Which water stones?

[Froggy]

Now this is the frustrating thing about sharpening because 'I think' I'm doing all of the above correctly but obviously if I'm not getting the results I want then I can't be. My procedure is - start on the 1000 grit trend diamond stone with very little pressure (I had a lesson with the chap who makes these stones and one of the members here, Mr. King. This was at the Harrogate show.), if I don't get a burr I move to the 300 grit diamond. When I have a burr (or sometimes when I've been at it for far too long and still haven't got a burr, especially with the Lie Nielsen A2 blades) I move on to the water stones through the grits and finish with a strop, leather and oxide. I use a veritas honing guide for all of these operations and the ruler method for the backs. I almost always have a micro/secondary bevel, and just recently tried a back bevel on a couple of blades and found a bit of improvement with them. Don't get me wrong my blades aren't blunt but not sharp enough to say get a fine finish on a table top.

 

[Froggy]

Thanks again Rob I think I'll have to just get back in there and try to analyse each step. I bought the Veritas honing guide from Peter at Harrogate and spoke to him about sharpening and I had Chris Tribe over here for a week many moons ago and we went through sharpening methods. You'd think I'd be an expert by now!

 

[Ttrees]

Assuming that you are setting your guide to traditional advice...
How large are you letting your secondary bevel grow?

 

[Froggy]

If I get a burr quickly then it's a very small secondary bevel, say 1mm or less, but if I don't get a burr i

 

[Froggy]

Oops I'll finish that..... if I don't get a burr I continue to 2 or 3mm.

 

[woodbloke66]

Thanks again Rob I think I'll have to just get back in there and try to analyse each step. I bought the Veritas honing guide from Peter at Harrogate and spoke to him about sharpening and I had Chris Tribe over here for a week many moons ago and we went through sharpening methods. You'd think I'd be an expert by now!

It's always a tricky one is this to sort out what you want to achieve. You mention a 'fine finish on a table top' but I would use my LA smoother for that with a tight mouth and highish effective pitch on the blade, followed by a card scraper (where needed) and then sanding with Abranet grits and pretty fierce extraction to take away all the dust - Rob

 

[Froggy]

I do exactly the same minus the Abranet Rob. LA smoother and card scraper. The LA smoother is the hardest blade to sharpen though as it's A2 steel, but when I get it right it's my best plane.

 

[woodbloke66]

I do exactly the same minus the Abranet Rob. LA smoother and card scraper. The LA smoother is the hardest blade to sharpen though as it's A2 steel, but when I get it right it's my best plane.

Never had much of a problem with A2 steel; it just needs a slightly higher honing angle (say 32 deg as opposed to 30 deg) and it's great. If the honing angle is too shallow, the edge might 'crumble'. David Charlesworth hones his A2 LN chisels at around 33deg which seems to be about par. That said, I hone my LN A2 block plane blade at 25deg which seems to be (touch wood, fingers crossed) fine at the moment. Effective pitch then is 37deg and it seems fine - Rob