Stanley Number 5 Plane (Post war)

[markwilliams75]

Hey anyone who will listen,

I bought my first hand plane used from craigs list. The reseller was looking for 25 but took pity on me in my noob ways and sold it to me for 15 bucks. It is in great shape. So I bought water stone from Woodcraft, watched some videos and started sharpening it. It seemed to make it a little better but not by much. How long does it take to sharpen it? The water stone has two grits one lower and one for polishing.

[thewoodwhisperer]

Hey anyone who will listen,

I bought my first hand plane used from craigs list. The reseller was looking for 25 but took pity on me in my noob ways and sold it to me for 15 bucks. It is in great shape. So I bought water stone from Woodcraft, watched some videos and started sharpening it. It seemed to make it a little better but not by much. How long does it take to sharpen it? The water stone has two grits one lower and one for polishing.

That's a tricky question to answer. You could sit there sharpening for three days, and if you technique isn't right you'll be no better off than when you started. Are you using a honing guide of some sort? If the blade isn't too far gone, you should be able to sharpen that puppy up withing 10-15 minutes.

Also keep in mind that old planes have a lot of other factors too that may be getting in the way of sweet shaving bliss. You may have some tuning to do.

[PaulMarcel]

Honing jig will definitely help matters. Freehanding is faster if you get used to it, but I tend to pile up blades to hone so the jig's setup time is amortized

Your blade might have a microbevel. If so, you might be sharpening the main bevel not the microbevel. This would give you the impression that you are sharpening forever and getting nowhere.

If the cutting edge has a very fine bevel, you have a microbevel. Usually it's around 5° more than the primary bevel. One thing that will help is a Sharpie. Blacken the whole bevel. Now go back to sharpening as you have been doing and see what gets abraded off. If you see a fine black line at the cutting edge, you are working the primary not microbevel. If that's the case, jack up the angle by around 5° and try again. The edge should become polished.

I'm hardly a sharpening expert, but I usually do (naturally this changes for a chipped blade or one with back issues):

1000 grit on bevel

pull off the wire edge from back with 8000 grit

4000 grit on bevel

pull off the wire edge from back with 8000 grit

8000 grit on bevel

off the wire edge from back with 8000 grit

leather strop the back (not the bevel); don't push down so hard that some leather 'wraps' around the edge dulling it.

the strop makes an amazing change in the edge. I use green rouge, which seems like a contradiction if you know French...

There'll be a 1,000 other sharpening recipes posted. Of the 1,000, all those that end up with a nice sharp edge are correct. In my case, I only have those 3 grits right now.

As for the plane's shape, concave recesses in the sole or twisted sole etc will all cause problems in using it to straighten or smooth, but you should still be able to take a swipe with the newly sharpened blade and tell if you are getting improvements.

Post pictures if you're still needing some help. Megan Fox preferred.

[nateswoodworks]

One thing that you probably already know is make sure the back of the iron is dead flat, if not you will never get a good edge. If the sole of iron is pretty far off I would suggest sone low grit sandpaper to help you remove material faster, for this I go to Napa and get their wet/dry 3M, I have found that lasts longer than any others I have tried. I have bought several handplanes of E-Bay and all of them needed substantial work to the iron and the plane to get the results wanted, but in time I got there. Two things that changed everything for me, #1 Garrett Hack's The Handplane Book and #2 Veritas® Mk.II Honing Guide. I thought I had sharp plane irons and chisels before the Veritas-no match to what I have now. Take your time and you will get there!

Nate

[Kari Hultman]

Mark, I wrote a blog post about sharpening a plane blade that I had just made. I use waterstones, too, so I hope this is helpful: http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/2008/02/sharpening-plane-blade.html

Also, because waterstones dish pretty quickly, you'll need to flatten the often. I use a sheet of fine drywall screen laying on top of a piece of plate glass. Spritz water on the stone and scrub it on the drywall screen. You'll be able to tell when it's flattened. Good luck!

[LordLQQK]

The process I use when I get an previously used plane is in two parts, the easiest of which is sharpening the blade.

Step one should be truing up the plane itself. This is where a the bulk of the work lies but it is generally a one shot deal, although you may find touching up is needed once in a long while (3-5 years). This will involve some initial funding but most are one time purchases and can be used for many other things.

