What's the best way to sharpen a scrub plane iron w/ a fair bit of
camber to it? I've seen a picture of some sort of jig that mounted the
iron on a pivot and the arc traveled by the edge of the plane iron
created the camber when using a bench grinder.
So far I've not had a lot of luck doing much w/ the grinder besides
really messing things up, so I have some reservations about the above.
Normally I've been using Scary Sharp for my sharpening so far, w/ decent
results as long as I use a jig. This scrub plane iron doesn't look like
it'd lend itself to a regular jig very well.
How sharp does a scrub plane iron have to be to be effective? I guess
sharper would be better, but w/o a jig, I'm not all that good at
sharpening free hand. I can probably make it sharp enough to be
dangerous, but thats about it. Is the whole deal w/ secondary or
tertiary bevels out the window for this application?
Sorry if some of these questions seem silly, but I figured I was better
off asking than guessing...
Thanks,
nuk
--
I know more than enough *nix to do some very destructive things,
and not nearly enough to do very many useful things.
nuk <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> What's the best way to sharpen a scrub plane iron w/ a fair bit of
> camber to it?
Like Wolfgang said, it doesn't have to be perfect. If you think
about what portion of the iron is going to be in contact with the
wood, you see that you can concentrate your efforts on a fairly small
area of the iron. I've always gotten by pretty well with just using
SS paper and rotating the iron as I pull it towards me. The bevel
doesn't look perfect, but that's OK; the edge is all I care about
anyway.
The technique mentioned on the L-N site is probably worth a try.
(For some reason I never thought of bringing the stone to the tool for
a scrub plane iron, even though I use that technique for various
larger carving tools.) But obviously you need to be really careful.
I would even recommend using gloves. For example, I use batting
gloves when I'm sharpening a drawknife by bringing the stone to the
blade. They could be cut through if you're careless, but they give
you just a bit of extra "insurance".
Chuck Vance
If your iron is dangerous, it is sharp enough;-)
A scrub plane iron is easy to sharpen freehand, because it does not have
to be perfect like in a smoothing plane. Lie Nielsen has instructions
online:
http://www.lie-nielsen.com/faq.html?cart=106370438462#12
Wolfgang
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I've got a 1725 RPM grinder and one of those soft binder stones. Makes it
easy to use the existing bevel as a self-jig, doing what my old carving
teacher taught me - grind out to the edge, don't grind the edge. For
honing I use the same method as for an axe, always remembering to clear the
wire edge and flatten the back at the end.
"Wolfgang Jordan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> If your iron is dangerous, it is sharp enough;-)
>
> A scrub plane iron is easy to sharpen freehand, because it does not have
> to be perfect like in a smoothing plane. Lie Nielsen has instructions
> online:
> http://www.lie-nielsen.com/faq.html?cart=106370438462#12
>