Other than using a commercial sharpening station for my kitchen knives, I'm new to sharpening. My paltry, cheapo chisel collection is in need of some attention. Once I get some planes (a low angle block and probably a #4 bench plane) sharpening will be a need. I'm pretty limited on space, which is why I'd prefer not to get the Worksharp (which seems to be highly recommended). Anyone happy with the Veritas MkII and a simple glass or granite set up with wet/dry paper? I was thinking this might be a good starting point before I sink money into a variety of sharpening stones, etc. Suggestions would be appreciated. The more idiot proof the system, the better.

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Own: CT22, TS55, OF1010, MFT/3, RO150, Domino and T15
Need: Kapex, skills to use all these tools, time to develop these skills, a festool logo coffee cup for when I'm on TF, a way to finance needs ...

I have several honing guides, and I have to say that the Veritas MKII is my favorite (and by no means the most expensive). Lee Valley sells really nice self-adhesive sandpaper that will make your blades plenty sharp. The cost adds up after a while - I concluded that the Shapton ceramic stones would be a better long-term investment for me. I've heard that people who sharped A LOT find them to wear too quickly. I have not even come close to running into that problem.

I think your choice of planes is excellent. For the low-angle block plane I'd strongly suggest the LV version - you can buy a knob and tote for it, and it will function as a #2 or #3 plane - very easy to control. I leave mine set up that way. The LN #4 is superb, though I found that the 50 degree frog gets me a MUCH better surface in the cherry that I love. You don't have to worry about grain direction - it'll go with it or against it. I'd also suggest that you get a low-angle apron plane. I have the LN version, and it's often the first plane I go to for almost anything. I love its size, reliability, and versatility.

Have fun!

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I don't have as many Festools as Fred. Or Marcou's, or Brese's, or Lie-Nielsen's, or Lee Valley's, or Blue Spruce's, or Harold and Saxon's, or...

Other people here are (a lot) more informed than I am, but for what it's worth....

• I bought a set of water stones about 18 months ago. They've never been out of the box because I don't have a good place set up to use them yet.
• Meanwhile, I'd been putting off using my tools (Stanley scraper, a L-N plane, a tiny Veritas plane, some chisels...) because I wasn't in a position to keep them honed.
• Last week I finally got tired of waiting.
• Since I had a Veritas MkII, a nice piece of plate glass, and LOTS of sandpaper, I decided to try the Scary Sharp method.
• I've only tried it with my Stanley scraper so far, but it worked like a charm for lapping the sole, lapping the blade, and sharpening and honing the bevel.
• It's really REALLY easy. And effective. And convenient. And FAST. I'm so happy with it, I don't really care if I EVER use my water stones.
• Oh, and the Veritas MkII is AWESOME - absolutely worth buying.

But a picture's worth a thousand words, so here's what my scraper did after its Scary Sharp tuneup:

Thanks folks. I better get out the credit card. I've had to start shipping to work, since the wife is home now and keeps inquiring why I have a steady stream of packages arriving.

I wish we had a Lee Vally store here. Well, next time I go to the far, far, far North.

Poto ... do you have a workbench that you use for your hand tool work. I just realized I'm going to have to come up with something other than my MFT to do this, or just build a base with storage cabinets that makes the MFT hand plane stable.

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Own: CT22, TS55, OF1010, MFT/3, RO150, Domino and T15
Need: Kapex, skills to use all these tools, time to develop these skills, a festool logo coffee cup for when I'm on TF, a way to finance needs ...

I use two MFT1080's end-to-end for my hand-tool work. It's not as stable as I would like, and I'm thinking of making some heavy legs to replace the metal ones on the tables. I really love the tops, and would want to keep them. I wouldn't clamp anything too big to the side rails, as I don't think they could withstand too much force. But for the most part, the two MFT's work really well. They tend to move when I use my planes, and I have to occasionally drag them back into position...

You're welcome to come over and try my MKII or the planes...

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I don't have as many Festools as Fred. Or Marcou's, or Brese's, or Lie-Nielsen's, or Lee Valley's, or Blue Spruce's, or Harold and Saxon's, or...

I have the Veritas MkII and a glass plate and a granite slab. I like the granite slab with the MkII and films I bought from tools for working wood. When you buy the larger sheets several at a time, it cuts the overall cost down and you can go to a pretty fine grade.

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Water separates the people of the world; wine unites them.

