{"id":8223,"date":"2025-10-20T19:41:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T23:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=8223"},"modified":"2025-10-21T03:17:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:17:01","slug":"how-to-alter-a-manufactured-hand-gauge-for-sharpening-plane-irons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/how-to-alter-a-manufactured-hand-gauge-for-sharpening-plane-irons\/","title":{"rendered":"How to alter a manufactured hand gauge for sharpening plane irons"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Here is one more thing to add to a manufactured device<\/strong> for sharpening. The previous post<\/strong> explains the issue: for sharpening plane irons that have a slightly curved edge, which is most of them, a subtle curve needs to be added to the roller. (This does not apply to nearly all chisels.)<\/p>\n

I have two Woodcraft rollers. One is used as is – for sharpening straight edges. (Photo is below.) The other roller is very slightly curved across its width. (Carefully note the photo above<\/em>.)<\/strong>\u00a0It was not manufactured that way but was easily done in the shop.<\/p>\n

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The roller itself is 1\/2\u201d wide. Working out the math and using it in practice, reveals that the roller needs to be ground just about .003\u201d on each 1\/4\u201d half of the wheel. In other words, from zero at the center point to a maximum curve of .003\u201d shorter at each far side edge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An electric motor-rotating wheel can do this. Be careful and keep fingers away from the wheel! (The safety decision is solely up to you.)<\/p>\n

Note that you are making a curved angle on each side, not a straight-edge angle. It is easy to do.<\/p>\n

This adds a comfortably controllable ability<\/strong> for angling the plane edge on the flat stone. This is far better than trying to alternately angle onto just the outside corners of a regular flat wheel guide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This subtly angled wheel will work for almost all of the plane blades. As I have mentioned in the previous post: nearly all manufacturers neglect this important factor. They could simply supply two replaceable wheels or two frame-wheel combinations. (Again, Lee Valley\/Veritas is the only manufacturer that I know of that builds in the curvature in one of their wheels. I do not care for their expensive system but I do suggest taking a look online for your choice.)<\/p>\n

With all of this said now, I will still say that I do the vast majority of sharpening by the total hand-holding method discussed three posts ago<\/strong>. But now you have options!<\/p>\n

Sharpening is a must<\/i> for good woodworking<\/strong> but not hard to do with the right equipment and skills!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is one more thing to add to a manufactured device for sharpening. The previous post explains the issue: for sharpening plane irons that have a slightly curved edge, which is most of them, a subtle curve needs to be added to the roller. (This does not apply to nearly all chisels.) I have two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jigs-and-fixtures","category-techniques"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8223"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8257,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8223\/revisions\/8257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}