Sharpening hell


Brendon_t

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Digging through my dad's shed recently, i came across a craftsman #5c plane that was my grandfathers. I bright it home, flattened the sole, oilseed everything and now I'm attempting to sharpen the blade. The back flattened easily and it already had a 30* bevel so I just stuck with that and put it to the stones. After two attempts and not even being able to cut a hair on my hand I raised it to 25 degrees thinking my initial measurement may be slightly off. It is now my inclination that this thing absolutely will not Take an edge.

Is it posible to have the piece of steel that just cannot be sharpened?

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Digging through my dad's shed recently, i came across a craftsman #5c plane that was my grandfathers. I bright it home, flattened the sole, oilseed everything and now I'm attempting to sharpen the blade. The back flattened easily and it already had a 30* bevel so I just stuck with that and put it to the stones. After two attempts and not even being able to cut a hair on my hand I raised it to 25 degrees thinking my initial measurement may be slightly off. It is now my inclination that this thing absolutely will not Take an edge.

Is it posible to have the piece of steel that just cannot be sharpened?

Uh, if you flattened the back, and actually took off material, then the blade can be sharpened!

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I would think so too. Even after watching the burr come off on the 5k stone, I wiped the water off of it and could barely shave a thumbnail.

I'm not saying it can't get an edge at all, but I will say I cannot get an whee on it that would be suitable for Wood working.

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If it was free hand sharpened a bunch it may have too much of a convex bevel and the edge isn't contacting the wood.  I usually sharpen by hand with the convex bevel advocated by Sellers but I did get the belly too fat once when taking a knick out of my scrub plane's iron.  Putting a hollow grind on it with the grinder took care of the geometry issues. 

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Just sounds like it needs a fair amount of material to be removed and to re-establish the edge profile. I've had lathe tools I had to do this too. 1000grit to start won't be enough. You wanna go real coarse. If you have a glass plate or granite plate, get some 80 grit wet dry paper. and establish a new profile before moving up the ladder of grits. 120, 400, 1000, 2000, 5000, 8000, etc

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  • 2 weeks later...

A teaspoon will take an edge but of course won't hold it.  You're doing something wrong.  Hollow grind the bevel at 25* and try again.  Hone on the bevel angle.  Don't lift to create a higher honing angle.  In this instance, grind until you produce a burr all along the flat face but quench after every pass.  You don't normally grind to a burr but I think you should to make sure you've removed any sort of rounding that might be at a higher angle behind the edge.  

Edited by CStanford
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Well, no, you would find a grinder handy even if you don't own a lathe.  Flat grinding is fine as long at it's really flat.  A problem arises when a slight rise is produced behind the cutting edge that makes the cutter jutter along or not cut at all. 

If you want to hone plane irons and chisels and not use a grinder then use Paul Sellers' method .  You round under behind the cutting edge to maintain proper clearance.

 

 

 

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