1. Dead flat granite slab (or float glass) - found at Lee Valley or a resource that many don't think about is at a monument maker (grave stone makers). They are local (no shipping), you can usually get polished dead flat smaller pieces for free or cheap. You can also get custom sizes if you aren't happy with the 12"x9"x2" that Lee Valley has, currently $32-$35 plus shipping. Cabinet makers are also a good source but I think the stuff you would get from there would be a bit thin and therefore prone to cracks when moved.
   
2. Flat mill file - small and large.
   
3. Sandpaper from 60 grit to 400 in 3" rolls wherever possible.
   

The sole (bottom) of the plane needs to be dead flat. The only way to get that is to mate it to a dead flat surface. Float glass will work but I prefer granite. Glass wears too easily and is easily fractured. The Pyramids and most obelisks are made of granite, need I say more?

Take a black sharpie to the bottom of the plane and squiggle squiggle. Tape 60 grit sand paper to the slab and work the plane over the slab in as much of a randomized pattern as possible (figure 8, circles, straight, etc.....) but always keep even moderate downward pressure on it.

Then there is truing up the frog, cap, and the throat. Also the sides should really be trued to 90 degrees to the sole.

All of these can add to the possibility of getting those nice wispy shavings.

Then there is the sharpening/honing.....Somebody, a real handsome guy, posted a couple very verbose videos on sharpening using mainly water stones and leather strops with honing compounds. I use white honing compound because it is a MUCH finer grit and really gets it to that double mirrored state. And I make good use of the Veritas Mk. II.

Links to the videos: Part 1 / Part 2

Bring popcorn and please forgive the distracted demonstrator this was done in front of a live audience (TWW Chat Room).

LQQK

[PaulMarcel]

All of these can add to the possibility of getting those nice wispy shavings.

I usually just order shavings in 3 lbs boxes and spread them around. Looks good. Visiting hamsters think its the bomb.

[LordLQQK]

I usually just order shavings in 3 lbs boxes and spread them around. Looks good. Visiting hamsters think its the bomb.

Yes, your next shipment will be shipped in a few days, I only have the boxes half full right now.

:P :P :P

LQQK

[nateswoodworks]

As for LQQK's suggestion for a monument place for a granite slab, that's what I did last year. I got 3 pieces that were about 12x12x4, a 12x10x4, and a 12x6x3 all for $20. Both faces are dead flat and masion cutting wheel on my grinder made the edges perfect so I can inset it into my sharpening bench if I ever get it done! I am using one now but I am sure I will find a use for the others sometime-it was a package deal.

Nate

[alindsey]

A monument place?! NOW you tell me. Would have been handy to have that clarification before I got banned from the cemetery for life.

[Timbot]

Getting that full length shaving can be incredibly frustrating to obtain, but it's a zen like experience once you get it. My first #5 gave me problems similar to yours, and I really couldn't figure out what was wrong with it until I compared it's blade to another #5. Turns out it was at the end of it's long life. Hope this helped!

[Dan S]

Mark,

Can you post some photos of your blade?

[PaulMarcel]

I had a similar experience as Timbot... I got a LN rabbet block plane and honestly did like it at all, but I knew it was me, not the plane (the little instructions told me so). Mostly I'd have blade projection issues and wouldn't have it tightened down enough... or too much. Uhg. Since it was my first plane, I assumed time with it would pay off so I set aside an afternoon and just tinkered with it. Not a lot of adjustments you can make with it, but tinkered nonetheless. Biggest thing was to pull the blade, assume I honed it incorrectly, hone it again (I had since watched some good videos... and slept through David Charlesworth at least three times). That made a big difference. In retrospect, I think I rounded the sharp blade with my strop the first time through.

Anyway, now I like it. Cleaned up 1 3/4" wide rabbets today and usually use it to break all edges. Still makes a kickin' paper weight, too.

[protectedvoid]

I'll add my two cents as well. I prefer the granite / wet-dry sandpaper route, using a veritas guide and grits starting at 220 and going up to 2000. It takes me about 15 minutes to bring the iron back to "shave the hair off your arms in 1 light pass" sharp. Eventually I'll get to Paul-Marcel's Green Rouge (a contradiction not lost on us art majors who know little or no French) and leather strop, but for now, the sandpaper / granite combination works very well for my chisels / block plane irons.

You can also use this method to true the bottom of the plane itself...but be prepared to spend some time. I recently replaced an old block plane with a new Stanley Bailey, and it took me close to 3 hours to get the bottom completely flat and polished. I've got some bids on pre WWII #5's on ebay that I expect I'll have to do the same to, but since I can't afford new LN or Veritas's, I'll just suck it up and spend the time.

Eventually, I hope to be able to make my own.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.