I think I finally found sharp.

[Mike Baker 2]

I have been working on a simple project, and cutting my first dovetails. I'm a new guy to planes and chisels, and I thought that my edges were good; they were very sharp, shaving arm hair effortlessly.
But my project is in pine, and cutting dovetails, paring end grain, proved the lie. End grain fibers in the pin area are crushed, not cut. 400/1000/pasted strop is not enough.
Today, I went back to basics, dug out my jig, 400/1k plate, 6k King and 1um and .3um lapping film. Set a 25* bevel, went through the grits to 1k, and reset the jig for a 30* micro bevel, then 6k/1um/.3um. No strop.
THAT is an edge. Night and day difference. Not only can I push the chisel through end grain and get beautiful shavings I can see through, but I can slice sideways in a sweeping motion, like cutting with a knife, and it slices thin, see through shavings off like butter. Gorgeous.
Working on my #4 now. Can't wait to hit the bench as soon as I can squeeze out some time.
Thanks, Sawmill Creek, and everyone here who encouraged me to push for a better edge.

[Patrick Chase]

I could have sworn that "somebody learns something useful about sharpening from SMC" was one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Mike, if you find yourself chasing random family members around trying to get the finest of their fine hairs so that you can demonstrate that your edge passes HHT-69, then you've taken it too far. Everything else is good.

BTW, you should try some 0.1 um diamond compound on a well-broken-in iron lap. I like to refer to it as "pointless sharp".

[Bill McNiel]

I think it come right after "the President makes a lesser Kardashian look like a paradigm of social media class".

Patrick- you owe me big bucks for computer repair after I spit a prime "Adult Beverage" all over my computer.

[Mike Baker 2]

I actually did try an HHT, lol. I don't think the edge geometry/30 degree bevel lends itself to that very well.But you never know.
All I know is the difference is like a bright light came on.
Now I've just got to figure out what I need at the bench to maintain it during a day's use. And yeah, .1 um sounds like way overkill. But what do I know? I thought my chisels were sharp.

[Jim Koepke]

I thought my chisels were sharp.

It is likely most folks have felt the same way until improved sharpening skills exposed the error of their thoughts on sharpness.

jtk

[Stanley Covington]

I could have sworn that "somebody learns something useful about sharpening from SMC" was one of the signs of the apocalypse. I think it comes right after "the President makes a lesser Kardashian look like a paradigm of social media class".

Mike, if you find yourself chasing random family members around trying to get the finest of their fine hairs so that you can demonstrate that your edge passes HHT-69, then you've taken it too far. Everything else is good.

BTW, you should try some 0.1 um diamond compound on a well-broken-in iron lap. I like to refer to it as "pointless sharp".

Ha ha! Very good Patrick. You should copyright "Pointless Sharp" and sell it to Shapton for their next series of stones.

[Mike Baker 2]

This forum needs a "Like" button.

[Alan Heffernan]

This forum needs a "Like" button.

LIKE!

Yes it does.

[Jeffery Barton]

I like to call that scary sharp

[Kevin Smira]

One thing that I found handy for softwoods is to grind at a much shallower angle than 25. For me, 17-18º was the sweet spot. That said, if I use that chisel on hardwoods, I'll ruin the edge quicker than Trump gets sued by a porn star. Cleaning the waste out of a DT joint in pine with that shallow angle chisel is night and day difference than my "standard" bevel edge chisels.

HOWEVER, all must be sharp!!!

[John C Cox]

Do you do the whole thing at 17-18 degrees or the primary at that with a teeny microbevel at something taller?

[Kevin Smira]

Do you do the whole thing at 17-18 degrees or the primary at that with a teeny microbevel at something taller?

John,

The whole bevel is 17-18º. Then the micro bevel is a couple degrees-ish. Anything more shallow than 17 degrees causes too many problems.

[John C Cox]

I could have sworn that "somebody learns something useful about sharpening from SMC" was one of the signs of the apocalypse. .

I nominate this "Best SMC quote of the year!" There was some keyboard cleanup involved...

Anyway - the simplest answer is:
The one single factor that prevents any learning is believing you already know.. Then - everybody else is just either a heretic or an idiot...

[Steve Mathews]

The OPs comments are timely following my first attempts at dovetails using the same type of wood and apparently not sharp enough chisels. It was a miserable effort starting first with some ugly looking saw cuts including breaking my newly purchased Knew Concepts fret saw. One of the pin retainers on the cam lock mechanism came off. It was a challenge cleaning up the dovetails using my recently sharpened chisels. I soon discovered that they weren't sharp enough for the soft pine. Fortunately I followed Rob Cosman's recommendation (post chisel sharpening) and purchased a Shapton 16k grit stone. Hopefully that will create a good enough edge.

[Jim Koepke]

The one single factor that prevents any learning is believing you already know..

There is a term for that in psychology:

In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein people of low ability suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is.

An older saying refers to not knowing can be bliss. It is usually said in a different way. My intent is to avoid making it sound derogatory as there have been many times when my bliss has been based on a lack of knowledge.

jtk