I have several plane blades where I need to either round the corners or
crown the blade.

However, I am only just getting the hang of getting a good edge (thank god
I bought the Lee Valley jig....I was using the cheapo side clamp, and the
difference between that and the Lee Valley is just night and day) while
sharpening the blade straight, using either waterstones or scary sharp.

What is the suggested method for creating rounded corners on a blade, or
creating a crowned blade?

Should I just take a file or paddle, and shape the corners, then sharpen
the corners as best I can freehand?

That would deal with rounded corner blades, and I would still be able to
sharpen the bulk of the blade with a jig...but what about a crowned blade?
Is there some kind of jig, homemade or otherwise, that will help sharpen a
crowned blade?

I guess what I am asking for is any suggestions that people may have for
how to create and sharpen rounded corner/crowned plane blades, and for any
jigs that can be used for creating/sharpening said blades....

Thanks all for any help you can give...

Jason

Hey Jason,

Knocking the corners off your blade, using the edge of your sharpening stone
(not the face), lightly drag the edge of your blade from parallel to 45
deg on the stone, using a "pull" stroke.

Only a tiny amount off rounding is required (32nd -64th), the more you take
off the corner, the narrower the usable blade width becomes. Lap and
sharpen as you normally would after the corners are knocked off.

For a specific radius'd blade, I'll draw the radius on the back of the blade
with an alcohol marker. Grind the blade to the radius line. Sharpen and lap
by hand on the stones. I'm not sure there's an affordable jig out there for
sharpening various radius'. If there is, I'd also be interested.

Cheers,

aw

stickdoctorq wrote in message 44.76...

I have several plane blades where I need to either round the corners or
crown the blade.

However, I am only just getting the hang of getting a good edge (thank god
I bought the Lee Valley jig....I was using the cheapo side clamp, and the
difference between that and the Lee Valley is just night and day) while
sharpening the blade straight, using either waterstones or scary sharp.

What is the suggested method for creating rounded corners on a blade, or
creating a crowned blade?

That's easy enough to do, in fact, some would say it's hard to
avoid. :-) Simply apply more pressure with your left hand with one
pass, then with the right hand with the next one. Repeat until
desired effect is achieved.


Chuck Vance

That's how I do it, but it took a while for me to learn to do it that way.
AAMOF (as a matter of fact) I can't even see the crown on my Hock iron, but
it's there as is evidenced by the lack of problems when smoothing.
I do not use a jig when sharpening and I believe that it is much easier to
achieve when sharpening freehand. Something I picked up somewhere is not
pushing away from the body when sharpening. I stand to the side of the hone
and move the iron from right to left. pushing the iron all the way to the
end of the hone. The hone is at knuckle height so I don't have to bend my
elbows.
I don't presume to "educate" people, I'm just offering what has worked for
me. Each one of us has to pick and choose little techniques that work for
us. :-)
"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
om...
stickdoctorq wrote in message
44.76...

Simply apply more pressure with your left hand with one
pass, then with the right hand with the next one. Repeat until
desired effect is achieved.


Chuck Vance

"stickdoctorq" wrote

: I have several plane blades where I need to either round the corners or
: crown the blade.

Planes with rounded corners produced terraced surfaces, the internal corners
of the
terraces being rounded. It is very difficult to square the edge of a board
with a
straight-edged blade.

Apart from use on a shooting board, a very slightly convex blade has always
been the tradesman's tool. For information, please look at my web site -
Planing Notes - How To Plane A Square Edge.

In fact a check will probably reveal that edges intended to be straight are
slightly convex. Indeed it is quite difficult to generate a perfectly
straight edge.

You will see that the cambering needs only be very slight. It does produce a
very slightly rippled surface, usually flattened by the glasspaper.

Where an absolutely flat surface was required (eg for a veneer ground), the
old hands used a toothing plane with a dead straight edge.

Jeff G

--
Jeff Gorman, West Yorkshire, UK
Email address is username@ISP
username is amgron
ISP is clara.co.uk
Website www.amgron.clara.net

"Lowell Holmes" wrote in message ...

