use a narrow Kell guide for my Japanese chisels.
Paul

[Jim Koepke]

If my memory is working the guide you are referring to is based on the Eclipse Honing Guide.

Lee Valley has one listed here:

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=60311&cat=1,43072,43078&ap=1

Just like everything else it has advantages and drawbacks.

jtk

[allen long]

I use the krell guide for really narrow chisels since neither the LV or generic guides will firmly hold them. For chisels larger than about 1/4, have you considered learning to sharpen them by hand? I find it nearly impossible to hold the narrow (1/8) size square to the stone. But it is not difficult to learn how to sharpen other sizes by hand (with a fair amount of practice to get your muscle memory trained) I should note that I do the primary sharpening on a grinder and use stones for final honing. I think sometimes we can get too caught up in making sure the angle is precise within 3 decimal points.

[David Weaver]

I also used (and from time to time will still use) the cheap eclipse style guides. I also never found a need to "tune" anything.

[Bob Jones]

The veritas mkII is an excellent guide. I use it for all plane blades and chisels. I use th cambered roller exclusively.

[paul cottingham]

The eclipse is a great guide. It works even better if you file the hump out of the jaws. There are several videos on Lie-Nielsen's site describing how to modify it.

[Hilton Ralphs]

The new Lie-Nielsen guide should be out soon, retail is about $100 though.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

The new Lie-Nielsen guide should be out soon, retail is about $100 though.

I keep hearing that. Any "spy photos" yet?

I use the latest version Veritas jig for plane blades. It is very effective. The skew jig is a great addition as well. I have the Pinnacle jig which works well for chisels, although it is expensive, cumbersome, and fussy to set up. I like the Kell guide better for chisels but have yet to get one of my own.

I do not like the ones that have the single wheel and clamp the tool above the wheel. They are not stable and the tool also slips in the jaws, especially in the ones that are glossy powder coated. Kell has a better solution with the wheels on either side.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Of course the big boys all use this fine machine-
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=56737&c=

Get 'em all sharp at once!!!

[Roderick Gentry]

I like the original set-up from LV, It probably has some things that could be improved, but the improvements made the basic guide worse. I would still buy it if I lost my oldie. The combo of the setting jig, with the micro adjusts is a stroke of genius. Both LV jigs have width limitations that I eventually got around with a Japanese jig. The gripping mechanism is effective but does not always work well with some irregular tools, like hand forged ones. The advantage is there is no tedious adjustment for width. The Eclipse jig, which I also got, is very good for narrow simple shapes. I have three jigs. I found them useful when I was starting out, but I rarely use them today. But when I need one, they sure do come in handy.

[Roderick Gentry]

Of course the big boys all use this fine machine-
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=56737&c=

Get 'em all sharp at once!!!

Funny how often the joke tools are the ones I would want to buy! I'd settle for accommodating a 70 mm blade.

[Winton Applegate]

If you are going to be a namby pamby sharpener man (as I am) then get your self this set
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=51868&cat=1,43072,43078&ap=1
If you are going to be a real man, and or try to make a living from your sharpened tools in as little time as possible, then use David's power grind method.
Just depends on your sensibilities, needs, the sign you were born under . . .
OK I'll stop now.
PS: you can have my sharpening jig when you tear it from my cold dead hands.
:mad:
:)
PPS: get the cambered roller too.
http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/IMG_0203.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/IMG_0203.jpg.html)
http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/Dazzling_zpsf0fdbd9a.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/Dazzling_zpsf0fdbd9a.jpg.html)
http://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy298/noydb1/AllVeritas.jpg (http://s801.photobucket.com/user/noydb1/media/AllVeritas.jpg.html)

[Kees Heiden]

I never understood why some people like that LV thing so much. Over engineered piece of excrement. Too slow, too heavy, too complex, too expensive. Get yourself the cheap Eclipse copy. Works as advertised and it is cheap. Mine didn't need tuning either, just a drop of oil in the wheel bearing sometimes.

Better yet, learn to sharpen freehand, it's absolutely not difficult. And you have to learn it anyway, as soon as you want to sharpen a gouge for example.

[Metod Alif]

Kees,
" it's absolutely not difficult"
In the land of 'equality', if it is difficult for some then it must be difficult for everybody...

