My Arms Belong To Somebody Else Today.

[porkycrook 466]

Well have any of you had one of those thoughts, you know the ones I'm talking about. The thoughts that at the time was a good idea but afterwards you wish that you had of left the thought as an idea.

Well here is my thought. I thought that it was about time I sharpened my wood planes as I m just about to build a new coffee table for us. Although the last time I put the planes away I had greased the white metal to stop them rusting while out in the damp shed, it wasn't enough protection because they were corroded. Not sure what caused it, was it not greased enough or had the MDF of the cupboard absorbed the goodness from the grease or had the grease not been enough to protect them from the oak shelf finishing's. What ever had caused it I was left with a much more serious job rather than the simple case of sharpening the blade.

So got out my granite flat surface and started the job of getting rid of the rust as well as flattening the plane's sole plate of my three planes. Now you have the sharpening kit out, I thought that I may as well rework the old plane that I had bought from Evil-Bay a while back. So I now have four planes stripped ready for inspection SIR. Plane body one in hand, on top of the granite block is a sheet of 100 grit wet'n'dry paper so off we go. I started this coarse to get rid of most of the loose rust and I had hoped that within a few strokes I would be back to a clean and flat face, but boy was I wrong. Right start counting 10 strokes and check, still not flat. Count 50 strokes and check, still no where near a flat clean useable plane. Count 100 no, another 100 still no, this went on for ages and ages till I got a flat clean sole face. From the 100 grit to 120 grit, 180 240 320 500 600 1000. Plane 1's body is now flat, clean and useable just got to do the same for the other three oh deep joy. I will only take the plane's body up to 1000 grit because I think this is clean enough, but I will take my blades up to 12,000 grit paper.

So now comes the blades. I know that I had sharpened my plane blades at a 25 degree but was going to change that to 20 degree, this means I can get a sharper blade but it will also loose its edge quicker. I have recently purchased a set of German made (expensive) good quality wood chisels but even brand new they were not very sharp so these needed to be sharpened. So what started as my 3 planes soon went to 4 planes then to 22 blades in total, changing the cutting angle from 25 degree to 20 degree means much more work.

As I am changing the cutting angle to a shallower angle this means a lot more work than if I was going the other way. Again my sharpening starts with 100 grit paper but this time I already know that I am in for a long job because I have to remove a lot of metal from the top of cutting angle. So I start with the plane blades then onto my chisels leaving my new chisels till last because I have to do other things on brand new chisels. So here I go, 100-120-180-240-320-400-500-600-1000-4000-6000-10000 and last 12000 grits I now have a set of sharp blades except my new set. With new chisels I first have to flatten the face of the chisel, so I start with a few strokes across a sheet of 320 grit paper this will show how much the blade is "cupped". If this shows that the chisel is badly cupped (this is caused by the manufacturing process) then I will start with 240 grit. But as the German chisels were expensive and well made I could start at the 320 grit paper all the way up to 4000, this gives a lovely smooth finish so slides through wood.

All of the above took me a whole day. So today I wake with a full set of plane and chisels that are sharp and useable, I also have a pair of arms that belong to a gorilla they ache and are pumped. So the moral of this story is, if you have one of those thought or idea's. LEAVE THEM THERE.

[Astanley 11,588]

That , without a s.hadow of a doubt , is the most boring post I have ever read on here

[Guest bullterrier]

That , without a s.hadow of a doubt , is the most boring post I have ever read on here

[WILF 48,160]

Is that really you in your avatar?........f***ing hell !!!!

[Astanley 11,588]

Don,t look directly into the eyes , whatever you do.I made that mistake , and now I,m doing chicken impressions whenever any one mentions wet n dry

Edited May 30, 2013 by Buttercup

[pip1968 2,490]

i got half way through and it started to grind me down

[Kay 3,709]

Well have any of you had one of those thoughts, you know the ones I'm talking about. The thoughts that at the time was a good idea but afterwards you wish that you had of left the thought as an idea.

Well here is my thought. I thought that it was about time I sharpened my wood planes as I m just about to build a new coffee table for us. Although the last time I put the planes away I had greased the white metal to stop them rusting while out in the damp shed, it wasn't enough protection because they were corroded. Not sure what caused it, was it not greased enough or had the MDF of the cupboard absorbed the goodness from the grease or had the grease not been enough to protect them from the oak shelf finishing's. What ever had caused it I was left with a much more serious job rather than the simple case of sharpening the blade.

So got out my granite flat surface and started the job of getting rid of the rust as well as flattening the plane's sole plate of my three planes. Now you have the sharpening kit out, I thought that I may as well rework the old plane that I had bought from Evil-Bay a while back. So I now have four planes stripped ready for inspection SIR. Plane body one in hand, on top of the granite block is a sheet of 100 grit wet'n'dry paper so off we go. I started this coarse to get rid of most of the loose rust and I had hoped that within a few strokes I would be back to a clean and flat face, but boy was I wrong. Right start counting 10 strokes and check, still not flat. Count 50 strokes and check, still no where near a flat clean useable plane. Count 100 no, another 100 still no, this went on for ages and ages till I got a flat clean sole face. From the 100 grit to 120 grit, 180 240 320 500 600 1000. Plane 1's body is now flat, clean and useable just got to do the same for the other three oh deep joy. I will only take the plane's body up to 1000 grit because I think this is clean enough, but I will take my blades up to 12,000 grit paper.

So now comes the blades. I know that I had sharpened my plane blades at a 25 degree but was going to change that to 20 degree, this means I can get a sharper blade but it will also loose its edge quicker. I have recently purchased a set of German made (expensive) good quality wood chisels but even brand new they were not very sharp so these needed to be sharpened. So what started as my 3 planes soon went to 4 planes then to 22 blades in total, changing the cutting angle from 25 degree to 20 degree means much more work.

As I am changing the cutting angle to a shallower angle this means a lot more work than if I was going the other way. Again my sharpening starts with 100 grit paper but this time I already know that I am in for a long job because I have to remove a lot of metal from the top of cutting angle. So I start with the plane blades then onto my chisels leaving my new chisels till last because I have to do other things on brand new chisels. So here I go, 100-120-180-240-320-400-500-600-1000-4000-6000-10000 and last 12000 grits I now have a set of sharp blades except my new set. With new chisels I first have to flatten the face of the chisel, so I start with a few strokes across a sheet of 320 grit paper this will show how much the blade is "cupped". If this shows that the chisel is badly cupped (this is caused by the manufacturing process) then I will start with 240 grit. But as the German chisels were expensive and well made I could start at the 320 grit paper all the way up to 4000, this gives a lovely smooth finish so slides through wood.

All of the above took me a whole day. So today I wake with a full set of plane and chisels that are sharp and useable, I also have a pair of arms that belong to a gorilla they ache and are pumped. So the moral of this story is, if you have one of those thought or idea's. LEAVE THEM THERE.

Would have been easier to buy a coffee table from Argos

[stewie 3,387]

stan causing hassle again lol you must like your offliners mate!!