Review by Mark Gezella – April 2006

Mr. Charlesworth is a rare breed in this day of modern technology. He is soft-spoken, and dutifully teaches in a very slow, methodical manner. His actions are very deliberate, and he interjects the occasional joke during class to keep a comfortable atmosphere. It's reassuring to hear a person of his caliber offer instruction in a such a congenial tone. So often it seems "experts" have a propensity to condescend at times - as if they choose to berate students rather than assist them. I was happy to see David offer his knowledge without pontificating along the way.

In Plane Sharpening, David teaches in detail how to sharpen and retain a tool edge on regular bench planes. To accomplish this, he stresses three fundamentals of utmost importance; 1) A sharp plane iron is essential, 2) A chip-breaker must make absolute contact with the iron, and 3) A plane must have a flat sole.

A plane iron must first be ground to an accurate profile. This is especially true for used irons, when nicks or chips are oftentimes present. Though David alludes to the grinding process, he doesn't actually demonstrate this in the series. Instead, he concentrates on "grinding" with a coarse stone, followed by honing and polishing to establish a usable edge (irons in this video are presumed ready for this stage of work). He likes waterstones, and uses three throughout the sharpening process; an 800 (coarse) grit, a 1200 (medium) grit, and a 6000 (polishing) grit stone. You won't get a truly sharp tool edge without a dead-flat stone, so he first demonstrates how to flatten stone using two methods; first by stroking a stone with a large, coarse diamond stone, and second by scrubbing a stone against 220 grit (or thereabouts) wet/dry sandpaper on "float" glass.

With stones at the ready, first order of business is to flatten and polish the back of the iron. But don't fret over the entire blade - just focus on the outer-most 1/4" section. David likes to overhang off the edge of the stone, then drift the iron back and forth so the edge meets the stone over it's length. A series of steps that alternate between blade strokes and stone flattening leaves an iron ready for polishing. He uses a "ruler trick" that I'd never seen before; adhering a small ruler to a stone's edge by surface tension (remember - these stones are wet) lifts the blade up to direct pressure on the edge. Twenty or so strokes leaves a "micro-polish" on the back. Next he turns to the bevel, where he uses a 23-33-35 rule for sharpening; a 23 degree approach on the coarse stone, a 33 degree angle on the medium stone, finalized by a 35 degree pass on the polishing stone. He forms an initial polishing paste using a Japanese Madura stone, and says the trick to polishing is to caress the stone - no pressure. Three or four strokes and you're done!

Believe it or not, David doesn't actually keep a square edge on his irons. He prefers a round, or cambered edge for two reasons; to prevent "blade tracking" in wood, and to facilitate planing square edges. He rounds his blades by applying a series of strokes while shifting pressure points across the bevel. He relies on his ruler trick once again, substituting strips of cardboard to cant the blade. After forming the round edge, it is finished off with a series of strokes (4-2-0-2-4 from edge to edge, sans cardboard) to finalize the shape. And note this - all operations take place with a honing guide. David prefers these to keep the blade in a relatively constant position. Pressure points on the iron's edge are the real key.

It's imperative the chip-breaker lie absolutely flat against an iron to plane a full shaving. If it doesn't, shavings will inevitably catch in the gaps and choke the tool. I know from experience this is very frustrating! He eliminates this problem with a "fettled" breaker (in England anyway!), accomplished by hanging the breaker tail off the edge of a stone in order to grind/polish the edge. Following a series of steps similar to blade preparation renders a chip-breaker ready for use. All that's left is to assemble the parts and go to work. It only takes him a few minutes to set a plane iron before he's drawing full-width shavings from an entire length of board.

Akin to the omission on grinding, David doesn't cover a specific technique regarding a flat sole. He presumes your working with a tool of decent quality, and anything out of tolerance has either been hand-lapped, or machined by a shop skilled in that discipline. Since the target audience is students interested in getting the finest cut from their Lie-Nielsen products, it's understood that the tool is already dead flat and ready for planing.