On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 12:34:57 -0400, "phil" wrote: snip
Phil,
FWIW, I don't put a microbevel on my plane or chisel edges. These are western tools too...not Japanese. The reasoning behind a micro bevel is so one can rehone the ege without taking off too much metal. Also, the edge is a bit more resistant to chipping. I don't know if it saves any time or not. Every once in a while...and this is why I don't like microbevels...is that you have to reestablish the primary bevel.
Once, while spending much time reestablishing the bevel of a couple of plane irons by hand I decided not to hone a microbevel. I put the iron in my #6 fore plane and set it for as fine a cut as I could set. For me it was like an epiphany. I could make shavings much thinner than I could when the iron had a micro bevel. So thin they weren't coming out of the plane curly, they were coming out wavy...and so thin, thin like
1-ply tissue. And this was with a stock iron too.So, that was it for me. No more fussing with micro bevels any more.
Layne