AAvK wrote:
Is this a known thing? I haven't encountered it in anything I've read
to this point.

When the last surface honed is the trailing surface of the blade, for
example, the plane blade back on a bevel-up low-angle plane, and the
bevel on a conventional smoothing plane blade, acts noticeably sharper.

I'm using a 8000x stone as the final grit. Could be a final
"burnishment" of the edge, resulting in a slight upturn?

er
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That's why the back flattening of bevel-up blades and chisels must be perfectly done.
I know I could be wrong about your problem, but look at the back with light reflecting
off it, do the light rays concentrate when moving toward the cutting edge? If so,
there's a micro-round-off there... and if so, you don't want that on either type of blade.
With a bevel down blade it's not as important.

The one I'm looking at is a new stanley blade. I touched it up (having
used it) to do your test, and I do see a little bending near the edge.
Odd, since I used a pristine side of the stone.

Okay, I checked my own blade (O-1 Starrett) and that doesn't do it at
all. It's also sharper--I haven't used it since I last sharpened it
(had to rub off some paste wax)--a lot sharper. It doesn't show any
difference in sharpness from one side to the other either (and I have
the bare patches to prove it.

Maybe The Stanley metal is just crap. Maybe I need to back up and redo
the back...

Like I said, I know I could be wrong in my interpretation of what you wrote. Also, if it's
an A2 blade, simply harder to sharpen, and it can't get as sharp as HCS, of which by Hock
tools is quite superior. Very fine grained steel and RC 62.

Anyone is invited to correct me, if I am wrong.

This should be fun. I ordered the A2 blades. I'll see how they compare
to Stanley's, and mine.

er
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