Best wishes,
Metod

[Prashun Patel]

Lots of opinions on this. Sharpening's a journey, and what might be right for you 10 years on might not be right for you now.

I own the MKII and an eclipse jig. Here is a factual comparison of both (you can draw your own conclusions about 'difficulty' and similarity to 'excrement' on your own):

MKII is better for clamping blades that have a side taper (like the Veritas apron plane). It is also better for clamping very narrow chisels, where an eclipse can have a tendency to twist the narrow blade when clamped.

Eclipse is better for thick mortise chisels (unless you replace the knurled nuts of the MKII with longer ones).

If you have a thick 1/8" mortise chisel, then I'm not sure what you'd use.

For most other things, both can and have worked well for me. I use my MKII more, though, and have become accustomed to the set up time.

I do agree that freehand sharpening is sexy and alluring (I'm trying to get good at it myself). However, until that day comes, I'm happy to have my MKII to 'fix' my freehand roundovers.

[Chris Griggs]

Here are factual comparison of both (you can draw your own conclusions about 'difficulty' and similarity to 'excrement' on your own):


Having owned both at one time I'd say your synopsis of each ones strengths/weaknesses is pretty dead on accurate.

[Kees Heiden]

I've had them both too. As you can probably guess from my post above, I wasn't very happy with the MK2. And now the people from LV come with the sideclamp attachment, I guess they aren't too happy with it either....

Anyway, if you want to venture into the wide world of freehand sharpening, I advice to read this article. It explains very well how to proceed, much better then I can.
http://www.antiquetools.com/sharp/

[Steven Lee, NC]

+1 for the kell, I have never been able to get my mkII from LV to align the irons up and am not willing to sell it to someone else since I have had so many problems with it.

[Curt Putnam]

Unlike Kees, I LOVE my MK II. I've had issues with it, but except for one, they all turned out to pilot error. The one issue that was not my fault, per se, is that after 8 years, I've worn down the roller to the point that it makes angles more acute than originally. LV easily provided me with a replacement roller. In the interests of full disclosure I've not used it with tapered plane irons nor 1/8" mortise chisels.

As for the world of freehand sharpening, I mostly cannot do it because of a medical condition called essential tremors. Means my hands shake and I've got no control over it. You should see me try to hand write.

[Kees Heiden]

Unlike Kees, I LOVE my MK II.

I'm glad you do ;)
And I'm happy for you that you still can do woodworking despite of the tremors.

[paul cottingham]

It's funny, I have really bad neuropathic pain and numbness (a contradiction to be sure) in my hands, and I find the eclipse guide much easier to use than the LV, as I can tighten it with a screwdriver. I would love to freehand sharpen, but it is not in the cards for me. I do really like the mk11, the eclipse is just easier to use.

[Tony Shea]

I never understood why some people like that LV thing so much. Over engineered piece of excrement. Too slow, too heavy, too complex, too expensive. Get yourself the cheap Eclipse copy. Works as advertised and it is cheap. Mine didn't need tuning either, just a drop of oil in the wheel bearing sometimes.

Better yet, learn to sharpen freehand, it's absolutely not difficult. And you have to learn it anyway, as soon as you want to sharpen a gouge for example.

A little bit harsh on the folks over at LV. Guess you don't really need to understand why people like it as long as they do. I personally prefer my eclipse style honing guide 90% of the time but there are times that I need to break out the MKII.

One thing I've noticed with my MKII is on thinnish Stanley plane irons the clamping mechanism actually bends the blade slightly so the edges are further off the stone than the center of the blade. I have even done this on some LN blades. This in turn sharpens the center of the blade more than the edges which turns into a nightmare especially when I'm trying for the opposite effect. It is easy to counter act the effect on fore plane blades where I want a lot of camber and the amount isn't critical but on smooth plane blades that need to have a much more precise camber I will refuse to use this guide. This is due to the clamping mechanism having this bow in the casting.

I do wish LN would get on with getting their guide out on the market, not sure what the hold up is. There is a video out there at the latest WIA where Deneb shows a prototype of this and their plow plane. I've been checking in consistently to see if either tool is listed, no such luck.

