Sharpening my plane and my chisels - Top Tip for a sanding block.

[SimoninEaston]

Hi everyone, I recently watched a great vid. on YT on how to set up a Stanley #4. It was very long - nearly 2 hours! but afterwards I felt I really understood a lot of about the process.
The guy used a piece of granite as the bed for dressing all the sundry parts and I set about seeing if I could find a similar piece. My local stone workers simply said "Help Yourself, mate - we put all our off cuts in a skip outside the yard!" so now I've got a piece about 6" wide by a couple of feet long and I've spent a couple of hours over the last few evenings dismantling the plane, dressing the parts as advised, and reassembling it. It now cuts like a a razor!
I've read a few threads on the subject of granite pieces and their flatness and a lot of the discussion can seem to get bogged down on how exactly level offcuts of granite actually are... I'm not sure I see how relevant that sort of endless, is it - or isn't it - to'ing and fro'ing is when the subject of the discussion is sharpening your tools, 'cos the proof of this particular pudding is that for me, an amateur, and an inept amatuer, at that! I now have for the first time ever, a super-effective plane!
So the Top Tip is: if you need something to help you sharpen your planes and chisels, simply ask your local stone workers and see if they have the same sort of arrangements for disposing of their off-cuts as mine do!

 

[Gerrydelasel]

Can you link to the vid? I don't fully understand what the stone bed is for, or is it one big sharpening stone?

 

[^woody^]

I'll pop up to the local cemetery and have a go

 

[SimoninEaston]

It is nearly 2 hours, mind... Some of his others are shorter!
The piece of granite I picked up out the skip (in fact, it was just one of several nice pieces, neatly arranged along the side of the skip, almost as if they expect regular visits from peeps like us!) is almost exactly the same size as Matt uses in the vid. and after spending a fiver on a couple of sanding rolls, my poor old neglected #4 is flater, shinier and sharper than it's ever been in its life!

 

[Nige F]

[ It is nearly 2 hours, mind... Some of his others are shorter!
The piece of granite I picked up out the skip (in fact, it was of several nice pieces, neatly arranged along the side of the skip, almost as if they expect regular visits from peeps like us!) is almost exactly the same size as Matt uses in the vid. and after spending a fiver on a couple of sanding rolls, my poor old neglected #4 is flatter, shinier and sharper than it's ever been in its life!

Blimey if a No.4 is 2 hours, how long does a Jack plane take

 

[Mattatooi]

You should watch Paul Sellers. This guy knows his **** when it comes to hand tools.

- Chisel sharpening

- Sharpening & Setting a Plane

- Restoring a bench plane

Wealth of information in there. Enjoy.


Personally I got cheap Narex chisels recently and used his method, and they are razor sharp now. Unreal. Managed to cut myself several times they were that sharp. I used glass and sandpaper, and bit of leather with the green stuff (cant remember name). Was very inexpensive.

 

[lostinthelight]

If you dont want to lug a heavy lump of granite around, I have for years used a piece of plate glass and different grades of abraisive paper for resurfacing small cylinder heads, carb flanges, oil pumps etc and of course, blade sharpening.
litl