Ruler Trick

[prov163]

How many of you guys use Charlesworth's ruler trick on your plane irons?  I have a couple of new irons coming for some planes and wonder if this is indeed preferable to flattening the back or is it a gimmick?  I watched Deneb do it and it seemed simple enough.  Do you only do so on BD irons or on BU as well?  And, where do you get a ruler that thin?  Let the games begin  

[Tpt life]

The trick really depends on how often you hone, and how fast your media cuts. Back beveling an iron can give you some extra hone cycles before a regrind if your media cuts slowly. With modern media, I find it unnecessary most of the time. 

[Dknapp34]

I use it. Not a gimmick as far as I'm concerned. I noticed a difference once I started doing it.

[Immortan D]

I use it on BD irons only. I don't know if it's really more effective than just deburring without the ruler, I've always done it and continue doing it without giving it too much thought.

[bleedinblue]

It seems to me to be a bit of a crutch for those who haven't perfected sharpening...so, me.  It makes preparing the back of the iron extremely easy.  Listening to an old Woodtalk the other day, Shannon specifically addressed the ruler trick on bevel up irons and he said it's not a problem at all.

I bought an extremely thin six inch rule at Home Depot for just a few bucks.  I am pretty sure it's Empire brand.

[jjongsma]

I've thought about using it but I've never actually seriously done it. One thing that I don't really like about the ruler trick is that you need to keep the ruler a consistent distance from the tip of the iron when you're honing the back bevel. Obviously, it doesn't need to be precise, but you shouldn't be moving it back and forth too much. So that adds at least 1 extra thing to worry about in the sharpening process (in addition to requiring me to get out a ruler to set on the stone and then clean off afterward). Compared to that, deburring the back by rubbing it flat against the stone a couple times requires absolutely no thought. It's impossible to do wrong. And that's just enough of a psychological hurdle for me to avoid using the ruler trick. I want to worry about as few things as possible while sharpening.

 

As for the ruler itself. I also have a very thin metal rule from home depot for about $1.99 that I've used before. But if I were serious about doing it, I think I would look for a very thin piece of flat plastic (HDPE? Perhaps a cutoff from a milk bottle or something?) I think that the blade might slide across plastic a bit more easily and you wouldn't need to worry about corrosion or anything.

[Dknapp34]

I don't find that it is a problem keeping the ruler a constant distance from the tip of the iron. I put the ruler on one side of the stone, and the blade goes over it so that the tip of the iron is right near the edge of the other side of the stone. As long as you keep the tip of the iron near the far edge of the stone, you get a consistent bevel angle. Also, there is little chance for error, because you only need to take a few swipes, since you are only honing a tiny fraction of the back of the blade.  

That said, if you have a method that you like, and it works, then that's what you should use. There are lots of ways to get sharp. 

[jjongsma]

10 minutes ago, Dknapp34 said:

I don't find that it is a problem keeping the ruler a constant distance from the tip of the iron. I put the ruler on one side of the stone, and the blade goes over it so that the tip of the iron is right near the edge of the other side of the stone. As long as you keep the tip of the iron near the far edge of the stone, you get a consistent bevel angle. Also, there is little chance for error, because you only need to take a few swipes, since you are only honing a tiny fraction of the back of the blade. 

It's been a while since I even tried the ruler trick, but I seem to remember that the blade would sometimes go off the edge of the stone while I was trying to keep the bevel near the edge. And it made me worry that I was going to damage the blade on the edge of the stone. Maybe I was just particularly bad at sharpening back then. But as I said: just another psychological hurdle that I preferred to avoid. But maybe I'll try it again one of these days.

[Tom King]

Never.  The only reason for it is if you can't quite get a good intersection between the bevel and the back.  I don't even do microbevels any more, unless we're on a job with no running water, and need to use oil stones, which are too slow cutting without a microbevel.

[sheperd80]

I do it, it saves time and makes the whole process easier. I grabbed a tiny General Rule from Osh. Its extremely thin and does the job.

 

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[Tom King]

Think about it this way: would you use it if you didn't have to?

i always get a laugh when I see someone saying, look I'm a real man, I can sharpen with hands alone......but then   I need to use this little jig to actually get a good edge.

It's kind of like micro bevels.  Yeah, it's faster for one or three sharpening, but where are you going with it, and where will it take you.

I'm all about efficiency. It's become second nature after spending 33 years building houses start to finish in 9 months with my hands and two helpers. But efficiency to me is over any period of time. 

For regular use, I'm at less than a minute back to usable edge over and over for unlimited number of times. That includes various bevel angles for different tools and purposes.

I use neither back bevels nor micro bevels.