[Ray Bohn]

+1 for the kell, I have never been able to get my mkII from LV to align the irons up and am not willing to sell it to someone else since I have had so many problems with it.

+1 for Kell also. My only complaint is that using wide plane blades has required the use of Scary Sharp, because the guide wheels extend beyond the edges of a 3" water stone. Either that or build a jig for the wheels to ride on.

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF 4" X 8" STONES ARE AVAILABLE?

[Frederick Skelly]

Like others, I have both the Mk II and the Eclipse. I agree with Prashun and Chris' thoughts. I too use the Mk II more often than the Eclipse.

My next step on "the sharpening journey" is going to be a Worksharp, to save time when I have a lot of sharpening to accomplish.

[David Weaver]

There are large versions of some stones out there, but they are often very expensive. Nortons come to mind, as well as probably something from sigma power.

There are obviously large natural stones but most of them are extremely expensive. Emphasis on extremely.

[Prashun Patel]

Get some lapidary discs and even if you use stones to hone, the ws is great for flattening backs and establishing primary bevels. But it aint gonna hollow grind em.

[Simon MacGowen]

One reason why many woodworkers find free hand sharpening difficult is that they think free hand sharpening needs to produce the same results as a jig...repeatable bevel angles. The truth is that we don't need to hone a blade at 25 degrees, 24 or 26 degrees will cut equally well.

Once this concept is understood or agreed to, free hand sharpening is easy in most cases. The first few times may not give the kind of sharpness one is used to, but practice and adjusting the posture, pressure points, etc. will get you there.

I have MKII as well as the eclipse jig and use them only once in while honing between jobs is always done free hand (on LV lapping diamond films and a thick glass). Quick, simple and easy, may I say.

It's easier than you think and easier than all the free hand instructions out there have you believe. Start with a 1" chisel and not one of those narrow chisels, if you plan to try free sharpening for the first time.

Simon

[Mike Rother]

Was it my imagination or did LV announce that they are releasing an attachment/addition for the MKII to help with smaller chisels etc?

[Winton Applegate]

Kees,

some day you will have to "learn" how to sharpen by hand so you can sharpen a gouge
There is a world of difference between a hand held gouge (usually used to cut a friendly/soft carving wood on the one hand and a finish plane blade locked at a fixed relation to a flat panel cutting very hard and or problem grained wood such as bubinga and or purple heart with no chatter and no tear out on the other hand.
I think many of us who use jigs have
"learned to sharpen freehand"
I even resharpen my dull box knives at work sharper than they come out of the factory
free hand
and David you'd be proud of me
I use two "stones" a coarse diamond paddle and an extra fine diamond paddle.
It just takes knowing WHEN to use a jig to create a precise cutting "bit" or "insert", to use machinist terms
and
when it just doesn't matter because you can vary the angle with your hand until you get the cut to work for you or the material is so soft a bit of rounding on the clearance bevel of a plane blade doesn't hinder the cut (much).
When people whip out the "why don't you learn to sharpen by hand" phrase I respond with the
"Show me your bubinga and purple heart furniture finish planed as the final surface (no sanding or scraping now) ".
It is so old now I think Spassky and Fischer used to call it the Winton gambit.
It has yet to fail to carry me to an early 'Mate.

[Kees Heiden]

Let it go Winton, you can do it, free your inner sharpening mojo. I know you can do it when you can even sharpen a box knife freehand which is in fact harder to do then a simple plane rion.

You use a lot of bevel up planes don't you? Then you don't need to worry about clearance angle. And absolute angle precision isn't neccessary either not even with purple heart. 53 or 55 or 58 cutting angle, in real life it is a flowing continuum of too low to too high and you won't feel the difference with Starret level precision.

Regarding difficult woods. Try to make something from western red cedar. Planing that surface to a true mirror needs some really sharp tools but it can be done. Frequent resharpening too, because it contains a lot of silica.

[David Weaver]

I even resharpen my dull box knives at work sharper than they come out of the factory
free hand
and David you'd be proud of me
I use two "stones" a coarse diamond paddle and an extra fine diamond paddle.


Hey, me too (except at home and not at work)! Those blades are often kind of soft, so any stone works OK. I've used a diamond stone, a washita, fine india and translucent, etc. they all do nice things for utility knife blades.

