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Adam New crowned sharpening tool
November 19th, 2005 11:44 PM
Anybody whose done much hand planing know that having a perfectly straight plane blade can leave some rather unsightly tears in a planed wide board.

A lot of planes, like the Jack Plane (14 inches long) have a slightly crowned blade, that doesn't tend to tear as much as leave gently curving troughs in the wood.

Sharpening a plane blade to have a symetrical, slightly crowned blade is a challenging task.

One company has recently come up with a solution. A diamond coated "sharpening stone" that is not flat, but ever so slightly dished.

The diamond stones are available in a number of different grit sizes at a cost of $110 per stone.

This is not cheap. But, it is an excellent way to get repeatable, quality results.

If anyone is interested, I can look up the ordering source of these new products.
PM2790 Blade
November 21st, 2005 10:01 AM
The same effect is accomplished simply by applying pressure at the lower corners while touching up the blade.

To maintain a consistent bevel angle, I like the old Eclipse iron holder with the wheel that rides on the abrasive surface. I have switched over to a plate glass/sandpaper system for about all sharpening. No more oil mess, flattening stones, etc. Anyway...... Once the bevel is showing an even scratch pattern, I then hold a good bit of pressure on the left corner and give it 6-10 strokes. I follow that with the same number on the right corner. Works well for avoiding corner tearout. If you are doing a lot of rough planing, you would increase the amount of material taken off the corners of the iron.

A pretty smart saying I remember goes: 'It's a fine line between tool using and tool collecting.' Sometimes my collecting instinct has gotten the better of me and I end up with a tool that hasn't improved the quality of my work, the ease of working or speeded my time. As I get older, I keep weeding those un-excellent tools out of the drawers and cabinets.
Adam Crowned blades
November 21st, 2005 09:46 PM
November 21, 2005 Crowned blades



Not having $110 for a specialized diamond plate, still working up 100 plus dollar justification for a FLAT diamond plate to true my many honing stones, I use the differential pressure technique also.

I've been using the glass-plate method to lap the backs of my irons and chisels flat. I don't have them up to mirror smooth yet, but most of them be flat.

Even the review of the crowned blade diamond sharpener stressed that the main advantage of this high cost item is "consistent" curvature.

For the users treating wood as a stable engineering material, this product is wonderful.

The good news is once the crowned is established, with a relatively coarse grit product, almost any sharpening method can be used to refine the edge.

I wonder if it's possible to economically get a piece of glass ground with a long concave trough?

Man, I'm cheap!
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