Hi - I'm having trouble sharpening. I'm currently trying scary sharp with a piece of granite, a piece of float glass, and varying grits of sandpaper up through 1500 grit. Each and every old Stanley plane iron I sharpen ends up shaving hair decently, but not spectacularly. However, I cannot get the chisels to shave. I spend about three hours last night on about 8 chisels that I've collected and none of them would end up shaving. Most were a set of Bucks Brothers and there were a few Great Necks and a couple of Stanley 60's. I was able to get a decent hollow grind on the chisels that had chips and dings and went from there through the grits up to 1500. All ended up really shiny and reflective, but dull.
Possible problems?:
1) Technique sucks. I can't get the plane iron bevels flat freehanding them. The bevels are too thin. Need more practice and/or a guide. No matter how hard I try, it also seems like the chisels were rocking just a minute bit, which is probably all it takes to ruin the edge. I did flatten the backs, marking each with a felt tip marker to monitor progress. Eventually I was marking the chisels in between each grit, and still no luck.
2) Not using fine enough sandpaper. The chisels felt like they wanted to shave, but would not. Plane irons will shave every time, although the bevels are rounded (see #1). Both were getting very shiny and reflective in appearance. Basically ended up with shiny, polished, dull blades.
3) Plate glass/granite may not be flat... probably the least of the issues as both surfaces yielded essentially the same results. Plane irons shave, chisels wouldn't.
I suspect #1 is 99% of the problem. In any case, I think I'm going to get a guide and retry scary sharp or use the guide with waterstones. Can't decide between the eclipse-type guide and the MKII, and I can't decide between the Norton/Shapton stones.
I have a set of Marples blue-handled chisels on the way, and don't want to screw them up (even though these are lesser chisels for many folks!).
Suggestions?