It's as fast to touch them up as it is to change the blade in one, and you never have to find a new set of blades. Super sharp box cutter is a really nice thing to use if you have rules about what you can do with cardboard (ours has to be cut flat here). Dull box cutter is a frustration, just another one of those things that you have to do that you can make interesting if everything is sharp.

(I don't think everyone has to hone freehand, though, you can do it however you like).

[Daniel Rode]

I own and use both the eclipse style and the MKII. IMO, The MKII is cumbersome to use and thinner chisels tend to slide off of 90 degrees easily. However, it's accurate and repeatable. The eclipse style is much much faster to setup. I have a scrap of wood with blocks to set the angles. It's really fast for plane irons and because of the small wheel, it's easy to camber a plane iron. However, it's awful holding smaller chisels. The little dovetail ways below don't grip the sides of any of my chisels and they always end up slipping.

Little by little, I've been trying to sharpen by hand. I can't imagine freehanding the main bevel accurately but I'm starting to be able to resharpen the micro-bevel reliably. I feel like I'm totally guessing at the angles but I'm getting a sharp edge that will smoothly cut pine endgrain. It's taking me a few seconds to touch up the edge of a chisel using a x-fine diamond stone and a few runs on a homemade strop. I did this with a plane iron for the first time a few days ago. I was really nervous but I got good results and was able to get right back to work.

I'd like to pick up a finer stone to replace the strop. A 16k shapton seems like ti would do the trick for me but the darn flattening plates cost 4x more than the stone :eek:

[David Weaver]

Ignore shapton's flattening plate.

If you want to go cheap on a fine stone, the shapton 12k pro is on ebay for about $72 shipped (you have to get it from japan to get it that cheap, though), and you can order an atoma 400 from stu for about the same.

Stu has a base-less SP 13k (which is a little finer than the shapton cream or the 16k glasstone) for about $85 before shipping, that's another option. Also works well with the atoma.

[Metod Alif]

"to replace the strop. A 16k shapton "
giant Cypress: Japanese woodworking tool punk (http://giantcypress.net/) has an interesting comparison of strops with high numbered stones. Facts rather than blabber, I suppose.
Metod

[Daniel Rode]

I'm a little confused. I'd use the atoma 400 to flatten the 12, 13 or 16k stone? They seem to be 1/4 the price of the shapton flattening stone which starts to be more affordable.

I've seen many people work with nothing a medium and fine stone to do all of the day-to-day resharpening and get what I consider to be excellent results. That's all I want. Repeatable sharpening to a very fine edge without spending too much time or money.


Ignore shapton's flattening plate.

If you want to go cheap on a fine stone, the shapton 12k pro is on ebay for about $72 shipped (you have to get it from japan to get it that cheap, though), and you can order an atoma 400 from stu for about the same.

Stu has a base-less SP 13k (which is a little finer than the shapton cream or the 16k glasstone) for about $85 before shipping, that's another option. Also works well with the atoma.

[Daniel Rode]

I'm using the strop more like a stone than a strop. It's Somewhat like Paul Sellers except I'm making a flat micro-bevel rather than a convex single bevel. I use it because I don't have a finer stone and I find sandpaper on glass a PITB to work with. Hence my desire to get a fine finishing stone. I'm still considering the X-X-fine DMT stone. It takes some time to wear in and is not nearly as fine as the 12/13/16k waterstones but it has other advantages. Predominantly, no water, no flattening and no need to buy a flattening stone, so it's less expensive.


"to replace the strop. A 16k shapton "
giant Cypress: Japanese woodworking tool punk (http://giantcypress.net/) has an interesting comparison of strops with high numbered stones. Facts rather than blabber, I suppose.
Metod

[Chris Griggs]

I'm a little confused. I'd use the atoma 400 to flatten the 12, 13 or 16k stone?

Yes. Aboslutley. It is an ideal flattening stone for anything 800ish and above. Get an atoma 400.

[Tony Shea]

Im very happy with the Atoma diamond stones of any grit. They are just better in every way than DMT's Dia and Duo sharps. If you're planning on getting a fine stone then I would stay away from Diamond stones, they just aren't fine enough. A Shapton or Sigma is def a good choice and if the water really bums you out then just use the stone as a splash and go, they work fine in this scenario. Yes they do reccomend soaking them for a few mins before use but I don't bother.

