snip


I thought I was quite good at manually gauging blade angles until I got
the sharpening guide. If they are still available they are well worth
having. One thing they can help prevent is the end of the blade getting
out of square, which is a pain in the neck in a plane blade, when you soon
run out of adjustment on the side to side lever. You will almost always
get a curve rather than a level angle with 'bare hand' honing too.
Getting it back level and square again can be a long job, but if you
always sharpen at the same set angle the problem is minimised (yes you can
still press harder on one side than the other even with a honing guide).
And, it is worth having a jig for drills too if you do a lot of drilling.

S


OK, here's the update. Chisel has performed absolutely fine all day, and
edge still seems ok, despite there being a knot at just about every bloody
place that I had to chop out, Why is knot wood in otherwise sos pine, so
incredibly hard ?

Arfa