How to know when your edge is "sharp" enough

[ajkoontz]

Shaving hair on my arm is how I was taught to test, it gives me the results I want in actual wood, I can usually attain this level of sharp with the effort I am willing to put in, and I think it's cool so that's what I do to test sharp. It's double cool if I see a WW out in the wild who has a shaved patch on their wrist at the same time I do and we notice each other and we get to give each other a bro nod of mutual respect for how cool we both are. When I see a WW with hairy arms I silently judge them because I know back home they have a drawer full of chisels that could use a good sharpening.

[Timberwolf]

Shaving hair on my arm is how I was taught to test, it gives me the results I want in actual wood, I can usually attain this level of sharp with the effort I am willing to put in, and I think it's cool so that's what I do to test sharp. It's double cool if I see a WW out in the wild who has a shaved patch on their wrist at the same time I do and we notice each other and we get to give each other a bro nod of mutual respect for how cool we both are. When I see a WW with hairy arms I silently judge them because I know back home they have a drawer full of chisels that could use a good sharpening.

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When I see a WW with hairy arms I silently judge them because I know back home they have a drawer full of chisels that could use a good sharpening.

[ajkoontz]

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When I see a WW with hairy arms I silently judge them because I know back home they have a drawer full of chisels that could use a good sharpening.

I just have to be careful not to catch myself in a mirror because most of the time that's me.

[Timberwolf]

I just have to be careful not to catch myself in a mirror because most of the time that's me.

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OK. But just don't start shaving your legs...People may start raising their eyebrows...

[Steve Hamlin]

I think sharpening as a skill in the general population died out with the goose quill pen: when I first learned to get tools work sharp, I remembered with disbelief that my father (the Edwardian son of an upholsterer and french polisher) had once commented it was time to send his chisels out for sharpening: how he escaped learning to make a sharp edge is beyond me.

[tablesawtom]

I have to say I loved the responses to this post. This post deserves its own place on the forum.

Tom

[Hank Knight]

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When I see a WW with hairy arms I silently judge them because I know back home they have a drawer full of chisels that could use a good sharpening.

Not necessarily. I used to shave arm hair, but not anymore. My 80 years have reduced my body hair to almost nothing, and I am protective of the little I have left. I learned that if I present an edge to the flat of my fingernail with no pressure other than the weight of the tool, it will skitter off if it is dull. A sharp edge will catch immediately. I do this several places along the edge to make sure I've got it consistently sharp along its entire length. It works perfectly and does not waste hair or deface my arm.

Another helpful skill is learning to recognize when your edge begins to deteriorate. if you stop early and touch up your edge, you avoid the tedious process of refining an edge that is well over the hill. I've learned that edges begin to deteriorate long before the tool feels dull in use. When my plane iron starts leaving tiny, almost imperceptible tracks in the surface, it's time to stop and give it a good stropping or even a touch up with a hone. Same with a chisel. In both cases to tool appears to be cutting well and doesn't require noticeably more pressure in the cut. In other words, it appears to still be sharp. But the tiny tracks give away the fact that it is appreciably duller than when I started and I need to touch it up. The touch up is quick and easy and hardly interrupts the rhythm of my work. I keep a fine hone on my bench (Usually a translucent Arkansas stone), and a leather strop. A few passes on either or both is all that's required to get back to work. If I continue until the tool is obviously dull, I have to drag out several stones, cutting lubricant and the strop to recover a satisfactory edge, a process that completely interrupts my work rhythm. Sharpen early and often is the key to maintaining sharp tools.
My $.02.