I never found any value in the ruler trick for plane irons

[Jim Koepke]

Brent Beach showed how plane irons develop a light "wear bevel" on the back...

My approach is to not let a large wear bevel develop. Usually the wear bevel on my blades can be taken of on 1000 grit stone rather quickly. Of course, if one uses there blade until it just won't cut anymore it may develop a wear bevel needing the attention of a grinder.

My motto: "sharpening less by sharpening often."

jtk

[Simon MacGowen]

M

My motto: "sharpening less by sharpening often."

jtk

Sound advice regardless of the level of skill.

Simon

[lowell holmes]

I have used the ruler trick to take the back curl from a plane iron edge. I only do a light honing on the back edge, iirc one or two strokes.
What does it hurt?

[ken hatch]

Jim,

We are close: Mine has alway been “Sharpen more to sharpen less”. Same difference. Don’t wait until the iron feels or looks dull, sharpen the first time the question crosses your mind.

ken

[Brian Holcombe]

I understand the rationale. Brent Beach showed how plane irons develop a light "wear bevel" on the back... Rather than grinding the wear bevel off - he advocated simply sharpening it... Thus "the ruler trick", lightly stropping the back, or some such...

And you do have to do something so you aren't just "playing with the burr" when sharpening....

I just prefer to sharpen it back off as well as I can back to flat...

My experience at Kez NYC a few years back (planing competition) provided that leaving any wear bevel, no matter what you do with it it (such as stropping), will not produce a superior edge to removing it.

[Stewie Simpson]

There is a video where DC states the motivation for the ruler trick was to address stiction with water stones.

[Alan Schwabacher]

The ruler trick involves a much shallower back bevel than you could possibly get by lifting the iron. It is only for the very finest stone, and provides probably a small multiple of the bevel angle you get by simply pushing down harder close to the edge while keeping the back flat to the stone. It is really just a way to focus your attention there for the final touch on a stone. Done as specified by Charlesworth, there is no way it could interfere with a cap iron.

This does not mean anyone needs to use it, or even pay attention to what it is, but it is not a substantial back bevel.

[Derek Cohen]

I ordered a new plane awhile back and I found that they had dressed the back of the plane iron with the ruler trick. Some may think the ruler trick is brilliant, but I really wish they hadn't of done that. Since it had already been ruler tricked, I stayed with it for awhile. Really, I have found the ruler trick to be a no value nuisance. My plane iron was pretty close to flat before somebody then threw all that easy to work with flatness right out the window and used the ruler trick. So then you have to keep a certain ruler around, hold the ruler in place, use a small portion of the stone. I find that clumsy compared to a small one time investment of flattening the back and polishing.

The plane iron is pretty flat to begin with and I have an 80 grit lobster stone that will quickly level it. Hone it on some progressively finer diamond stones and then polish on a 5000 grit and 8000 grit water stone and I never have to do more to the back than remove the bur which I find very easy to do with a flat back. I can use the entire stone to do so with a flat back. It easy to hold the blade and easy to move it in the motion I am used to. I can effectively use a strop for easy touch ups on both sides of the blade.

I don't know if I am the only person who see's it this way, but next time I order a new plane, I'm going to remember to ask them to send the iron without any back side honing. Far easier to flatten and polish an iron fresh off the grinder than deal with a ruler tricked iron.

Maybe, I'm the only one who thinks it's easier to flatten the back once than to mess with a ruler tricked iron, but If you prefer a flat back, be warned.

Hi Sean

I am curious how you knew the blade had the Ruler Trick? What signs were there?

This is the first I have ever heard of a new blade being prepared with the RT. I am surprised since it is an extra task to perform and most sellers do not do this. Can you be sure it was the RT and not someone dubbing the blade? Will you say the name of the seller?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Ross Manning]

The ruler trick involves a much shallower back bevel than you could possibly get by lifting the iron. It is only for the very finest stone, and provides probably a small multiple of the bevel angle you get by simply pushing down harder close to the edge while keeping the back flat to the stone. It is really just a way to focus your attention there for the final touch on a stone. Done as specified by Charlesworth, there is no way it could interfere with a cap iron.

This.

If you guys are using ruler trick to make such a large back bevel that it interferes with the chip breaker you have really misunderstood. It only needs a very few swipes on the finest stone.

[Charles Guest]

I ordered a new plane awhile back and I found that they had dressed the back of the plane iron with the ruler trick. Some may think the ruler trick is brilliant, but I really wish they hadn't of done that. Since it had already been ruler tricked, I stayed with it for awhile. Really, I have found the ruler trick to be a no value nuisance. My plane iron was pretty close to flat before somebody then threw all that easy to work with flatness right out the window and used the ruler trick. So then you have to keep a certain ruler around, hold the ruler in place, use a small portion of the stone. I find that clumsy compared to a small one time investment of flattening the back and polishing.