That's how I do it, but it took a while for me to learn to do it that way.
AAMOF (as a matter of fact) I can't even see the crown on my Hock iron, but
it's there as is evidenced by the lack of problems when smoothing.
I do not use a jig when sharpening and I believe that it is much easier to
achieve when sharpening freehand. Something I picked up somewhere is not
pushing away from the body when sharpening. I stand to the side of the hone
and move the iron from right to left. pushing the iron all the way to the
end of the hone. The hone is at knuckle height so I don't have to bend my
elbows.

My technique is pretty similar. I only use a jig when I'm re-doing
a bevel angle or fixing an edge that has been chipped. For
freehanding, I apply pressure only on the pullstroke; I hold the iron
in my left hand with my ring finger and thumb on either side and
middle and index fingers on top. I lock my wrist and draw the iron
from right to left. I'm standing so my arm is away from my body so it
is free to move piston-style while my wrist is locked.

I don't presume to "educate" people, I'm just offering what has worked for
me. Each one of us has to pick and choose little techniques that work for
us. :-)

Absolutely. I used to rely solely on jigs until I started buying
specialty planes with irons that don't work well with jigs. That's
when I realized that I needed to learn to freehand, and I've tried
many different approaches (side-to-side, pushing and pulling, etc.)
before settling on this one.

For me the best thing has been to gain enough confidence (and
having my sharpening station always set up and ready to go) so I am
willing to hone on a regular basis.


Chuck Vance

"Conan the Librarian" wrote in message
om...

My technique is pretty similar. I only use a jig when I'm re-doing
a bevel angle or fixing an edge that has been chipped. For
freehanding, I apply pressure only on the pullstroke; I hold the iron
in my left hand with my ring finger and thumb on either side and
middle and index fingers on top. I lock my wrist and draw the iron
from right to left. I'm standing so my arm is away from my body so it
is free to move piston-style while my wrist is locked.

I have always applied pressure with the right hand which makes it a push.
I'm going to try your method of pulling and see what happens.

For me the best thing has been to gain enough confidence (and
having my sharpening station always set up and ready to go) so I am
willing to hone on a regular basis.

Like you, I keep my hones out when I'm using the handtools. None of my
chisels hold an edge all day and it is so easy to touch them up if the hones
are out, it doesn't matter much if the edge needs some help. I find it
breaks the tension (that I don't realize is there) during a session to stop
and fix a chisel.

Chuck Vance

I got thinking about this thread.

I hand plane every component of a project. So, I guess I do my fair share
of hand planing. I have a good selection of hand planes, from shop made and
store boughts to antiques. blah blah blah

I can't think of one that I've "crowned". I've made planes and shaped
blades for a specific job (created a specific radius). I'm trying to figure
out why you'd reduce the width of your cutting edge by crowning.

On any type of plane blade other than a jointer, I'll knock the corners off,
to prevent any cutting marks. I go to the extreme to maintain a 90 deg
cutting edge, and sharpness.

The serious question then: what is the benefit for someone to "purposely"
crown a blade. Eg: take a scary sharp 2" blade with the corners knocked
off, perfectly 90deg cutting edge, that gives you a shaving of a thou or
thou and a half the full width of your blade, then "crown" it, now you have
a cutting edge of less than 2".

Serious question to those who purposely "crown" a blade.


Cheers,

aw

"A Dubya" wrote in message

The serious question then: what is the benefit for someone to "purposely"
crown a blade. Eg: take a scary sharp 2" blade with the corners knocked
off, perfectly 90deg cutting edge, that gives you a shaving of a thou or
thou and a half the full width of your blade, then "crown" it, now you
have
a cutting edge of less than 2".

Serious question to those who purposely "crown" a blade.

Here's one "old fashioned" reason explained on Jeff Gorman's site:

http://www.amgron.clara.net/planingp...eedgeindex.htm


--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 3/27/04

In Leonard Lee's sharpening book he shows using a bench grinder and
mounting the blade to a pivoting stick which allows you to rotate the
end of the blade back and forth across the grinding stone. Your stick
is affixed at the center of a large circle and the end of the blade is
on the diameter of this circle. It gives you an arch to work the
blade against the stone.

