sharpening blades

[tomthumbtom8]

Yesterday I was sharpening some chisels and a plane blade.

all the above where new so I had to start from scratch as the angles and finish is never right. My plane blade had a big hollow in the middle of blade, but that's not this post is about. I'm sharpening the chisels and plane to cut hard wood (Elm) I started with a 600 grit diamond plate then move to a 1000 grit diamond plate the plane blade and chisels felt really sharp. I move on to 3000 grit water stone and was planning to go onto a 8000 water stone and a honing plate with 12000 paste but after using the 3000 grit water stone it felt that I was taking a back wards step as I could not feel any benefit in moving on to then next two stages

is there a point when sharpening a item to use with hardwood that the edge is to fine that it just blunts far to quickly or is unsuitable for it's task.

Why don't jointer and thicknesser blades need honing ??

 

[Lazurus]

As a wood turner I am sharpening all the time staright from grinder to lathe, never used a hone or strop, fast repeatable grinds and a super smooth finish on the timber.

 

[AndyT]

Have a read of this thread feet-planed-with-differing-abrasive-sizes-t119763.html

and other recent posts by David Weaver (D_W) who has exhaustively (and exhaustingly) researched the answer to this frequently asked question.

 

[thetyreman]

what I do is the same as paul sellers, once I've gone to 1200 grit on a diamond plate, I go straight to a strop (charged with aluminium oxide green paste)

I have found no need at all to go higher than 1200 grit, the end result once stropped is always the same.

 

[El Barto]

what I do is the same as paul sellers, once I've gone to 1200 grit on a diamond plate, I go straight to a strop (charged with aluminium oxide green paste)

I have found no need at all to go higher than 1200 grit, the end result once stropped is always the same.

Yeah same, it's an efficient method, no faff.

Why don't jointer and thicknesser blades need honing ??

They do. You would see a difference in finish between honed and dulled blades but I think the reason people are more relaxed about it (speaking for myself at least) is that final finishing will always be done with a well set up hand plane, so a perfect surface straight from the plane isn't a huge deal (but it's obviously preferable!).