Joe wrote in
:

Mr. or Ms. Sap

I use the scary sharp method.
The finest wet/dry paper I can find in this area is 1500 grit.
I think it is used for dulling car finishes before repainting.

This works very well for softwoods and okay for oak or maple.
It probably would not produce a sharp enough blade for the harder
woods (which I have never used anyway).

1500 works just fine for sharpening edge tools for use with the harder
woods. In fact, many folks I know, who produce excellent work, generally
stop at 800.

I happened to run across an article in FWW written in the mid 90's by James
Krenov, on hand plane tuning. He indicated that, although heresy by then-
current dogma, he sharpened his planes with three levels of oil stones, and
a little kerosene. His finest grade of stone was a hard Arkansas, if
memory serves me. That's what I use on my kitchen knives.

My planes get taken to 800 with Scary Sharp, unless the project is at it's
final stage. Then 1200. Maybe.

Last project with 'harder woods' was, in fact, a plane body, with a base
plate of Jatoba. The one before that, Cocobolo. The plane blades were
just fine at 1200.

Patriarch

"if it's good enough for Jim, well, then, ..."