Veritas sharpening guide -- micro bevel

[EricU]

Now, move to the mystery stone and run the exact same blade over it a few times - but let half the blade hang over the edge of the stone.  After a few strokes look at the scratch pattern and you'll immediately see which stone made coarser scratch marks.  Make sure you have good light and some magnification.  I think 5x is plenty, but more is better.

As an aside, if you hate to sharpen, buy a lot of planes.  Do a big sharpening session periodically.  When one plane gets dull, just grab a sharp one.   

I just used the 800x and then the green stone on a chisel, and the green stone is definitely finer grit than the 800.  The 800x left the blade dull, the green stone left it shiny.  I'm sure 25 years ago when I bought them that I knew what I was doing.  I think I'll have to upgrade my stones though.

I think I have 6 #3's, so at least with that I can follow your advise.  I have 2 #7's, but they are going to be set up differently once I get around to sharpening their blades.

[Mark Allen]

My two bits ... I think that micro adjuster this is one of those things that has an intended use, but some more unintended uses as well if you are clever.

I think it's a great way to take out a nick in a blade or fix a non-square edge very quickly at 120X ... I'm not sitting there grinding out the whole bevel on a bench stone just to touch up a very small area of the edge. It makes my bevels look like hell, but it's the cutting edge that matters anyways. That's not much different than anyone else here.

I will also use it for very wide blades, but not for narrow stuff (anything under a 1/2" chisel for instance), I just have a single bevel. Those narrow items sharpen quickly enough without the microbevel.

[EricU]

Mark,
That sounds like a good idea, but one of my problems is I'm obsessive about this.  I should work on that.  I was sharpening a 1/4" chisel, and came to the realization that I had really rounded the bevel while sharpening by hand.  There is 1/16" left that isn't at the primary bevel angle, and I'm having a really hard time just letting it be. I also like to have the back and bevel really shiny.

[AHill]

Let me add a big + 1 to Allan's comment.  The less steel you work on the faster it will go and the less you wear your stones and guides.  The leading 1/32" or less is all that counts.

I should add that IF you grind for the primary bevel, no need to use the cam to select a different bevel.  Just work the "primary" bevel that was established with the grinder.  I rarely grind my chisels or plane blades; only if they are damaged.