Sharpening
None of your planes, saws or chisels will be any use to you unless they’re sharp.
To keep your plane blades (known as irons) and your chisels in top condition you’re going to have to buy a two or three sharpening stones – rectangular blocks about 200mm long and 50mm or 75mm wide. Oilstones are the cheapest, but they can be messy. You soak them with oil, which lubricates the stone and carries away your metal filings. Waterstones are more costly, but are preferred by many woodworkers. As the name suggests, you soak these in water instead of oil, which creates an abrasive slurry when you rub your blades on it. Diamond stones have tiny grains of diamond embedded in a metal base.
Other types include ceramic stones, which are hard-wearing. You can buy all these stones in different “grits”, or grades, to give you a coarse, medium or fine finish.
Ideally you’ll also have a bench grinder to take a rough or chipped edge off your blades before you start sharpening. Water-cooled grinders are more costly, but a standard grinder produces lots of sparks and heat that makes it very easy to spoil your edge.
There are a number of books, magazine articles and DVDs that will show you how to sharpen. Everybody’s got their favourite technique, but they all require the same basic stones.
Saws are a different proposition. You can certainly sharpen them yourself, with some little saw files and special pliers, but it takes time and practice. You might want to send your handsaws to a “saw doctor” for sharpening. Sometimes the manufacturers will also do this for a charge.