Alan

Crowning is a time honored, a very long time, way of removing lots of stock
fast with minimum resistance and tear out.

If you to have a chance to take examine some really old antiques, say
something made in the 18th century, and could get a look at hidden parts,
say the sold wood back panel, underside of drawers, etc you would find the
distinctive marks of a crowned plane.

It may not be everyone's cup of tea but it is a well proven method.

--
Mike G.

Heirloom Woods
www.heirloom-woods.net
"A Dubya" wrote in message
...
I got thinking about this thread.

I hand plane every component of a project. So, I guess I do my fair share
of hand planing. I have a good selection of hand planes, from shop made
and
store boughts to antiques. blah blah blah

I can't think of one that I've "crowned". I've made planes and shaped
blades for a specific job (created a specific radius). I'm trying to
figure
out why you'd reduce the width of your cutting edge by crowning.

On any type of plane blade other than a jointer, I'll knock the corners
off,
to prevent any cutting marks. I go to the extreme to maintain a 90 deg
cutting edge, and sharpness.

The serious question then: what is the benefit for someone to "purposely"
crown a blade. Eg: take a scary sharp 2" blade with the corners knocked
off, perfectly 90deg cutting edge, that gives you a shaving of a thou or
thou and a half the full width of your blade, then "crown" it, now you
have
a cutting edge of less than 2".

Serious question to those who purposely "crown" a blade.


Cheers,

aw

That will produce a crown I would expect in a scrub plane. The crown in my
604 Stanley is barely discernible. The plane will surface a flat board
without leaving any noticeable marks. Rob Cosman addresses the issue in the
preview on his dovetail VHS..

"Alan W" wrote in message
om...
In Leonard Lee's sharpening book he shows using a bench grinder and
mounting the blade to a pivoting stick which allows you to rotate the
end of the blade back and forth across the grinding stone. Your stick
is affixed at the center of a large circle and the end of the blade is
on the diameter of this circle. It gives you an arch to work the
blade against the stone.

Alan

....thanks for the posts and the link. A different school of thought....

Cheers,

aw

On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 08:54:59 -0500, "A Dubya"
wrote:

I got thinking about this thread.

I hand plane every component of a project. So, I guess I do my fair share
of hand planing. I have a good selection of hand planes, from shop made and
store boughts to antiques. blah blah blah

I can't think of one that I've "crowned". I've made planes and shaped
blades for a specific job (created a specific radius). I'm trying to figure
out why you'd reduce the width of your cutting edge by crowning.

On any type of plane blade other than a jointer, I'll knock the corners off,
to prevent any cutting marks. I go to the extreme to maintain a 90 deg
cutting edge, and sharpness.

The serious question then: what is the benefit for someone to "purposely"
crown a blade. Eg: take a scary sharp 2" blade with the corners knocked
off, perfectly 90deg cutting edge, that gives you a shaving of a thou or
thou and a half the full width of your blade, then "crown" it, now you have
a cutting edge of less than 2".

Since I have an 1830-ish razee jack that was crowned when I got it, I
have not needed to. It is used for flattening large glued-up panels of
not-very-hard woods, by scrubbing across the grain.

For surfaces that need to be smooth, the resulting furrows are takken
out with a smooth plane.

If I were to copy this jack plane in boxwood (which I have been
tempted to do because I like it so much) I would certainly crown the
iron.



Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a


"Curse thee, thou quadrant. No longer will I guide my earthly way by thee." Capt. Ahab

On Fri, 2 Apr 2004 08:54:59 -0500, "A Dubya"
wrote:

The serious question then: what is the benefit for someone to "purposely"
crown a blade. Eg: take a scary sharp 2" blade with the corners knocked
off, perfectly 90deg cutting edge, that gives you a shaving of a thou or
thou and a half the full width of your blade, then "crown" it, now you have
a cutting edge of less than 2".

Since you can set it deeper for rapidly hogging lumber without killing your
arms, you still have a 2" edge.