Many of the irons I have come across in the wild are rounded over, which is probably the result of failed attempts to keep the bevel face flat on the sharpening medium. I suspect that many end up adding a microbevel after this as they no longer have a flat surface on which to hone.

Consequently, the method I use is to add a slight hollow grind to the bevel face. This may be safely done with either a Dremel or 120 grit sandpaper wrapped around a dowel. Of course, if you are as crazy as I (!), then use the round end of a belt sander.

The hollow does not need to be more than slight – just enough to reduce the area to be honed, and to ensure that the bevel face does not round over.

The remainder of the process is the same as yours, with the one exception that you can create a (coplanar)microbevel (this just depends on how big the hollow is). The advantage of this method is that re-sharpening is reliably easy, and does lead to very sharp edges.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I think I already knew the approach that Chris demonstrated on the video. Knew it because what I’ve learned from this blog, in concert with several others Chris recommends, and built my own body of knowledge that I am applying to new (for me) problems and issues. The real value of this blog comes from standing on the intellectual shoulders of those who precede me, using that base to expand my knowledge, and appreciation of a very interesting and consuming interest.

Thanks. Thanks for the video, and for the shoulders.

Richard

The fix is more involved than a simple response to a blog post, and I don’t have a new-to-me 71 to demonstrate with. But it’s not too involved, and I’ll draw a few pictures soon to email to you, if you’re interested.

My old 71s never had that problem. Is that common? If so — that stinks.

Chris

While (I hope) Lie-Nielsen and Veritas blades come from the factory in such a state of fine tuning that the blade will actually cut a surface that’s parallel to the sole of the plane, the truth is that older models need to be tuned up. And while grinding them is difficult, it’s part of the process of getting the edge to be parallel to the sole.