Trip Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 ==>their own literature is saying Think we're getting too caught-up in specs and ignoring common experience/best practice... Veritas indeed delivers a quality plane iron, but not 'ready to go'.... I just ignore all those zeros on their spec sheet and get down to honing... The factory-milling & lapping saves me a huge amount of time... Working the back used to be pure drudgery -- even with fast cutting stones... Now, I just need to remove the factory scratch pattern and replace it with successively-fine scratch patterns until arriving at a final polish -- I stop somewhere around a 10K Chosera... If I use the ruler trick, I'm done in five minutes flat... No pun intended I freely admit that I'm a lazy sod... especially when it comes sharpening... For me, the ruler-trick saves time -- I don't buy into the more esoteric arguments... I use it for the harder steels (A2 and the like). My ceramic stones cut softer steels very fast, so the ruler trick really doesn't do much for me on steels like the O1... Recently, I've been experimenting with lapping film to find the fastest/least messy/quickest setup system...We'll see how it does against the Chosera stones... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 One thing about the diamond lapping film. You can only back up on it. It cuts so fast, and gets something so sharp that it will just cut right down into the film. It took me several times to learn this the hard way. I've been using the same four sheets that I started with for a little over a year, but between me and my helpers, each piece has several chunks taken out of it. I really like having it stuck to the surface plate, because it keeps it at a good height to work with fingers off the side for working on the back of something. Derek likes oil, but I just put some water on it out of a water bottle, and some more to rinse it off when I'm done. I have a little detergent in one bottle to hone with, and another to rinse with. I keep the surface plate in the lid of some sort of plastic storage container to keep it off of whatever I'm honing on top of, and just let the rinse water evaporate until next time. When I'm honing by hand while in the middle of working on something, that's all I've used for about the last 6 months. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calblacksmith Posted February 16, 2014 Report Share Posted February 16, 2014 I use the Veritas jig. I do not like the back angle and I prefer to put the micro bevel on the angled bevel of the iron or any single bevel blade. It is easy to grind all the angles from the bevel side of the blade and if there is a micro bevel on the flat side, you need to remove a lot more steel to clean up the edge, in my humble opinion. I put the micro bevel on with the click on the roller. I go to 6000 on the main bevel then move the click one stop and take a couple of strokes only at 600 for the micro bevel. This true for all my single bevel edges. If one wishes to put it on the back, go ahead, I prefer to only kiss it to polish flat. YMMV! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Melton Posted February 19, 2014 Report Share Posted February 19, 2014 I had a Veritas blade and replacement cap iron come in for my smoother today (along with a new honing guide...) and just for grins I slapped it in to my #4 and after a few adjustments it was making better shavings than the blade and cap iron I had spent some time trying to get up to snuff. Tonight I am going to hone it up to 8K and see if there is a material difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g_glasson Posted February 20, 2014 Report Share Posted February 20, 2014 I use the Veritas jig. I do not like the back angle and I prefer to put the micro bevel on the angled bevel of the iron or any single bevel blade. It is easy to grind all the angles from the bevel side of the blade and if there is a micro bevel on the flat side, you need to remove a lot more steel to clean up the edge, in my humble opinion. I put the micro bevel on with the click on the roller. I go to 6000 on the main bevel then move the click one stop and take a couple of strokes only at 600 for the micro bevel. This true for all my single bevel edges. If one wishes to put it on the back, go ahead, I prefer to only kiss it to polish flat. YMMV! I'm hoping that 600 is a typo, but just in case it's not, what's the point of polishing the main bevel to 6000 and the micro-bevel at 600? It seems back to front to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calix Posted February 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2014 Well, after all, the blade had a micro bevel so I regrinded it using my honing jig and some coarse sand paper, it turned out well after a few minutes. About the back side of the blade I decided to hone it not using the ruler trick, I'll just use some 2000 grit sandpaper on my glass plate and see how it works. I just think the blades should come with a flat side and a bevel side and leave the secondary bevel or any microbevel as an after sale customer decision. I thank you all for the comment and excelent advice! Have a great week! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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