sharpening blades for bevel-up planes & the ruler trick

Hey Gary, thanks for your help! Tomorrow or Sunday afternoon I will have a long sharpening session…plane irons, scrapers, maybe a few chisels! Looking forward to it, time to check out my old cd collection!

The ruler trick works great on bevel up and bevel down planes. Just don’t but too excessive of a back bevel on there and you should be fine. I’ve been using the ruler trick on my planes for several years and haven’t ever had a problem.

Doc

-- Hey, woodworking ain't brain surgery. Just do something and keep trying till you get it. Doc

+1 for garypr’s comment. Plane irons yes—chisles NO.

-- Sawdust and shavings are therapeutic

Ruler trick = WIN!!! I just started using it over the last month or so and it does work…

Thanks guys. Now one more question: since the thicker the ruler, the shorter the polished area and more aggressive the angle, what ruler blade thickness have you found optimum for BU irons, if you have a preference?

For the ruler.. get the thinnest one you can. I have the little LN 6” ruler, and I use that. I also have a tiltbox 2, and for kicks one day, I set up the stone with the ruler, and I put the tiltbox on the blade, and it registered .25 of a °.

Please excuse my ignorance, but what is the ruler trick ??

-- ~You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.~ - Joe

You place a ruler on the sharpening the stone when flattening the back. It puts a slight back bevel on the blade, but speeds up the flattening process. It should only be done with plane blades (not chisels).

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/techniques/the_ruler_trick

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

I went through these aforementioned sharpening sessions, no ruler. Yup it was arduous but it worked fine, got the “business end” polished.

Someone tipped me and said some “shim stock” from Grainger would work. Not sure how the sell it at the actual retail shop but might find out this upcoming weekend. I will get the Lie-Nielsen ruler soon.