The plane iron is pretty flat to begin with and I have an 80 grit lobster stone that will quickly level it. Hone it on some progressively finer diamond stones and then polish on a 5000 grit and 8000 grit water stone and I never have to do more to the back than remove the bur which I find very easy to do with a flat back. I can use the entire stone to do so with a flat back. It easy to hold the blade and easy to move it in the motion I am used to. I can effectively use a strop for easy touch ups on both sides of the blade.

I don't know if I am the only person who see's it this way, but next time I order a new plane, I'm going to remember to ask them to send the iron without any back side honing. Far easier to flatten and polish an iron fresh off the grinder than deal with a ruler tricked iron.

Maybe, I'm the only one who thinks it's easier to flatten the back once than to mess with a ruler tricked iron, but If you prefer a flat back, be warned.

Less is more. The fewer gew-gaws in the shop the better. If you want a flat back, there's never been a time in the history of woodworking when it was easier to accomplish.

[Charles Guest]

Sean,

What brand is the plane?

I've never heard of a manufacturer deliberately back beveling a plane iron. It doesn't even make any sense that they would do that (customer pref, added cost, etc.).

Way more likely the plane wasn't flattened all the way to the edge.

I'm pretty sure if you call the manufacturer they will tell you this.

It sounds like the manufacturer took a plane on return and re-used the iron in a new plane. They didn't notice that the guy or gal who returned the plane had back-beveled the iron. They probably put a fresh grind on the bevel, didn't look at the back, and out the door she went. I doubt seriously when a plane is returned that the whole thing is junked lock, stock, and barrel and this is likely so even with boutique or semi-boutique manufacturers.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I have considered trying the ruler trick from time to time on plane irons. Not because I have any trouble with getting and maintaining a flat back, but because I've noticed that plane irons take much longer to sharpen than chisels due to having to remove the wear bevel. Especially on something like a try plane, where you take heavy shavings and so can push the iron pretty far into the wear cycle. It can take several rounds of creating a sizable burr on the coarse stone and removing it on the finishing stone before the wear bevel disappears. On a chisel there normally isn't any visible wear bevel- once you have created any burr at all you can move on to the next stone, so unless there is edge damage even a Japanese chisel can be sharpened very quickly.

It seems like the ruler trick would sharpen the wear bevel instead of removing it- turning it into an actual bevel with proper geometry and a clean intersection with the main bevel while facilitating removal of the burr. Which is the whole point of removing the wear bevel when maintaining a flat back- you can't get to the very edge until the wear bevel is gone.

But alas I have never tried it because I've never had one of those little rulers hanging around, and outside of ruminations during sharpening it hasn't occurred to me to buy one. So obviously my current regime isn't *that* onerous, though I have made one change recently, which is working the back of my jack and try plane irons on my soft ark as the first step in sharpening. This gets rid of 90% of the wear bevel in 10-20 seconds, leaving much less bevel work and prolonging the number of honings between grinding sessions. This is at the expense of the level of polish on the backs of the irons, but that doesn't seem to bother anything in use. I would not do this to a smoothing plane iron, but those don't get as much wear between sharpenings anyways.

[Jim Koepke]

It seems like the ruler trick would sharpen the wear bevel instead of removing it- turning it into an actual bevel with proper geometry and a clean intersection with the main bevel while facilitating removal of the burr. Which is the whole point of removing the wear bevel when maintaining a flat back- you can't get to the very edge until the wear bevel is gone.

The problem then becomes the larger the wear bevel, then the larger the area that needs tricking to get to a defined arris.

Maybe since a bum shoulder doesn't let me take real thick shavings, it doesn't take a lot of blade wear to indicate the time for sharpening. Shavings over ~0.015" get my shoulder to ache in no time.

jtk

[Tony Zaffuto]

I have used the ruler trick to take the back curl from a plane iron edge. I only do a light honing on the back edge, iirc one or two strokes.
What does it hurt?

I do the same, but I've never called it the "ruler trick"! Basically raise the blade less than a red whisker and lightly hone side to side, 1 or 2 licks!

[James Pallas]

I do the same, but I've never called it the "ruler trick"! Basically raise the blade less than a red whisker and lightly hone side to side, 1 or 2 licks!

Tony as long as your happy with your routine and you like how it works, it's perfect. As I said earlier I like these threads. Every time one starts it reminds me of that now old song that goes "must be fifty ways to leave your lover". The song plays in my head every time and once in a great while we get a new way. Everyone can try it and report back so I don't have to do the experimentation.
Jim