Tips #2: Sharp Enough

So 1/2” thick glass is like 30$, and the 1/8” glass they sell at home depot and lowes cracks real easily (personal experience), but MDF with laminate on all sides is 6$.

I gave it a quick test run for lapping the soles of my #5, #4 stanley planes last night and it worked wonders. I think I have to pick up a different kind of spray adhesive though, the one I’m using leaves me sticky but not the paper… it is just normal sandpaper, the wet or dry is expensive and only comes in higher grits (400+) around me. Plus I hit up a garage sale and got a box of sand paper and a fire extinguisher for 7$ (The extinguisher is for practice… or fun)

I read the #77, and #80 are good choices so I’ll swing by staples or office max on the way home.

I placed the long half strips on the mdf with a 1/2” gap (I read it somewhere) and it worked real well. The best advice I read was that the roughest sandpaper you use will be the only one that removes blemishes, after that the finer sand papers remove the blemish lines that you have created.

For me this meant sticking with 60grit until the sole shined.

Because I plan on using them both for shooting (the #5 has more weight, but the #4 is my favorite) I want to lap the sides too. My thought on how to do this and keep the beast level is to setup another piece of mdf perpendicular to the first. The exact angle doesn’t matter really so long as the sand paper is pushed up against the perpendicular piece.

Last quick note just in case this is the only resource you use before lapping/restoring: when you lap, keep the blade in the plane (in tension) just retract it. It will not only add weight to your plane, but it adds it where it should be!

-Enjoy

-- Knoxy for short