Sharpening an old wooden plane knifes in Nottingham area

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tomasgursky

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Nottingham, UK
Hello guys. I bought three old wooden planes on carboot. They look very good, the only things that needs to be done is to remove some rust from knifes and sharpen it. As I'm not confident by sharpen it myself can you recommend someone who could do it for me in Nottingham area please? Your help is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Tomas, plane blades are usually called irons so that's how I'll refer to them below.

Are the cutting edges of the irons damaged so they need regrinding or do they just need a sharpen up? If it's only the second you need to be able to do that yourself otherwise you'd have to stop work every time they went blunt so now is as good a time as any to learn how :)
 
Thank you for your reply. I guess you're right. I will have to find the time and money to buy suffs I need and watch lot of tutorial on YouTube :)
 
Unless the irons are badly chipped all you need is different grades of wet & dry stuck to scraps of MDF.

How far away are you from loughborough, if you want to come over I'll show you how.
 
lurker":1yom1315 said:
Unless the irons are badly chipped all you need is different grades of wet & dry stuck to scraps of MDF.

How far away are you from loughborough, if you want to come over I'll show you how.

I don't think they are chipped but they are a bit rusty. I need to clean them first (maybe with citric acid?).
I'm from Beeston, Notts, but work at EMA industrial estate so not that far from Loughborough at all.

Is honing guide required or can you do it as good without it?
 
lurker":1x1ltu3p said:
I have just cleaned up a batch using a wire cup brush on a 4" angle grinder

a honing guide would be handy for a beginner but the fancy ones from boutique tool sellers are not required

I'll send a link in a moment.
http://www.proopsbrothers.com/honing-gu ... 3110-p.asp

I don't have a grinder, lol. Never needed one and I don't like to buy tools I might need only ones, lol. I'll give it a try with citric acid (I've seen it on YouTube and it worked) and a wire brush.

Thanks for the link. Their web is so slow. Takes ages to load it, but I'm going to have a look if they sell a kit, guide with stones. Do you think it would be easy-ish to learn how to sharpen it myself?
 
Sorry to bother you again. Can you recommend some sharpening stones please? I looked online and you can get water stones, oil stones...etc..
Thank you.
 
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BugBear
 
tomasgursky":3ulhc303 said:
Sorry to bother you again. Can you recommend some sharpening stones please? I looked online and you can get water stones, oil stones...etc..
Thank you.
While I have the chance let me tell you that you can sharpen on any one of the competing systems and they'll give you edges you can work with. Don't let anyone tell you any different 8)

What to sharpen on (and how to do it!) are hotly-debated subjects here, on every woodworking forum I think, hence BB's popcorn reference. So don't be too surprised if your simple request kicks off a long, boring and fundamentally pointless argument on the topic.

Oilstones are the most traditional sharpening option in the UK, along with a strop to give a finer edge if needed. If you want to try them and see how you get along with them how do you feel about car-boot sales? In the UK boot sales are the best place to find a decent oilstone stone for very little money.

If you need something right now you can use abrasive paper on a flat surface as recommended already by lurker. This method can give you superb edges but it works out to be expensive over time so it's rarely thought of as a long-term solution. By comparison any decent oilstone will last you your entire life, and will likely outlast the next person to use it as well, so even if you have to buy new it's well worth the cost. But secondhand they are available for very modest sums, often less than the price of a posh coffee.

In addition to car boots Gumtree is worth checking periodically as oilstones come up there on a semi-regular basis. They'll tend to be listed for a bit more than you'd find a similar item at a car boot, but usually quite a bit cheaper than ebay.
 
ED65":1s3txu8x said:
tomasgursky":1s3txu8x said:
Sorry to bother you again. Can you recommend some sharpening stones please? I looked online and you can get water stones, oil stones...etc..
Thank you.
While I have the chance let me tell you that you can sharpen on any one of the competing systems and they'll give you edges you can work with. Don't let anyone tell you any different 8)

What to sharpen on (and how to do it!) are hotly-debated subjects here, on every woodworking forum I think, hence BB's popcorn reference. So don't be too surprised if your simple request kicks off a long, boring and fundamentally pointless argument on the topic.

Oilstones are the most traditional sharpening option in the UK, along with a strop to give a finer edge if needed. If you want to try them and see how you get along with them how do you feel about car-boot sales? In the UK boot sales are the best place to find a decent oilstone stone for very little money.

If you need something right now you can use abrasive paper on a flat surface as recommended already by lurker. This method can give you superb edges but it works out to be expensive over time so it's rarely thought of as a long-term solution. By comparison any decent oilstone will last you your entire life, and will likely outlast the next person to use it as well, so even if you have to buy new it's well worth the cost. But secondhand they are available for very modest sums, often less than the price of a posh coffee.

In addition to car boots Gumtree is worth checking periodically as oilstones come up there on a semi-regular basis. They'll tend to be listed for a bit more than you'd find a similar item at a car boot, but usually quite a bit cheaper than ebay.

Thank you very much for comprehensive answer. I love car boot sales and I've bought all three old wooden planes from there for fiver. They look great, are still flat the only thing they need is the rust removal and sharpening. I'll see what's there next time I go there. Thanks again for support.
 
This is why I stepped in earlier.
If you listen to the tackle tarts you will be spending 200 quid for an "essential" stone hewed on a full moon by a Japanese virgin.
 

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