Woodworking Tool Sharpness Levels

[SteveG]

I'm a hobbyist woodworker. I use a Tormek to grind my plane/chisel blades, but not for sharpening them. For that I use stones, either with a Veritas jig or freehand (the hollow grind makes freehand sharpening of plane blades, and most chisels, easy). When I first got my PT-50A, I measured after each sharpening, and found I could usually hit BESS 100. I usually polish to 8000, sometimes finer (I have up-to 30000 stones), and I usually strop with CrOx (and sometimes dull my edge in that process; I'm not very good at it). BESS 150 or less is easily achievable with my methods, BESS 100 usually achievable; BESS 150 is usually good enough, though for shooting I can tell the difference with BESS 100 giving me much nicer results. I grind at 25 degrees, and sharpen at 25-30, depending on the blade (sometimes higher, but I've never measured any of those).