I wouldn't even think about paying the $ for that Shapton diamond flattening plate, severly over priced. Just invest in a diamond stone (Atoma) dedicated to flattening water stones and you'll be set up for years. I just recently got some Atoma's and have been extremely impressed with them compared to my last DMT Duo Xcoarse/coarse stone.

[David Weaver]

Yes. Aboslutley. It is an ideal flattening stone for anything 800ish and above. Get an atoma 400.

Yeah, pretty much that. Shapton had something in mind making the flattening plate, probably winning a spec sheet contest, but I see no practical advantage of the thing over an atoma 400, and I haven't yet actually heard of an atoma 400 wearing out (the shapton lapping plate has a finite lifetime, even when used just on stones). Everything is finite, I suppose, but the shapton plate has been mentioned by some to be very finite.

[David Weaver]

I've seen many people work with nothing a medium and fine stone to do all of the day-to-day resharpening and get what I consider to be excellent results. That's all I want. Repeatable sharpening to a very fine edge without spending too much time or money.

the edge I posted on the other thread was certainly repeatable, fast, with two stones and no strop. Stropping it would have made no practical difference for anything other than preventing razorburn (clearly, planing rarely results in razorburn). The plainer and harder the steel, the less persistent the wire edge. That was a stock iron and I couldn't feel anything on it at all, not with fingernail, not with anything.

What you're attempting to do is a very practical, fast, extremely finely sharp solution.

[Winton Applegate]

I see no practical advantage of the thing over an atoma 400, and I haven't yet actually heard of an atoma 400 wearing out (the shapton lapping plate has a finite lifetime, even when used just on stones)
I totally agree. Stone flattening plates that one puts grit onto are a silly idea.
I use a diamond plate to flatten my stones for the most part. I have other stones designed with deep groves for flattening stones as well. Guess what . . . they were not flat and I had to use the diamond plate to flatten them. The deep groves come in useful so that is a plus the diamond plate/stone does not have but no big deal.
I don't know about the Atoma but if the guys,( where are the gals?) say it is flat enough then use that by all means.


Can use it as your course(er) stone as well as I do.
I have other sharpening jigs but for what I want to do repeatably on my PLANE BLADES the Varitas Mk II works well for me.


Often with chisels I sharpen free hand.
Scrub plane blades can be a whole other sharpening adventure. I have taken to using the short LN scrub plane it self with the blade sticking way out the bottom as the jig for that.


I wouldn't expect one jig to do it all and I wouldn't say always use a jig. Just when it works out well to get the job done as well as you need for the situation. Or if you are like me and you enjoy fooling around getting the bevels to a consistent spec.
In rare cases it actually makes an important difference in the out come.

So, yah . . . forget the Shapton flattening plate and get a flat diamond plate with coarse fixed grit on it.
Mine has been through heck trying to get the original generation of A2 blade backs flat (the recent A2s are worlds better) and it is still flat enough and sharp enough to do a perfect job flattening the other stones.

[Winton Applegate]

Let it go Winton

I'm letting it go.
It feels good to let it go.
Thanks . . . I'm feeling better now. Lighter; freeer some how.
:p


You use a lot of bevel up planes don't you? Then you don't need to worry about clearance angle.

Well not as far as creating one, the plane does that, but . . .
some people, I am not saying you or the other illustrious old timers here . . . perhaps the new ones trying to learn from some of the silly getter done quick ideas from other forums lets say . . .

. . . well it is pretty easy to decrease (cancel out) some of the 12° or 20° clearance of the bed angle on the bevel up critter.
How?
The wear bevel.
And if that isn't enough, the over zealous use of "the ruler trick".
The whole idea behind "sharpening" (I don't have to tell you but I am addressing the OP now) is to remove the wear area on the edge of the blade. It is rounded bellow and above the center plane of the blade.

It is quite possible to polish the top and bottom of the blade and get a super sharp edge that shaves hair like no tomorrow by hand honing, tilting the blade up steeper and "lifting" on the back side and then that absolute insult to real sharpening of a PLANE BLADE (not a gouge) the . . .
soft leather strop with the rough side up and lots of waxy goopy stuff , (semi chrome ? ? ? ? NAH DUDE, NAH please don't do that ! ! !) TO A PLANE BLADE (fine for carving chisels).