"If you have good manners and are well spoken, you can be welcome anywhere." -Mom, 1959

And the "do what you like" response:
Anything that you do which: fits your budget, feels comfortable, and nets a consistent, repeatable razors edge on whatever it is you have, do.
There are so many sharpening techniques out there, its kind of like getting a bunch of turners together and asking about the "right" grind on a gouge. Catfight ensues.
But with sharpening, so many of them do a great job.
I love my waterstones, and use them a great deal for keeping the flat tools honed to a deadly edge. They work. But I've used sandpaper set on a jointer bed or a tablesaw top. It works too. I have tempered glass. That works.
What I probably use the most is the Tormek. I got it years ago, and it does work great, but unless you have chisels, flat irons, gouges, turning tools, axes, scissors... as much as I like it, I still don't know that it's $700 good unless you are just going to use it for everything. Fortunately, I pretty much do anymore.
But for the stuff I really want sharp, after the bevel is established on the Tormek, I still go to the 8000grit Norton. When you don't even feel it take your thumb clean off, then its sharp.
If your budget is tight, I'd get that honing guide. You'll use that forever. Then just establish your technique for now on sandpaper until you get comfortable.

There are a thousand ways to abrade steel, from round grinding wheels
to abrasive slurry on a smooth plate. Most people use a flat abrasive
and they strive to keep it flat.

Christopher Schwarz blog has a video of an old timer demonstrating
how to use a figure 8 motion on a stone to help keep the stone flat.
It works for sandpaper too. In fact, the softer the abrasive matrix
the more important it is to work it all over.

Coincidentally last night I had to sharpen two chisels and ended up doing 8 as the others could use a touch up.

This is what I made for a sharpening station. It's based on a pond design from Frank Klausz:



Like Poto said, the wet/dry paper starts to add up. I have a stack of very coarse grits for when flattening plane bodies, but the stones are faster and long-term cheaper.

The block in the middle has 4 Shapton stones attached to it. 220, 1000, 5000, and 15000. Frank uses a pond like this (with 3 stones, though) in his cabinet shop with Nortons. The pond is filled with a couple inches of water and there's a brush so you can wet the stones and flush off the slurry. He's used this for decades; 5-7 guys cycle through it all day in his shop.

At a convention, a Shapton distributor gave him Shaptons to put on the box so he made a second one for classes as "I don't want my guys breaking them" With the Shaptons, a spritz of water is literally all you want/need so I just spray some on. In that sense, the 'pond' part is useless for me except catching errant drips. Someday I may remake the 'pond' to be less 'pond' and wider for a small square to store the small spray bottle.

It's great to have because it is right where you work and you don't need to worry about water running everywhere. I touch up on 15,000. If I waited too long, 5,000 then 15,000. I usually only go back to 1,000 when there's a nick. 220 is more useful for new stuff that needs the back worked harder (but I do usually do wet/dry for that).

I think you'd do very well with Shapton 1000, 5000 and 15000 as with that combination, you can do a lot. I think the people that complain they don't last as long as they like are the ones who reflatten every 5 seconds.

But as was mentioned, use whatever works for you. The Shaptons are expensive, but not that much more than equivalent Nortons and the time and mess you save on with just a spray of water and wipe down more than compensates over the 10 minute soak and gallons of slurry.

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I use the MK II. I love it!

I have tried hand sharpening and it is faster, but I find it is not consistent..xxx I am not consistent in keeping a perfect angle. My situation is unique I feel, so take it with a grain of salt. I have a little bit of shakes in my hand and I am only 37. I presume it will only get worse. I could spend the time and hope I get good muscle memory, or I could just use the darn jig that really only adds 1-3 minutes to my overall time. It is easy, and after you use the jig a few times you can setup and sharpen without even looking at the jig. I find it more zen like for me, because I can sharpen without thinking and I know it will be consistent.

As for methods.. I have three setups, no idea why.. I was just bored and wanted to do research. I have a set of nortons, shaptons, and also use scary sharp. I no longer use the nortons. I am sure it does a close enough job to the shaptons, but I do feel the shaptons do a better job, faster, and are so much easier to tell when flattened and clean up faster. I also use the scary sharp method. I bounce back and forth between the two. I now find I use the scary sharp more often on plane blades and the shaptons for my chisels. I don't have any good reason as to why I do that, I am just weird like that. (deep down I really just want to have more of something than Fred, but I am sure Fred has oil stones, arkansas stones, and I bet some weird 500000grit stone from Mars that won't be in the distribution chain for six more years.) I don't really have a preference between scary sharp and shaptons. I like them both.

And, the big plus for the MK II, the micro bevel is dead easy to perform. and it is 100% spot on, all the time!

Cheers

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