Thread: How sharp do you like it?

Something that helped me understand was thinking about what the sharpest edge you might be able to get with a 220 grit stone or even courser looks like. Almost like a little fine toothed saw huh?

Another interesting exercise to help visualize what's going on might be to go get some 60 120 220 and 400 grit sandpaper and a 1/4 inch thick piece of wood and "sharpen" it with the paper flat on your bench. Cover your "spine" side with 6 layers of duct tape if that helps ya keep things consistent. Set a bevel with the 60 that only eats a 16th into each side. Notice the 1/8 inch flat where there should be sharp on your edge. Go ahead and move up the grits one by one as you would with the hones. Each successive grit removing only the grooves of the previous. Feel the bevel and the edge with each grit. If you don't over do it I bet you have at least 1/16 of an inch wide edge. Then go back to your 60 and start all over. Only this time set a complete bevel and work your way up. I feel like this should make things painfully obvious. Most woods at 400 feel pretty smooth. No wood I know of feels smooth at 60. And that first attempt before you really set the bevel doesn't fool anyone into appearing sharp even if the bevel is buttery smooth to the touch.

I'm sure this experiment would show you what happens when you sharpen edge first vs edge last too. With edge last I'm sure you get a furry little burr especially on a soft wood.

If you wanna keep going, find some wet dry paper and take it grit by grit to 4000. Sure it's smoother than 2500 and sure that's smoother than 1200 but is it really appreciably smoother and with how much work? I'm guessing by 800 or 1200 you're really slipping hairs. (I'm sure I'm not the only one that can't resist this pun around here. )

When I was younger I did hardwood floors and I certainly learned you really had to go through all the grits or you where just making more work for yourself or making a floor covered in scratch marks. Over doing it just leaves less floor to refinish later.

Same deal really.