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

[Sean Tracey]

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.

[Andrew Hughes]

I also found the ruler trick too much for my liking. So just lift the iron slightly and look for the mark on the stone where I want contact. Much quicker my shaptons are flat but not as flat as the iron.
Its okay to do it your way.

[Jim Koepke]

My mind likes to keep it as simple as possible. A flat bevel and a flat back are good for me.

Kiss - Keep it simple sharpening

jtk

[bridger berdel]

I've used a little bit of back bevel on irons where the back is badly pitted, but never on a perfectly good iron.

[Don Dorn]

I use the ruler trick without the ruler. Lazy I guess, but lift the iron just a bit - end result works so I tend to stick with it. Prior to that, I flattened the backs and that worked too, no better, no worse.

[Tom M King]

I always thought it was used if you couldn't quite get to a sharp edge without it. I've never done it.

[Sean Tracey]

Thank you gentlemen. Back in about 1994, I restored an old wooden plane with an ancient iron. I invented my own version of the ruler trick to restore the pitted back. But the brand new plane iron being ruler tricked was too much. I hit sharpening overload.

[Robert Engel]

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.

[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

[Sean Tracey]

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.

I agree that it does not make sense to ruler trick a brand new plane iron with a certain caveat which I will get to later. This also played into my surprise upon finding the ruler tricked new iron.

But it was definitely ruler tricked to a decently fine stone as the sharpening pattern was across the width of the blade. The blade was honed perfectly flat from blade tip to where the angle of ruler tricking lifts the blade from the stone. The ruler tricking and honing of the blade were top notch quality and effectiveness. I bought the plane well more than 5 years ago, maybe more than 8 years ago. It is an iron body #4 of high quality manufacture. It cut perfect right out of the box with no sharpening needed. I really like the plane and was able to plane twisted boards flat with no real experience. Very satisfying. I discovered the ruler tricking when I went to sharpen it the first time. I was mildly miffed, but since it was already done, I knew that the fast way to keep using the plane was to continue to ruler trick it. My stones are not as wide as the factories, so my ruler tricking flat area was definitely narrower than the factory flattening.

I believe from the manufacturers point of view ruler tricking makes sense. It allows them to provide an actually perfectly honed (not merely rough ground) iron. I believe the manufacturer has found that the majority of purchasers are going to try the plane right out of the box. If the plane cuts well out the box, then customer satisfaction will be maximized. A very sharp blade is a major key for accomplishing good performance, and I believe the fastest way to provide custom honed blades is to ruler trick the blade. When the iron get's dull, now the customer knows the plane needs sharpening and will have to learn to do so and will also be less likely to fault the plane if their sharpening skills are not up to the high standards of the original factory sharpening.

My comments are not meant to be a criticism of the manufacturer, they provided a well made plane with a hand honed iron of excellent sharpness. If I had to hand hone hundreds of irons, I could definitely see the advantage of ruler tricking. If I had a really badly pitted old iron, I could see that ruler tricking may be the only practical way to get a good restoration. But I don't see the advantage of ruler tricking for an individual who works with planes. You flatten the back one time which takes a bit longer than ruler tricking, but I find it much easier on every subsequent sharpening to have a flat back.

The point of my post was mostly to find out what others thought of ruler tricking. It's been informative. Now that my sharpening technique is all worked out, I definitely prefer a flat backed iron.

[Brian Holcombe]

I don’t use the ruler trick. However, what you’re describing sounds like a larger back bevel and must be rather significant to last multiple sharpenings.

The ruler trick, as I understand it, is removed and reapplied every time the iron is sharpened.

[Simon MacGowen]

I ordered a new plane awhile back and I found that they had dressed the back of the plane iron with the ruler .

This is the first time that I heard a new blade came "ruler tricked" from a vendor. Is it a small vendor or could you share your blade source?

Simon

[steven c newman]

Hmmm...There are some people out there, that swear the only way to sharpen an edge..is to have 2-4 "Micro bevels" or the blade will not work......

Back bevel on a plane iron? Soooo, where does the chipbreaker reside?

IMG_4447 (640x480).jpg
This is the "logo side" on a 2" wide Millers Falls iron......I guess they thought the bevel should be covered by the chipbreaker?
wrong side.jpg
Still had the factory 25 degree grind....not much to sharpen..
IMG_4464 (640x480).jpg
The bevel had a hollow grind to it, and was worn a tad on one corner...
shavings.jpg
Not too bad..for a 70 year old plane...