Popular Woodworking 2004-11 № 144, страница 83

The

Ruler

Trick

Radically reduce the time it takes to prepare and sharpen a plane iron with the help of a $5 steel ruler.

I have been teaching furniture making for more than 27 years and am convinced that most amateurs are not getting the best from their hand tools. Bench-plane blades are a good example. I can resharpen a blade in less than four minutes, which includes washing my hands and putting the stones away. This short break from the work at hand should be welcomed as it gives us an opportunity for planning the next stage and the pleasure of working with a razor-sharp tool when we resume. Struggling on with a blunt tool is both tiring and counterproductive.

The methods I have developed to ensure that my students start with razor-sharp tools from day one are unusual (it involves a trick with a ruler). However, they are well-tested and guaranteed to produce the result we want. The techniques have been developed as practical solutions to issues that gave us trouble when we used a more traditional approach.

One of the main problems occurs as the surface of a sharpening stone wears hollow in use. The flat side of our plane blade develop s a bump in its length. (See the illustration at right.) One day we flatten the stone and have a disastrous situation where the critical edge area no longer touches the stone at all. This makes it impossible to polish away the wire edge, which is a vital part of the sharpening process.

by David Charlesworth

David teaches fine-furniture-making classes in his shop near Devon, England. Visit his web site at davidcharlesworth.co.uk for more information. His first video explains the ruler trick and other sharpening techniques. Thanks to the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, where these photographs were shot.

Photo by Al Parrish

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