Sharp fixes most woes

[Christopher Charles]

Just a friendly reminder :)

Recent waterstone threads inspired me to give a couple blades the attention they deserved.

Best,
Chris

[bridger berdel]

If you're not sure if it's sharp enough, it isn't.

[Patrick Chase]

If you're not sure if it's sharp enough, it isn't.

Sadly the converse is not always true...

[Frederick Skelly]

So true. There's a sign over my bench that says "Dull tools don't work".

[Chris Hachet]

The two things that have helped me most are a stable bench and good sharpening techniques.

[george wilson]

The FIRST thing i always taught my approx. 22 apprentices over 40 years in Williamsburg,was how to sharpen their tools. It instantly made a major improvement on their work. Didn't teach them other things,like how to draw,but it was a major step up.

Other shops asked me for help in learning sharpening also.

[David Eisenhauer]

So very, very true. Especially with chisels, I find that dullness creeps in so slowly during a larger, hard-wood project that I don't realize it as soon as I probably should. Instant "betterification" after sharpening. I have trained myself, somewhat, to go through the mental process of: 1) check for grain direction 2) wax the sole 3) check/sharpen blade when I am encountering planning issues, but somehow just have to let it just hit me all of a sudden to sharpen a chisel. At least then, I do grab up any of them that seem to need a tune up. I am also an advocate of leaving the sharpening station setup, visible and ready for use at all times during the joinery phase of the project.

[glenn bradley]

Yep, when my MF No 9 needed a touch up yesterday I just did everything that was in question. If something didn't need it, it sure didn't hurt it.

[Jim Koepke]

Some here comment that super thin shavings coming out of a plane are a waste of time.

It is one sure way to see if the blade is sharp. It also helps when setting the lateral adjuster.

Most of the time my planes are only set to take whisper like shavings when being set up after sharpening, when taking the final smoothing strokes or testing the blade to see if it needs to go for a ride on the stones.

A plane should be able to take a full range of shavings. If not, then something is not right.

jtk