Hand Planes and sharpening and thicknessing top back side

[Jimhar]

I am in the process of determining what to do with my planes to get prepared for proper thicknessing of guitar parts. I am relatively new to the building and am going to try my hand at hand planing as I have noticed many builders say they prefer this method and some state that it is actually better than other methods. I must admit that I do not have any vast experience that i can draw from as to how to use a plane for this purpose. I have learned that I need to put the planes that I have accumulated into good shape prior to starting to use them. I basically know I need to sharpen the blades properly and look at the sole of the planer to ensure they are flat. I do possess a sharpening stone that I have hauled all over the country with me and never had a use for it till now. It is a vintage Norton combination oil sharpening stone. I know only that it is two grits in the one stone. One side is red color and the other grey. Don't know which is which and can't tell anything by looking at them. The stone has a UPB-8 number on the side and says "combination quickcut" on the stone. Hopefully someone here may know about this stone and how I can put it to good use. Is this stone all I need for sharpening or is there something else needed to do the job? Any and all wisdom that someone would be kind enough to share would be greatly needed and appreciated. Thanks Jim

[Alan Carruth]

This is really not the place for a full disquisition on sharpening: there are whole books on it, and any number of different competing systems. An on-line search should turn up a bunch of stuff. Garret Hack's book is pretty good, although I disagree with him about some stuff.

You're going to need a lot finer stone than that Norton combo to get a sharp enough edge for lutherie. Basically, you shape the edge up with the coarse stone, and then use finer ones to actually get it sharp. The finer the stone the sharper, if you 're doing it right. There's no such thing as 'too sharp', so there's no such thing as 'too fine' a finishing stone.

I do most of my shaping (carefully!) with a bench grinder. Then I switch to a fine diamond 'stone': actually a steel plate that has been sprinkled with diamond dust, which is held on by nickel plating. These are fairly available, and they stay flat. I use water to lubricate these. From there I often switch to a soft water stone, or skip over that and go to a very fine ceramic 'stone'. That latter cuts really slowly, but leaves a good edge. Finish up with green rouge on a leather strop. This may or may not be the 'ultimate' way to sharpen, but it works well for me. Everybody seems to have their own favorite way.

[Bruce Sexauer]

I have used many sharpening systems over there the year, but once I found diamonds, they have become my forever system. I use the DMT 6" "stones", going through the 4 grits from black to green. They are many times faster than any other system I've tried. The other key ingredient is a fixture to hold the blade at a 100% consistent angle. The bonus, for me, is that these same "stones" are peerless for doing fret dressing, they are all I use.

[printer2]

I bought the diamond stones Bruce mentioned, well other than the black. I made a temporary fixture but need to do a permanent one.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Originally Posted by printer2

I bought the diamond stones Bruce mentioned, well other than the black. I made a temporary fixture but need to do a permanent one.

The black removes steel kind of unbelievably quickly. A typical nick goes away in a minute or so! It levels frets for me in a few seconds, and has the advantage over a file in that it can be worked sideways which makes its scratches less intrusive.

My shop cabinets were repurposed from a high end kitchen demo, and there were a couple of breadboards. I set my 4 "stones" into one of the breadboards and never looked back.

[Jimhar]

Alan and Bruce I appreciate the information. Looks like diamonds are the name of the game. The DMT stones seam like a real nice solution for overall cutting sharpening needs and quite affordable it seems. Right now that is of concern as money seems to run out the door quite fast when purchasing tools needed to build guitars. There just is no end to what one might want to purchase but some restraint is required here. So I thank you all for the advice and would welcome any further suggestions on the right approach to becoming proficient in the use of my planes in the required thicknessing of top and back and side woods. Any suggestions on what wood to practice on that would not break the bank. Thanks again for the great suggestions you all have put forward.
Jim

[Bruce Sexauer]

Your first guitar is practice . . .so is your last, if you're serious about lutherie. IMO, of course.

[nikpearson]

I used a variation on what is usually (and strangely) referred to as the ‘scary sharp’ system for a long time before adding some ceramic stones to my mix.

A chunk of 10 mm thick float glass with strips of 3M lapping films works really well and is inexpensive. I’ve found you can get a lovely edge using just 40 micron, 30 micron, 9 micron and 3 micron films. Final polishing with a leather stop and suitable green (chromium?) compound gives an even sharper edge.

Regular stropping will allow you to keep the sharp edge for a long time without having to return to the films. This is possibly the most useful tip of all. I can go weeks without the need for sharpening simply by stropping every 15 minutes. You’ll know if you’ve left it too long as no amount of stropping will bring back the edge!

The Shapton ceramic stones (500, 2000, 8000 grit) I have, cut as fast as normal water stones but keep their flatness longer. You still need something to flatten them periodically though and most use a suitable diamond stone. For me this is the biggest downside to using stones. They aren’t cheap to start with and then you need something to flatten them with.

I have a couple of course diamond stones used for flattening and regrinding primary bevels, but coarse sandpaper on a flat board works as well for the latter.

A couple of related suggestions:

1) Add a micro-bevel to your blades so that you only need to remove a very small amount of metal when sharpening. These are more easily added with…

2) Purchase a guide to hold the blade whilst sharpening. Many will tell you this is cheating and that you must be able to sharpen freehand to be a proper woodworker. That’s nonsense. I’ve watched some very skilled builders take two or three times as long as me to sharpen a blade simply because they have to go back and forth due to slight rounding of the edge when freehand sharpening. There are some blades such as knives and spokeshave that are tricky to get to fit in the commercially available guides. I sharpen these freehand but use a honing guide for all my chisel and plane blades simply because this way I can get perfectly sharp tools consistently and quickly.

You’ll find sharpening is a contentious subject. Listen to other people’s suggestions, try them and then find what works for you.

[Jimhar]

Thanks for the reply! Some good info here that I was not informed about and will certainly find some good use from your guidance. I am glad to hear your take on stropping. Seems well worth frequently stopping frequently for stropping. I really appreciate you taking the time to pass on this information. Very useful. Thanks Jim