hello everyone I'm called canet and
today I'm back with the sharpening jig
that we made the other day but more than
that today I'm here to show you one of
the methods of sharpening chisels and
plane blades
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before you start on any sharpening what
you need is a nice flat surface now if
you're using a grinding stone or a wet
stone which I don't have here they they
should be flat to begin with if it's
used then you're going to need to make
sure that it's flat but for what we're
going to do right now I'm using this
plate glass this is actually tempered
glass I picked this up used from I think
it was a Habitat store you could also
use granite this is flat ground glénat
granite and it works just fine
you could also I've also seen people use
MDF the thing I don't like about MDF is
it can tend to wear and when you're
using water with it it's not the best
material so I like glass it works really
well but anything that's flat is going
to work the next thing you're going to
need is a variety of grits and I have
220 I have some 320 here and it goes up
to 600 1200 and it even goes higher
there's even up to I think this is 5000
and I think there's even some 8000 here
somewhere but there's all sorts of
different grits and I get asked all the
time what grits do you use when you're
sharpening and it's impossible to answer
that question because it depends on what
you're sharpening how sharp you want it
and what condition it is when you get
started I usually like to try and end up
with about a three or a five thousand
grit but I might start off with a 220 or
a 320
dip it's already sharp I might start
with a 600 or an 800 so it varies all
over the place on what you would start
with what I'm using today is this plate
glass and this material you can get some
material that's already is sticky back
on it most of the material I end up
getting is not so I just use a spray
adhesive and I spray the back of it let
it sit for a minute or so and then
just push it on and press it on and it
works just fine
when it gets worn down you just peel it
off and put another plate and I like to
have at least two plates because I will
have different grits on here and I don't
have anything on these at the moment
this plane blade that I'm going to be
using today is one that I replaced I
just didn't like the quality of this
blade I wanted a little bit thicker
blade a little bit better quality blade
but this one will do great for showing
you what to do now the very first thing
we do with any blade whether it's a
chisel or a plane blade is we want to
check to make sure that it's square and
this one is pretty good in fact this one
is actually a little bit rounded and
that's what you want the plane to be in
an ideal condition if it's straight
across that'll be fine but if it's a
little bit rounded like this one is
that's even better
so if this one is is square enough to
work with the next thing that we want to
see is we want to make sure that the
back of the blade is flat now the reason
we want to make sure that the blade is
flat is so that we get a square push
like that and you can see how square
that is it's a nice
I just using a bit of sawdust here to
give show you an example now when it's
not and I'm exaggerating it but when the
blade is concave watch what happens this
is what happens you get a line in the
middle or it could be the other way
around it could be you know a line going
like that if you look closely you'll be
able to see that this plane blade I've
actually started to do some work on it
and this is one of the reasons I replace
it is because it is warped so the first
thing you can do and you probably can't
see maybe you can this blade is warped
like this it's concave like this and
it's it's quite a bit you can see that
just with the rule on there the other
thing that you can do this these markers
are you're going they're going to be
your favorite tool for sharpening
because they're going to tell you the
state of many things so if I take that
now and run that blade flat even just
against
that and when I flip that over look at
that you can see exactly what is flat so
you can see there's eight marks on
either side and that this blade is not
flat now I'm not going to bother gluing
this down but I am going to put a little
bit of moisture on there just a little
bit of water and what that does is it
keeps the iron filings from sticking
into the into this grit here and it
allows me to keep on now typically what
I would do is I would just keep working
with this 320 until I have no material
left on either side I'm not going to do
that today because this is just an old
replacement blade but I'm doing it so
that you see exactly how you start the
first thing you need to do with any jig
that you're using is make sure that
you're even you don't want the blade to
be offset and part of it up or down you
can see how that's up or down try and
get it as close to the center as you can
and just lightly tighten each side so
that you can still move the blade around
in there but that it's a little bit just
a little bit snug now the next thing
we're going to do is we're going to use
our alignment jig that we made and we
remember we've got the bevel at the
bottom because that's where we're going
to be taking the steel off and what I'm
going to do now is set this into the V
and the V is at right angles and the
next thing I'm gonna loosen is just a
little bit and ride this whole bit over
to the fence this fence here because I
want to make sure that it's aligned to
the fence then I'm butting it up too and
I'm just gonna put a little bit of
pressure on there up to the block here
so it's up here it's aligned along here
and along the front and that should give
us a perfect
perfect alignment and then I want to
double check to make sure that were
equally aligned there that looks good
now because this blade it actually needs
quite a bit quite a bit of work I'm
going to start off with this 320 grit
which normally I wouldn't I would
usually start off more at 600 or 800
because it would be in much better shape
than this blade but remember how I told
you that this these little felt pens are
your best tool what I'm going to do now
is just mark all the way down that blade
and I'm going to do just the some rough
some rough sanding here to see what
that's going to look like and all we do
is we lay it on the glass and then down
on to our sandpaper or our grip and just
do it in a little move it in little
circles like that and just do that for a
few minutes and then we can flip it over
and we can see what's left and if we do
it gently and take the water off there
you can actually see where we've started
to grind and we haven't even come close
to the bottom yet so we have quite a bit
of grinding to do on this yet because
this blade but we're pretty even all the
way across so that's really good that's
what we wanted and I'm just going to
keep on grinding on this for a few
minutes and see if we can get that down
now I'm making a little bit of progress
and you can tell that because if I put I
dried this off and put a little bit more
of this felt pan on there and and I do a
little bit more grinding and you're
going to be able to see what that's
starting to look like now I should have
told you you want to make sure that you
get even pressure on both sides of this
so that you're not you know sort of
twisting it and that will help to make
sure that you're getting a good grind
now you can see that there's not much
still a little bit to go there now what
I would typically do and I'm not going
to do that here
cuz you've seen what we do basically
what I would do is I would keep grinding
with this until I have what I'm really
concerned about is making sure that I
get this felt pen right at the bottom
here I want that to be dis I want that
to disappear and when that disappears
that's that's the very first time that I
changed to a lighter grit so I would go
in this case from 320 I would go to 600
for a while then to 800 and then to 1200
and see what it's like and at that point
you're the you're going to notice that
the steel starts to polish it you can
look at it now it looks a little bit
dull but if you look at a finely polish
you can see a little bit on this side
see how it almost looks like it's mirror
like the finer the grit you get you're
going to get more of a mirror-like
finish and when you get the mirror like
finish on the very bottom of that blade
that's when you're almost done but
there's one final step and that final
step is to take the blade out of your
jig and that's assuming that you've
sharpened it on here you've Paul you've
sharpened it so much that you've
actually polished it but now if you
actually touch the blade with your
fingers you'll find that there's and I
can even feel on this one there's a
little bit of an edge it's a little bit
rough on here so what you want to do as
the final grind on your finest grit that
you have is make sure that you lie that
plane lay that blame plane can't say
today plane blade I'm having trouble
with that lay it absolutely flat and
just take the very back of that little
bit of roughness on the back and you'll
again you'll get that polish on there
and you can see that polish you can see
how that polish is on there and what
that does is it takes that and I can
actually
feel that now it takes that little bit
of a ridge off of there and that plane
blade then is absolutely razor-sharp and
that is all it takes to sharpen either a
chisel or a plane blade well and that's
just how easy it is to sharpen plane
blades and chisels and you know when I
first learned how to do this it just
took away all the mystery to it and now
all of my plane blades are super sharp I
don't need to worry about that they get
really dull because I just touch them up
every now and again and that they all
just stay super sharp it's it's it's a
very easy chore now once you get them
all to that state so I'm calling an ad
for woodwork web I hope that helped
you