Hello all. I am new to hand tool woodworking and I am asking for some pointers/advice/tips. I recently (and repeatedly) butchered an innocent plane iron trying to free hand sharpen. Over the course of several sharpening sessions, I managed to skew the iron quite drastically. The skew is so dramatic that I cannot compensate using the plane’s lateral adjuster. I know I arrived at this point by not paying close attention during sharpening, but even if I were paying attention, I am not sure the results would have been any different. I have attached a few pictures that I think illustrate my ham-fisted defilement of this innocent iron.
Is this “simply” an issue of poor form resulting in too much pressure on one side/edge of the iron? If so, does anyone have any pointers on preventing this in the future?
I do not have (nor do I really want) a bench grinder, tormek, etc. to reshape the edge. Is it realistically possible to bring this iron back to square (or at least something close to square) by hand? If so, I would appreciate all pointers.
I currently sharpen (if it can be called that) with water stones 400/1000/4000/8000 but also have sandpaper of various grits and a relatively flat granite stone. Also, I have an eclipse-style jig, but I would rather learn how to do this free hand and without having to fiddle with the jig every time I sharpen. Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Tim