the first time sharpening a plane blade

[curtis rosche]

so i cleaned up that stanley NO.7 jointer plane. i bought a blade, it was from one of those top to plane companies you listed. i cant remember the name. well, i want to get around to sharpening it soon. but i have never sharpened a plane blade before. i have one of those jigs for chisels and planes that holds the angle you set and then you roll the whole thing across your stone. for a stone i have one of those 3 sided sharpening station things from PSI. it has a rough stone on one side, you turn the set up 1/3 and there is a medium stone, another 1/3 turn and there is a fine stone.
that being established, now the questions.

first
the blade i bought was marked as a No.7 replacement blade. does that mean that the bevel already on the blade is the right angle for my plane, and all i need to do is take it from being sharp to scary sharp? if it is not the right angle, what is?

second.
based on what i have said i have for sharpening. how do you sharpen the blade? do you use light pressure, heavy pressure for the coarse stone. i read some where about a micro bevel but im not sure if that applys. also. do i need oil for the stone, and what oil will work best?

oh, i remember one other thing about the blade. i had the choice of 2 bifferent steels, on was harder and would last longer, the other would hone quicker but not last as long. i got the harder on. i beleive it was A2 steel? im not sure if this will make a difference or not in sharpening technique.

thanks for your help

[Edward Miller]

first
the blade i bought was marked as a No.7 replacement blade. does that mean that the bevel already on the blade is the right angle for my plane, and all i need to do is take it from being sharp to scary sharp? if it is not the right angle, what is?

second.
based on what i have said i have for sharpening. how do you sharpen the blade? do you use light pressure, heavy pressure for the coarse stone. i read some where about a micro bevel but im not sure if that applys. also. do i need oil for the stone, and what oil will work best?

oh, i remember one other thing about the blade. i had the choice of 2 bifferent steels, on was harder and would last longer, the other would hone quicker but not last as long. i got the harder on. i beleive it was A2 steel? im not sure if this will make a difference or not in sharpening technique.

thanks for your help

1) A No 7 is normally a bevel-down plane, which means the bevel angle is not as critical; no matter what bevel angle you use, you'll still have the same cutting angle. But, you said your blade is A2 steel; this type of steel has a much more durable edge at higher bevel angles, so something like 30 or 35 degrees is probably wise.

2) I'm still a newbie, so I'll leave the fine points of technique to someone else. If you do a search on Chris Schwarz's blog, though (http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blog), you should find several good articles on basic sharpening.

[philip marcou]

1) A No 7 is normally a bevel-down plane, which means the bevel angle is not as critical; no matter what bevel angle you use, you'll still have the same cutting angle. But, you said your blade is A2 steel; this type of steel has a much more durable edge at higher bevel angles, so something like 30 or 35 degrees is probably wise.

2) I'm still a newbie, so I'll leave the fine points of technique to someone else. If you do a search on Chris Schwarz's blog, though (http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/blog), you should find several good articles on basic sharpening.

Edward, the bevel angle on a b/d plane may not be as critical as that of a bevel up plane but there is the clearance angle to consider. The #7 is b/d bedded at 45 degrees so the actual clearance angle is 45- the angle of honing or bevel angle. A clearance angle of 12 degrees is the minimum workable, so if you have a bevel angle of 35 degrees on a bevel down plane such as a #7 it will not work very well at all as the clearance angle is only 10 degrees (45-35=10).In fact I think 15 degrees clearance is the optimum.
I think the op should get a good book such as Leonard Lee's "" The complete guide to Sharpening", or JIm Kingshott's book, or a DVD by D. Charlesworth- all are/were tradesmen with practical advice without noise.

[Brian Kent]

Curtis, I was looking around for that sharpening stone. I have a cheap 3-sided stone that is good for a start but not fine enough for final sharpening. Does your stone list the grit size? Just checking to see if you might want to add a finer stone or finer sandpaper to get the best edge.