I finally broke down and purchased some waterstones so that I could take my sharpening skills to the next level. In my opinion the only real drawback to waterstones is that they don’t stay flat. Thus as soon as I placed my order, I spent a little time searching the net looking for the best flattening method. Lots of methods exist, but the two most common are: a coarse diamond honing stone, or sandpaper on a surface plate.
While diamond hones will do a great job of quickly removing material they are notoriously unflat, and thus in my opinion not acceptable. I have a surface plate, and while it is flat, I don’t like the idea of constantly having sandpaper glued to it. Additionally a 70 pound surface plate isn’t very portable. What I finally decided on (shown below) was a hybrid approach.
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Some of you might remember that back in April I picked up a well used Stanley type 13 #3, that was in need of some TLC. Tonight I finished refurbishing the plane. To get the plane back into working condition, I performed the following tasks:
- general cleaning
- de-rusted the sole
- lapped the sole
- fixed the broken tote
- refinished the sole with an industrial grade enamel
- lapped the frog
The following photos are of the plane after a few test cuts.
I’m a power tool guy at heart, however I have come to the realization that some tasks are easier with hand tools. For example, face/edge jointing large cumbersome boards. With that in mind, I’ve been learning about hand planes & their uses. Earlier this week I came across this plane on eBay, it’s a Stanley type 13(1925-1928) #3 smooth plane. Since it looked to be in good shape, I placed my bid and waited. Since it’s a fairly common plane, & not in pristine condition I picked it up for $21.50. The following pictures show what it looked like when it arrived on my door step. All I need to do now is clean it up.
