The Blogs A Hungry Beast

The blog is a hungry beast, devouring two posts every week. Alas, Im running a bit behind this year. Ive installed a bathroom fan and gotten bit by a stomach bug. Neither is woodworking, but both more time consuming that Id imagined.

Careful marking for the weight holes.

Tonight I did finally get some basic woodworking in. It really only consisted of drilling, but it was with my boys, so it was still quite worth it. With everyone finally feeling better, we got to work on our Pinewood Derby cars. The race is this Saturday, so were cutting it close.
I do have a few good posts in my head and will get back to proper woodworking in the next post or so.
For some proper woodworking right achoice, check out my buddy, Tom. Hes been busy in the shop and alchoices seems to find the time to write about it.

Night, night, Tom.

Dont forget about the +Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast. We talk woodworking with Guests from around the world of woodworking every other week. Subscribe to the RSS feed or iTunes today.

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Plow Plane Blade Sharpening

After years of hand woodworking and using hand tools I have become well aware that the variety of blades to have to be sharpened is so broad as to preclude the possession of only one guide for sharpening. Thus, there is no universal guide! I proceeded to own different devices that allow me to securely support most of the blades. For plow blades I prefer to use the Stanley guide. It has the advantage of having a rear support that compensates very well the narrow width of the cutting edge, preventing the device, leaning on one side, could affect to obtain a perfectly square edge, as is appropriate for this kind of  blade. The Stanley guide, however, was designed to sharpen chisels or wide blades. Metal  plow blades are thin and is difficult to tight them enough. To remedy this problem I put a small wedge between the blade and the lower floor of the guide, getting a firm grip, without risk to affect the stability of the system during sharpening action.

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