We're going to talk very briefly about sharpening and setting the bench plane this is a Stanley number four it could be a Record number four it could be any make old or new, it could even be a wooden plane it could be any type of plane that's used as a bench plane and then, this is a bevel down plane that's what all the bench planes are and so we're going to take out the iron when would I sharpen? I sharpen virtually all the time you take a plane you're using it on oak you're using it on pine you hit knots, you hit hard knots that you get in say something like spruce it takes the edge off very rapidly and that's why we sharpen and so in a given day I might sharpen my plane four or five times depending on the wood that I'm planing and depending on how I'm using the plane so let's take a look at this the plane the body of the plane we don't need to look at, we just need to look at the cutting iron and I'm going to take this away from the cap iron and look at this edge here can you see, this plane has already been initialized I've used it for several years it has a massive camber on here it's very big radius on here and it's had the corners removed and that's what we're going to maintain so this is a maintenance mode sharpening session that I might take, you can see here I have my sharpening stones right by the bench they're ready to go every time and I've got my coarse, fine and super fine here so this is 250 somewhere around 600 and this one's around 1200 they do change as the stones get used more and more to become finer and smoother when I sharpen here I spread this fluid and this is just glass cleaner over the surface and here I'm going to put my plane iron on here and I feel for this edge, I roll it just a little bit and I want to start here at 30 degrees somewhere around 30 the iron is actually initially the angle on the bevel was 25 degrees but now I've established it with a camber I've started here at 30 as I push forward here, the water moves out of the way like this, this edge actually is open there's a lip there I can get my fingernail under so as I pull back I'm back at 30 I hit the actual cutting edge push forward like this and I can even exaggerate this as long as I don't go higher than 30 degrees as long as I keep at 30 so watch what happens now when I rub the plane iron forward I'm starting on the 30 the natural progression of the arm opens up the edge so I'm actually getting as much on the heel or more on the heel as I am on the cutting edge so here is my normal motion, I work across the width of the plates, I overhang slightly on the side to make sure I get all the diamonds or all the abrasive if you're using any other type of stone sometimes I'll make a long oval circular motion like this which I like that seems to take the swarf out of the way don't hesitate to come in with a little bit more moisture just to take the swarf off the surface and it keeps the cutting edge clear of the the cutting surface of the plate clear from swarf and stops the buildup and clogging, once I've got that let's take a look over on this side I've got this first level of abrading done and what I haven't done is I haven't dealt with the corners here these corners need to be slightly rounded or beveled I prefer a round so what I do is I lift up here when I'm at this level in the sharpening, push at that level and then drop, drop, drop with every hand, with every motion and then I lift up this side I'm pushing at that slight angle and then I start drop, drop, drop, drop dropping and now I have got the outside corners done and that works that's got my initial level sharpening here I do exactly the same, no micro bevels, I don't think micro bevels do anything for my work I don't have to think about it I want to get back to my woodworking so I'm just on the bevel, the main bevel again here and I'm polishing out all the striations that were impressed into the material into the steel with that first level of abrading now I've got that done I've got exactly the same so this is looking a little bit more polished it's got none of these striations from this coarse level it's at a medium level back on the stone, lift up move it back and forth a few times and then start drop drop dropping your hand till you hit the main length of the plain iron edge same on this side dropping dropping dropping and I do I had a burr all the way along this edge from this one now I've got it from this one I do exactly the same on this last level here of this abrading so now I've angled this can you see how this is angled to my body a lot of people might tell you to go this way very difficult to get the kind of pressure you want to abrade this steel this way this aligns with my body it's not some magical presentation of the angle to the work, to the surface this is purely a comfort to the body and it gives me the maximum pressure, this triangular shoulder going down to this edge here gives me incredible strength and it gives me the stamina I need so I am going all the way through that second level abrading now to the final level of abrading on the stones, the whole bevel again so I'm getting my macro camber on here then I lift up drop lift up and drop so the whole of those outside bevels here are all abraded to exactly the same way there's a burr all the way along that edge I want to get rid of that, watch this now this face has already been polished out I don't have to do that again so I flip over and I simply pull and that pushes the burr can you see it right there I can see it it's got a wire burr that came off straight away right on the end of my finger so I just peel that off out of the way, slide this out of the way and then I go to a strop strop is just a piece of leather glued to a piece of plywood or MDF anything it doesn't have to be flat it doesn't have to be straight or anything because the leather itself cushions this watch this now I don't know can you see that this level of polishing hasn't really polished it, now this would cut perfectly fine if you wanted to cut with that it would work fine but watch what happens now the heel of my hand goes on here this hand is gripping this way so the fingers come around the three fingers underneath thumb on the opposite side and then this finger equalizes the pressure of these three fingers and I push like this or better still put the heel of the hand on here get a good firm grip so it doesn't slip and pull this about 30 times and that will polish out the bevel so you end up with this beautifully polished mirror-like finish on the bevel and then we're going to get the corner so we're lifting up on the corners and then I'm going to take this, I'm gonna place it flat on this now I don't spend too much time on this face because it's already been polished but it does help if there's any residue of a burr on there it does help to take that off now that's ready for work too so now I'm going to load this into the cap iron here left hand right hand flip over make a cross with it flip this one around pull it in here this is the safest pattern I've ever used for establishing this back together putting this is a cutting iron assembly about two to three millimeters from the end it works best periodically you want to check yourself that you are sharpening the edge of the plane iron square loading this back in here drop this in here watch this, let it rest on to this see this rectangle in the middle this is your lateral adjustment and you want to make sure that that lock that settles down on there then just rock this from side to side like this and center that take your lever cap here, it shouldn't need any adjusting on this just press this and it should clunk down like that and that's it and my initial sight test is just to make sure that the plane iron is not protruding past the surface don't lay your plane on the side it's not good practice it often readjusts your plane to set the plane is very simple you just need a thin piece of wood just keep this piece of wood around you'll use it all the time when you start the plane it may not be set right for instance I'm getting a fairly even shaving here let me just take it, see I'm getting a lighter pass on this side here my right if I take a shaving this is a thin shaving if I go to the opposite side I'm getting a thicker shaving this is definitely thicker so I move this lever the lateral adjustment lever towards the side that's bringing the thickest shaving but I only move it very, I take up the slack and then I move it maybe three or four millimeters that's all see those sounds are the same to me so I can hear the thickness so working from one side to the other now I withdraw the iron a little bit more and the shavings get thinner so I go a little bit more and I keep going thinner just to check the thickness so now I'm down to, this is a thousandth of an inch there's another, so these are about the same and I can keep going till I get shavings like this fractions of a thou' and I've got nothing on this side which means I'm a fraction of a thou' out, now I'm the same this is identical you can't really, these are the shavings that I'm getting now they're the same size same thickness and now I can plane with this as much as I need to I can set the depth of the cut here, work across the piece of wood and I've got no step down this feels like silk and that's what I do three or four or five six times a day whatever it takes sometimes I'll hit a knot and then I'll see a break in the surface so I have to resharpen I do just have to I can't carry on with the plane that way unless I'm working on a garden gate or something like that but you sharpen to task so constantly you need your plane in perfect pristine condition you want it to do the work that's how I do my plane.
His whole channel is gold, I feel. A lot of good techniques even though he is taking a very long time to do them.
"I can hear the thickness"