How to Sharpen the Blade of Your Japanese Hand Plane
Keeping the blade of your Japanese hand plane sharp is key to producing beautiful wood shavings with every pull. Here we explain in detail everything you need to do to keep your blade in top shape, whether it's badly chipped or just worn down. You don't have to be a seasoned craftsman to follow these steps. Nor does keeping your blade sharp have to be a daunting task.
In this article, we go over these important, easy-to-follow steps to help you maintain the sharpness and longevity of your Japanese plane blade.
1: What You Will Need for Sharpening
For dull blades, you will need a medium grit and an ultra-fine grit whetstone.
For chipped blades, you will need a coarse grit, a medium grit, and an ultra-fine grit whetstone.
When you're correcting the whetstone, you will need a correction stone or a diamond whetstone.
You will also need water when using any Japanese whetstones.
2: Preparing the Whetstone
The first step in preparing a whetstone is to make sure the surface is flat.
Next, it’s important to submerge the whetstone in water. Most affordable Japanese whetstones available today are man-made. These synthetic whetstones should be soaked in water for about 10 minutes before use to allow the water to absorb into the whetstone.
If you have a natural Japanese whetstone, it should be dipped in water just before use.
3: Sharpening a Dull Blade
Begin by sharpening the blade's bevel with a medium-grit whetstone until a slight burr forms on the non-bevel side of the edge.
Forming a burr is a sign that you have sharpened to the edge of the blade.
When sharpening the blade, it's important to remember a few points.
The first is that the sharpening angle should always be consistent. Also, there should be no gap between the blade's bevel and the whetstone.
When applying force, only do so when pushing down and forward.
Sharpen slowly and pay extra attention to the angle to prevent the edge from forming a curve. If you are new to sharpening with a whetstone, using short strokes will prevent the edge from curving.
It is also important to use the entire surface of the whetstone when sharpening the blade to keep the whetstone's surface level. If you are using short strokes, be sure to move the whetstone around to cover all of its surface.
Finally, only an ultra-fine-grit whetstone is able to remove the burr.
Here you may be able to see that a slight burr has formed on the non-bevel side of the blade.
4: Removing the Burr
An ultra-fine-grit whetstone is needed for removing the burr.
It's important to change out the water with clean water before beginning the sharpening process with the ultra-fine-grit whetstone.
To remove the burr, alternate sharpening the blade on the bevel side and non-bevel side.
Once the burr is removed from the non-bevel side, finish sharpening the blade with the whetstone. The ratio of time spent between each side should be 70% for the bevel side and 30% for the non-bevel side.
Do not rinse off the whetstone while sharpening. Keep the grinding solution and use it as you're sharpening for best results.
This process will result in an evenly sharpened blade.
5: Sharpening a Chipped Blade
If the edge of the blade is chipped, begin the sharpening process with a coarse-grit whetstone.
After soaking the whetstone for 10 minutes, hold the blade perpendicular to the whetstone and sharpen the blade until there are no more chips along the edge.
Once you have removed all chips, and the flattened edge is perpendicular to the whetstone, begin sharpening the bevel side of the blade with a coarse-grit whetstone until a burr appears on the non-bevel side.
It is important to keep adding water to the whetstone while sharpening the blade.
After a slight burr appears on the non-bevel side of the blade, switch to an ultra-fine-grit whetstone to remove the burr.
Once the burr is removed, follow the same steps as sharpening a dull blade shown at the beginning of this tutorial.
Use a medium-grit whetstone to sharpen the bevel side of the blade until a slight burr forms on the non-bevel side.
Then, use an ultra-fine-grit whetstone to remove the burr.
After the burr is removed from the non-bevel side, finish sharpening the blade with an ultra-fine-grit whetstone. The ratio of time spent between each side should be 70% for the bevel side and 30% for the non-bevel side.
Do not rinse off the whetstone while sharpening. Keep the grinding solution and use it as you're sharpening for best results.
Check out our other articles for more great tips on how to care for and maintain your Japanese hand planes!
