Toothed blades

[Tony Z]

Quick question: for toothed blades, am I correct in that the bevel is never honed, but the flat back is honed?

Thanks in advance.

[barryvabeach]

I don't know what is proper, but I have honed both sides with no problems so far.

[John Walkowiak]

On a toothing blade, only the bevel should be ground and honed. There is no flat back on a toothing blade, what would be the flat back is the points of the teeth.

[Mike Brady]

This is a really interesting question; whether to lap the back or the bevel of a toothed blade.   Honing the bevel will eventually wear away the teeth.  Honing just the back will act like a back bevel.  I'm not sure what the right answer is, but I have found that the toothed blades require less frequent honing than their regular plane blade counterparts.  The gaps in the cutting edge mean less wear on the metal since the wood is effectively less dense when it is has row or furrows cut into it.

I have been sharpening my toothed blades with a microbevel and leaving the back alone.  They are A-2 steel and lapping the whole bevel on a thick iron takes forever.

[Admiral]

http://periodcraftsmen.blogspot.com/2015...plane.html

[AHill]

Never hone the back.  Hone the bevel.  The teeth are grooves cut into the back side of the blade.  If you honed the back side, eventually, you'd not have any teeth.  It's OK to take a couple of swipes on the back side to remove the burr between grits, but otherwise, stick to the bevel.

[Tony Z]

Thanks one and all. Consensus is the bevel, which ran contrary to advice I was given, which confused me and lead to my original post! The article Admiral posted is a good read.

[Rob Young]

Thanks one and all.  Consensus is the bevel, which ran contrary to advice I was given, which confused me and lead to my original post!  The article Admiral posted is a good read.

Yes indeed, the bevel.  Admiral gives the correct reason.

Care to disclose the original source of the wrong headed info?

[Tony Z]

Not really Rob, it was some time ago, in a discussion on another forum, not specifically about sharpening toothed blades, but in a discussion about planing gnarly grain. Could easily have been my misunderstanding of what was described.

[Rob Young]

Not really Rob, it was some time ago, in a discussion on another forum, not specifically about sharpening toothed blades, but in a discussion about planing gnarly grain.  Could easily have been my misunderstanding of what was described.

Something posted on-line could potentially be wrong!  The shock!  The horror!  The irony (hope I picked the right word and didn't pull an Alanis Morissette) of finding a discussion of what is the correct method on-line ... 


Carry on.