Stropping Problems

[Joe]

On a couple of occasions recently I've found that after stropping a freshly sharpened plane iron I've ended up with small nicks in the cutting edge. Does this mean that the strop is contaminated, perhaps with previously removed burrs embedded in the surface? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Joel

 

[Joe]

In answer to my own question - it looks like the problem might be the plane iron itself. It's a Lie Nielsen blade from a no.6 (about three years old) and I've had some difficulties with it in the past (edge chipping and folding over), but I've always put it down to my own incompetence. However, I picked it up this morning to plane some friendly Cherry and found the shavings coming out in a number of sharply defined ribbons. When I checked the cutting edge I could see at least five nicks (the last thing I had planed was some clean, planed Ash). So I resharpened, got rid of the nicks, and took a nice even, fine shaving. Sadly the second shaving came out in two strips and the cutting edge now has a fresh chip.

Joel

 

[wizer]

What angle is the bevel?

 

[Joe]

What angle is the bevel?

It's 32 degrees (25 primary, 30 secondary, 32 micro).

 

[woodbloke]

What angle is the bevel?

It's 32 degrees (25 primary, 30 secondary, 32 micro).

Looks like you may have a defective blade. I'd be inclined to email LN and see what they say, they're generally very good. I grind and hone to the same angles and have had no probs, anything less and the edge may crumble, which is what appears to be happening to your blade - Rob