{"id":6859,"date":"2020-12-07T16:45:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T21:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=6859"},"modified":"2020-12-07T16:45:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T21:45:07","slug":"what-they-dont-tell-you-part-6-sharpening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/07\/what-they-dont-tell-you-part-6-sharpening\/","title":{"rendered":"What they don’t tell you, part 6 – sharpening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Suehiro<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Disclaimer: Or what they do tell you but you might not notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as you cannot be a good woodworker without understanding a lot about wood, so too, you must be a highly capable sharpener. However, with all the available information and devices devoted to sharpening, it is easy to forget about the other end of the matter \u2013 blades get dull<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, a plane blade, for example, starts to dull almost immediately when it is put to work. So, to be practical, you really should think of sharpening and dulling together as a\u00a0system<\/strong><\/em>. Teaching demonstrations may finish with an impressive hair shaving flourish but that is not the full story of what you do in the shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step in an effective system<\/strong> is to consider the steel type and quality when choosing tools. For example, I value my Japanese chisels<\/a> for how sharp the edges can be made but more for how long those edges last. The point is to think about how that nice sharp edge is going to play out when you are making things with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few more hints<\/strong> in thinking about a system:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n