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Woodworking Tool Sharpness Levels
#1
A customer of ours in the UK has ordered a PT50B and is interested in learning about benchmark sharpness levels for hand plane blades (irons) and chisels. We thought that this would be a great opportunity for our woodworking members and users to pitch in with their experiences with sharpening levels for these edges. We are certain that any and all information related to this sharpening area would be much appreciated.
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#2
I’m not a woodworker but I do have one Stanley wood chisel, 1.25” wide.  I sharpened it to 150g.  Nice and sharp with a polished bevel and edge. 
 
I would think that chisel and plane blades would be considered the same as knives as far as sharpness and sharp testing goes.
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#3
I have done some BESS testing with bench chisels and a spindle turning gouge. (not a lot of testing yet, however, enough to convince me of the value of BESS testing woodworking tools). Most of this has been in conjunction with testing CBN wheels with the Tormek. I wanted to compare the results of just grinding the tools with the 80 and 180 grit CBN wheels vs grinding and using the Tormek leather honing wheel.

I repeated each test a second time to compensate for "operator error". Direct from the 80 grit wheel, my spindle gouge read around 500 BESS. The 180 grit wheel read 400. The 80 grit wheel read around 400 when run trailing rather than grinding into the wheel. This may or may not be significant. I believe it warrents further experimenting.

With both wheels, a good dose of the leather honing wheel with Tormek honing compound yielded BESS readings around 130. I was happy with these readings, especially for a "quick and dirty" process. Note, the bevel still had some scratches. For finish work, this is no shortcut for the traditional Tormek technique of  coarse and fine grinding, followed by the leather honing wheel, which yielded BESS readings of 100.

I believe the BESS testing process is of much value to woodworkers of all levels.

Ken
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#4
Hi All
I believe I am the customer in the UK! I have purchased the PT50B as a result of recommendation by grepper (on the Tormek forum). I recently purchased the Tormek T8 system and posted a newbie question on this forum to which both grepper and Ken S kindly responded in detail.
Currently I sharpen my woodworking hand tools by hand so it will be interesting to see how sharp they measure on the PT50B and then to compare sharpening using the Tormek T8.
I'll be sure to post my results once I have received the PT50B and also got to grips with using the T8.N
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#5
Welcome aboard Dotian! I own a wood lathe but have done very little with it. Quite frankly I'm afraid of it but mean to conquer my fears one day. I do own a fair number of antique wood working tools and use them when given the chance. A few years ago I decided to build bamboo fly rods and everybody said I needed a particular style of Stanley wood hand plane for the task. If memory serves the plane was manufactured in 1950's. I ended up with three planes but never did get a bamboo rod built. That's another long story. I did sharpen and use them on other projects though. When I saw EOU's message here I ran out to the shop, touched one of them up a bit and measured with my old PT50. It measured 225 and planes quite nicely at that level. I put some more work into it and got it down to 165 and it flies through yellow pine. Wish I had more to add but that's about it.
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#6
(04-12-2017, 03:02 PM)P Soxx Wrote: Welcome aboard Dotian! I own a wood lathe but have done very little with it. Quite frankly I'm afraid of it but mean to conquer my fears one day. I do own a fair number of antique wood working tools and use them when given the chance. A few years ago I decided to build bamboo fly rods and everybody said I needed a particular style of Stanley wood hand plane for the task. If memory serves the plane was manufactured in 1950's. I ended up with three planes but never did get a bamboo rod built. That's another long story. I did sharpen and use them on other projects though. When I saw EOU's message here I ran out to the shop, touched one of them up a bit and measured with my old PT50. It measured 225 and planes quite nicely at that level. I put some more work into it and got it down to 165 and it flies through yellow pine. Wish I had more to add but that's about it.

Hi Soxx, many thanks for your efforts- it seems that 150/165 is a good target to aim for based upon your and grepper's results. I'll be sharpening both chisels and plane blades so let's see how I fare.
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#7
Hi Mr. Dotion, I echo, Welcome.

Yup.  You are the UK customer. Smile


We will be interested in hearing about your test results and progress using the T8!  That T8 can get blades extremely sharp.
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#8
I am a great believer in the value of coming to the Tormek with a hand sharpening background. The techniques are not identical, however, I consider them complementary. Lately, I have spent most of my sharpening time with knives, although in the long run I have been a chisel and plane sharpener. As you work with your new Tormek, you will get a feeling for what works best for your own work. The 25° and 30° bevel angles for chisels and planes did not come down the mountain with Moses. With experience with the Tormek, you may wish to vary these angles somewhat. If you choose, you can sharpen your kitchen knives and woodworking edges the same way for the rest of your life. You will do this with a minimal amount of steel being removed, and your edges will be sharper than factory new. Or, you can be more adventurous and tweak your results. Your Tormek will support both approaches; it is very versatile.

Enjoy the sharpening journey.

Ken
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#9
I'm new to this forum and using a BESS tester but I have been woodworking and turning for 35 years.  I turn a lot, like almost every day.   I have just started testing some turning tools and my plane blades and chisels.   the included angle of the blade affects the sharpeness readings a tremendous amount.  Getting an edge that is 25 degree included angle down to 150 on the BESS tester takes a lot of work.  Fairly easy to get them into the 200, 250 range.  Some of my carving tools are down to 130 but they have edges that are 20 degrees or less.  My turning tools usually are 35 degree or thicker included angles.   I sharpened one gouge that is 35 degrees on a 180 CBN wheel and then honed it with a 600 grit diamond hone.  It read about 300 or so but I may be wrong, haven't looked at that chart for while.  It seemed noticeably duller than my kitchen knives but then it is designed to cut wood rotating at 2000 rpm which is a lot of surface feet per minute and will dull a 25 degree edge pretty fast.  In fact most of my tools are 45 to 55 degrees and designed to remove a lot of wood quickly. 
      I haven't measured one of my plane blades.  Will have to do that.  They are quite sharp as far as woodworking tools go.
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#10
John,

You do not mention if you either have or have access to a Tormek. I do not have your turning experience, however, I have seen some nice turning done with a gouge which was carefully sharpened with the full Tormek three step process. With the jigs and set up tool, resharpening is quick and very repeatable with a minimum of tool steel removed. The final surface was very smooth.

Ken
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