With all that insult to injury it is quite possible to take a bevel up and ruin what little clearance angle there is and get a blade that cuts hair, may even take a pass or two off the really hard stuff but in a pass or two more is skipping and leaving chatter marks. We are further advancing the blade adjustment and pressing down and getting a few more curls but then what kind of surface do we have ? Not a good one.

Much more of a problem with a bevel down. My little #1 is obviously a bevel down. I use that with a back bevel for some projects, most. With really precisely sharpened blades it is a phenomenon of controlled planing in small problem areas.

To really get rid of that wear bevel a fixed angle cutting enough of a layer off of the sharpening bevel all the way back to where the back is truly flat is the way to go. The most efficient way to do that NEANDER now , that means no motors right ? is to use a jig.
Many new or rushing individuals when free hand sharpening start lifting on the coarse stone to get the bevel rounded enough to get the wear bevel off and the next thing the person is doing is lifting on the flat back side,(probably in too much of a hurry to have ever flattened it to start with). Then the next sharpening session it is more lifting

and on
and on
soon it is sharpening Purgatory
Purgatory I tell you !

Only the pure light and pure truth of the Almighty Sharpening Jig will save you.
Well not you, as such, but the newbie.


And absolute angle precision isn't necessary either not even with purple heart. 53 or 55 or 58 cutting angle, in real life it is a flowing continuum of too low to too high and you won't feel the difference with Starret level precision.

. . . weeeeellllll . . . for large wood surfaces I like to FIND the minimum angle that will cut the wood the way I want to and then stick with that. Getting steeper, when doing hours and days of planing, makes some difference (to me). Shallower cuts a little easier and lasts longer.


Regarding difficult woods. Try to make something from western red cedar. Planing that surface to a true mirror needs some really sharp tools but it can be done.


I have a project coming up, one of these years, (ha, ha) that will be a combination of prima vera for the primary wood and cedar for the drawer sides and maybe the back just for the smell of the stuff. I already have the wood.

The wear on the drawer sides acting as runners won't be an issue. Secret, never before seen in the world of man kind, solution I have.

I don't have much experience with red cedar and if it is the stuff I think it is I would never really plane it to a really perfect surface because it is SOOOOO SOFT I would expect it to get dinged up pretty fast. I really hate the whole "distressing" of a newly made work to make it look old but in the case of a cedar chest, what not, I wouldn't feel too bad about it getting dinged up. It is going to get that way anyway.


Frequent resharpening too, because it contains a lot of silica.

Yah don't go there . . . because I had one plank of purple heart out of the several that I used to make my Klausz bench that had a bunch of some kind of mineral in it . . . it wore me out trying to keep blades sharp enough to plane it. Still makes me twitch when I think about it. Shudder.

[Kees Heiden]

Yeah, western red cedar is weird stuff. My kitchen drawers are made from Jatoba front and rear and wrc on the sides. I have put a narrow strip of jatoba to the top of the sides to protect them. They slide on roller mechanical slides so that is no issue. Of course I didn't polish them all up, not really neccessary inside a kitchen cabinet. It was fun to make the dovetails though. The Jatoba was no problem with a good chisel. The wrc was a pain. I had a chisel sharpened to 20 degrees to get it sharp enough and had to rehone after every socket. The wood would just crumble otherwise.

I know a guy overhere who makes lots of wall panels in a Japanese style from wrc. Bookmatched and everything planed from one side for the best visual effect. He really needs to hone his planes super duper sharp. It looks brilliant when new, but I also wonder how it looks after a couple of years.

[Metod Alif]

Daniel,
Do not toss out your strop after you get your Shapton.:). 3-4 strokes on the strop might/will still improve the initial sharpness. My question is, how fast does any such difference disappear with planing. Maybe I will experiment one day.
For fewer $$, try a pinch of 1 micron diamond powder on some soft steel from a hardware store. Cast iron is being recommended (Derek Cohen has a useful post on his site). I tried both (cast and steel) and they seem to work the same and rather well.
Best wishes,
Metod