Cliff is asking about edges…

Some good info about diamond grits and suchlike.  All very relevant to the
question, but I’d just like to weigh in with my usual mantra of ‘sharp enough’

Now, I know some folk have a singleminded pursuit of sharpness, and going down
to a half micron level sounds as if it will yield me a blade to split cobwebs.
The thing is, of the woodwork I do, there’ may be only ten minutes of needing a
blade like that in the course of a half a week of making.
The great, maybe revolutionary, idea behind using glass and replaceable abrasive
sheets is the time it takes to get from too blunt for the job, to way past sharp
enough so you can get back to work.

Most of my sharpening regime is based around a rotating wet stone to give a
hollow ground, and a quick touch to a fine carborundum stone - which I have
always used only with water.  A pass over the back, and a strop to remove the
wire edge, if any, and back to work.  As the blade dulls, a refresh on the stone
is quick, and back to work.  For the final clean up on something tricky, then I
may turn to some fine compound on an oak bound leather strop - 10,000 and
15,000,  and there are a couple of planes set up with their blades honed this
way so that work isn’t interrupted.

If sharpening isn’t the object of your tie in the workshop,  I’m merely saying
that there is a seduction in sharpening to a half micron mirror finish which is
detrimental to output.

Wait - did I suggest that we’re meant to be turning out finished items?  Ooops,
sorry, pass the spittoon.


Richard Wilson
Yorkshireman Galoot 
in Northumberland