Plane Sharpening: Cambered Bevel or Rounded Corners?

[Steve H Graham]

I got myself some CBN wheels, and I plan to use them for roughing plane irons from now on. Problem: I have been taught that it's wrong to round the corners of irons because they will still leave gouges in wood, so I put tiny cambers on my irons. That's not a problem when grinding, but when I go to a flat stone to finish the iron, I can't really match the camber. Flat stones like making straight edges.

Should I forget what I've learned and round the corners?

[Derek Cohen]

Steve, I camber all bench plane blades. Never on the grinder, and only on the stones.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jessica de Boer]

When you sharpen sideways it's very easy to maintain the camber on flat stones. Just make a little rocking motion as you go back and forth.

[Derek Cohen]

When you sharpen sideways it's very easy to maintain the camber on flat stones. Just make a little rocking motion as you go back and forth.

Agreed! My style as well.

Side-to-side makes it easier to concentrate force on a corner.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Tom M King]

Cambered. Irons which need large cambers are shaped first on a grinder. Smoothers, only on the stones. I rough judge amount taken off of a straight cutting edge by the amount of swarf that shows on the sharpening stone. Start with a clean, freshly flattened stone. Heavy cut smoothers start on the 6k stone, and light on the 10k.

[Steve H Graham]

I'll just use CBN to rough my irons, and then I'll do exactly the same thing Paul Sellers does. It must work, unless he has a lot of people fooled.