Sharpening to 250-grit: Woodworking cutting edges that work | Paul Sellers 

Why is it the first thing I thought was "getting jelly off a saw must be a nightmare" after reading this?

What grit did u sharpen the knife to tho?

"That's great!"

I know the feeling! I OCD-like cut my sandwich so delicately so the bread and contents do not get squashed at all! Needs a very sharp knife and a couple of minutes, but it looks great 🤪

OMG this comment! :D

Jason Grady I just made a new handle for my tenon saw. I brought the handle inside and gave it to my 1 year old and he looked at it and said"ooooooooooooh" what joy that brings.

Jason Grady sir, im glad you learned that sooner. because i am in that phase right now, except with more regrets. im just happy i found out about this channel before i went ahead to buy expensive stones, mortise chisels, different saws, etc.... ive already spent too much..... seems like to start, you need few good clamps, a 4 or 5 plane with two blades (scrub/smoothing), a couple of nice chisel, one cheap chisel for mortise work, a couple of saw horses, a panel saw and a small backsaw, and 250-400 grit/1200-1500 grit stones/strop set. with these, you can make just about any small household wood items.

Yeah, I'd say that sounds about right. That would be a nice collection to get going for a while.

I agree with everything that is said here what a magnificent teacher I am also new to this channel and have subscribe just getting my tools together also real small shop trying to organizeThank you Paul

You have to watch it. Planes can be addictive. And getting the best out of them is even more addictive. So are old saws. But then so can be sharpening any tool from a saw to a kitchen knife.

hillclimber65, define needed. Im japanese-french carpenter worker(i make them not my nationality :v) im i use 12000 grit If you want a sharp tool that work and make great jobs, with 2400, 1500, 1200 or 1000 is great. But if you want to sense the smoother finish and make an polish the wood for a great french polish or relative shiny finish 30000, 12000, 8000 or 5000 are for you. Everything is relative of what you want(it doesnt mean that you can get those conditions with 2400, but will be greater with 12000)

Andrei Charpentier Quesada You do know that hillclimber65 was kidding, right?

lol

Andrei Charpentier Quesada *Woosh*

Needed? No. But shiny!

Backsaw robcosman and thei r nice workbench !

If you go to some woodcraft stores and get familiar with the staff they will help you get what ever you need done over making a buck thate why I usually go there for my wood working tools

Yes I like the knowledge that Rob Cosman and others like him have but can hardly watch their videos because of the never ending self promoting sales pitches and most times never make it to the end of their videos. It has turned me off so much that I will not buy anything from them even if it is the only place I could get that particular tool.

Me too. On the weekends I go to the shop to stop “software engineering”. Lolol

​@@lincolndickerson1293 Paul Sellers, on the other hand, on weekends does some hobby software engineering to relax.

Same here

That's really it, definitely. He turns it all into "duh" common sense - you wonder why you didn't already know it when he's through explaining it. Truly an artist and a craftsman, and a great educator / mentor.

High grit stone just makes the surface very smooth not necessarily sharper. What really makes a plane do a fantastic finish is the angle of the blade and a good sharpe tip.

Regan Inglis oh, I so agree. Our access to information is wonderful but yeh, talk about different opinions and confusion!

... and that was in 2013. Its 2020 now, and RU-vid has ruined information. It's a matter of who's feed you are buying into.

Still accurate.

20/21 hindsight says you were spot on

@@SolveEtCoagula93 More access to so much great content but also so much crap ... hard to navigate for sure

He guessed me too! I was shocked and stopped the video. I felt he sees me.

@@AndreiIR000 same

Me too! That was insane. Although I thought he was taking the piss!

I like what he talks about here. It sounds very reasonable. I do get carried away on sharpening. I think once the plane is setup right and the plane is lapped it should be no problem.

Honing to 10K and well above via animal skins (“strops”) both loaded and “clean” as well as a range of stones and compounds and stones have been used by the Japanese and others for Millenia. While they didn’t have the diamond stone and other mass,produced options, blade grinding, shaping/sharpening and honing goes,way back. In addition to making it easier and quicker to get certain types of results, plenty of empirical tests and and other results show that a well homed blade surface stays sharp longer. For some purposes, 250 or 400 grit is fine- such as for chamfering, and flat sawn wood planing- especially on soft woods like he was illustrating. Certainly, for many types of carpentry, there is no absolute necessity to using well hone blades. However, if you are dealing with figured woods, worked and exotic finishes such as french polishes, thin coated finishes or for any high chatoyance results, you have two basic options: spend an extra 30 seconds going from about 1,000 to about 10k-16k, or hand sanding to a similar level. Personally, I find it much simpler and I get better results faster with a final 30 second pass on a 16K grit stone. If you have a Work Sharp or another system it’s even easier. On hard woods like hard maple, mahogany, and others especially as you get above 1,400 Janka, you get the added benefit of a lot less planing effort, fewer blow-outs of end grain and fewer required planing passes by spending the extra 30 seconds with a 12K or above stone, compound or strop. To compare the difference, you just have to try each-especially with a hard or fine/figured wood. You can easily feel and see the difference between 1,000 and 15,000 blade finishing- let alone 250/400. You should try this test for yourself (or watch one of many available videos that do so), before you accept Mr. Seller’s word as gospel. He is a tremendous resource, and is one of possibly 20 professionals or masters that I have studies and learned from. However, for many who do fine furniture joinery work, you do yourself a disservice by following this advice- especially for hard and/or exotic and figured woods and several types of high end finishes. Some have argued the same thing with sanding to only 400/500. However, that produces similar results and disadvantages, and while it has its place, that place is NOT in producing high chatoyance, high end results with exotic, figured or hard woods. The one difference though between sanding and planing to high polish levels is that it only takes about 30 seconds longer with the planing option, and you do not have to work up across an extra 4-5 levels of grit to get there thanks to the Charlesworth ruler trick. Finally, I find that it now takes me almost no time or thought to use honing stone on the bench or a loaded leather disk on on the Work Sharp now. I just do it as a matter of course and the reduced time, effort and risk of blow-outs, coupled with a finish that would required 5 extra sanding steps to get is my reward.

An india stone and a strop were the tools of choice for a oboist I knew in the 70's. If it is sharp enough for an oboist, it is sharp enough.

He's watching over you Patrick ;) That and he probably knows the majority of his viewers are computer geeks, obsessing about the minutiae of sharpening and grits, rather than getting on building stuff :D

Me too!! He guessed me too! How did he do it?!

That startled me as well. Can there really be so many bit-bashers among his audience??

This is still true today. Even 6yr later

So each plane is sharpened to be at that level? 1,500 would then be your finished plane, right?

Chris Pond Paul is just showing that 250 will work almost as well as the higher grits.

Thank you for the info.

Absolutely correct. Since I learned of scrapers and how to sharpen an tune a plane (probably 15 years ago), I haven’t touched sandpaper to my furniture or furnishings. I’ll take severed fibers over abraded any day.