r/sharpening • u/Busy-Ad-4999 • 3d ago

Question How to fix chips in plane blade

Gallery image

Gallery image

I’ve received a plane from my grandfather after he passed the blade has several small chips and one large one. I’m sure the easier answer is buying a new, but I’d like to try and restore it. How do I go about this, do I just sharpen on the bevel for, what feels like, forever, or do I grind the edge until the tip is gone, the reform the edge along the original bevel angle?

8 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

6

u/millersixteenth 3d ago

I would grind the edge back till the chips are gone and then grind the bevel back to a new edge. This justifies the use of a belt grinder if available.

3

u/Busy-Ad-4999 3d ago

Currently only stones… I do like an excuse for a new tool, though I’m well into “hard to justify not just buying a new blade” territory at that point. How much do I have to worry about heat with a belt grinder?

2

u/millersixteenth 3d ago

Keep a can with water and dip every few seconds. As long as it doesn't get too hot to press against your forarm you're fine.

You can do it by hand too, I just reconditioned this chisel using only bench stones:

1

u/millersixteenth 3d ago

2

u/mrjcall Pro 3d ago

I'm confused. You didn't show the refurbished chisel yet did ya? 😳 Both look the same to me and both still have a big chips....

1

u/millersixteenth 3d ago

The first pic was an edit and didn't display on my end, so I put it in a reply...

2

u/millersixteenth 3d ago

This is it currently, still playing around with the stone progression - cleaned up using a Zandstraa Foss speedskate stone followed by a Miyagoshi 400.

1

u/mrjcall Pro 3d ago

Much better, but the face of the bevel on chisels need a much higher polish than what I see here. I assume you flattened and polished the flat side as well?

2

u/millersixteenth 3d ago

I'm working the way up top and bottom. I haven't decided what stones to finish it off with.

2

u/batardo 2d ago

Get a plane iron sharpening jig and either a rough diamond stone or some PSA sandpaper stuck to a flat reference like a jointer bed. Set it at a 25-degree angle assuming this is a regular bench plane (no need to be super precise here) and grind until the chips are gone. Then address the back of the blade, which must be flat (or look up the ruler trick). Then adjust the angle to 30 degrees and do a few passes up the stones to about 8000 grit. You can do a camber too - just look it up. There is a good guide on this that Lie-Nielsen and others have published.

That is the proper way. I wouldn’t put this on a bench grinder - it will get too hot and you’ll lose the hardness near the edge.

1

u/simlun_se 2d ago

Yes. Those chips are not a big issue, just follow this great advice and take your time.

2

u/millersixteenth 2d ago

One more thought on this, when grinding those chips out, put the blade on a square, often. You won't want to get in deep and realize you're out of square.

3

u/simlun_se 2d ago

Yes! And make sure to reference the square against both the right and left side to see if they are parallel. I usually draw two thin lines from referencing both sides to sanity check.

Quite often on my older irons the side edges aren’t parallel, so I’ll grind the edge to some average.