How do YOU sharpen your finger planes?

[Drew Streip]

Looking for some guidelines -- either general or specific.

I have a set of five convex sole finger planes from a seller in China. Despite their imperfections, they do seem to be usable, useful tools, especially for the price (five for less than one Ibex).

Not looking for a lecture about buying "proper" tools -- I'm a hobbyist on my best day, and even great tools won't work well in the hands of an uninformed user. So I'm looking for things like:

• Bevel angle?
• Square or radius edge?
• Chamfered corners?
• Hollow grind?
• etc.

My main issue seems to be consistency across the set. What works for one doesn't work for all. I've roughed out the top and back of an A5-style build, assisted by a gouge, but before I go further I need to be able to absolutely trust my planes.

Thanks in advance!

[O. Apitius]

Drew, could you post a couple of photos of your planes? The most important one being a shot of the soles, preferably from the front at an angle looking down. I'd like to see the consistency of the sole arching and how/if the irons match the curvature. Some side and top views might be helpful as well.

[Drew Streip]

It’s hard to tell which are which here, but in general the bigger ones are better. However, none of them really takes a full-width shaving and they all are prone to leaving witness marks in the corners — digging in further at the outside than the middle. I did some very light smoothing of the machine marks on the soles but am totally willing to do more, especially if there’s a good model to follow!

[O. Apitius]

Thanks for posting Drew. It looks to me like the planes have little to no lateral arch. The planes I use actually have more lateral arch than longitudinal arch. If it were me, providing there is enough material, I would use a file to refine the shape of the soles on those planes, making them more spoon shaped. Care should be taken to keep the radii smooth and even. Once done, the blades should have a bottom bevel of about 30 degrees. The front edge of the irons should have a curve that makes the edge follow the lateral curvature of the sole when the blade is in place. (So, a little less curved than the curvature of the sole when viewed straight on) Ideally, the plane should shave off the same thickness along its entire width.

If the irons are made of good steel, then those planes look like they could be made into something quite serviceable. A good value for the money. I'll try and get some photos up of the bottoms of my planes that you can use for comparison.

[Marty Jacobson]

Yes, I agree with Oliver. It needs to be a compound curve, kind of like a bowl gouge you'd use on a lathe. But much less extreme, of course. Ideally the plane should be shaped similarly to the dish of the arched plate (inside, anyway, luckily the inside profile is still useful on the outside of the plate because of how physics works). So maybe a half-meter (that's 18 inches, but metric is More FashionableTM now and few people realize how easy it is to learn the conversions for oneself) radius on the blade in both X and Y axes (I consider Z to be depth).

[j. condino]

Sharpening aside, do you have any toothed blades for those planes? They make working the curly maple a whole lot easier. I buy the $24 Ibex blades and use them in a number of other brands, just get the proper size.

https://www.stewmac.com/Luthier_Tool...nt_Blades.html

[O. Apitius]

Drew, here are some photos of one of my finger planes for reference.







'hope this helps.

[HoGo]

Agree with above.
From the pics I think your blades could use a bit shallower grind angle (I do it freehand at approx. 25-30 degrees, blade angle is closer to 40-45 on my planes). The bevel surface looks almost parallel to bottom of plane which will not work well (it won't want to dig into wood when pressed against it)
I would check roudness of sole (doesn't have to be perfect), just a shallow smooth spoon-like surface and the shape of blades should follow the sole. on my own planes blades are ground a bit smaller radius so the edges are almost flush with sole when blade is exposed for fine shaving thus the edges won't dig in.

[Drew Streip]

Thank you all for your input! One more question -- it's kind of difficult to tell from pictures, but should the bevel itself match the curvature? Or just the cutting edge?

This crude illustration will show what I mean. Top drawing represents a flat bevel + radius edge. Bottom drawing is radius bevel + radius edge.

[O. Apitius]

Like the second (bottom) drawing. Except that in the drawing's side view, the bevel is convex when it should be flat or slightly concave.

[Drew Streip]

Like the second (bottom) drawing. Except that in the drawing's side view, the bevel is convex when it should be flat or slightly concave.

I'll try to achieve that this evening! The good thing about having a set of 5 (and not doing this for a living) is that I can experiment without rendering myself useless. I'll post results if and when I'm successful.

[j. condino]

Here is another handle variation on an Ibex plane:

[Rick Jones]

Here is another handle variation on an Ibex plane:

Dammit you guys, now I need to make handles for my finger planes!! Those HAVE to make life a lot easier!

[kjbllc]

how much clearance do you like in front of the blade and the plane for clearing the wood out ?

[tree]

Gorgeous, James!

I'm struggling to understand exactly how you modified the brass plane body to accept the handle. Looks like maybe you cut away some of the back? That's a beautiful fit, I love how the handle provides additional support for the iron. Those shavings sure speak to the functionality of your modifications. Very nice!

[Bernie Daniel]

To add another dimension to the discussion hat kind of a stone to most of you use for sharpening? I have a set of "traditional" water stones (need to pre-soak before using) of 400, 1000, 3000 and 6000 grit. They seem to work OK but I have never been overly impressed with the sharpness I get?

[Drew Streip]

I worked on my second smallest plane last night. Slow and steady with material removal from the sole. Used a mill file followed by some fine sandpaper just to get a surface to check my progress. Then I took the iron to my grinder and rounded my bevel. Then, reduced the pitch of the bevel and got an even surface across the width.

I added the tiniest of micro-bevels on a water stone (by hand) and lapped the back to remove the burr. Managed to get a full-width shaving from some scrap red cedar. I think after properly honing the blade I’ll be in business... not sure how hard the steel is though, so at some point I may be investing in replacement blades (unless heat treating is an option?).

[kjbllc]

well you can heat treat it , if there is enough carbon in it , if not its a waste of time, if it a complicated mix it makes it a lot harder

[graham darden]

I had a machinist friend make these to fit my veritas. Work well.

[kjbllc]

so you roll it left and right as you move forward?

[Stephen Perry]

Main thing is to not have a corner exposed. I shape the edge to a curve where I get the bite I want in the middle, but fades to nothing at the sides. I make overlapping trenches in the wood, with rounded sides. Seems to work fine.

[graham darden]

so you roll it left and right as you move forward?

Yes