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Hone a small bevel on the back side of a rusty blade…
… to quickly get down to clean steel.
Q: I’ve got an old plane that my grandfather left me. I’d like to use it, but its cutting iron is really rusty. Do I need to buy a new one?
A: Don’t throw away that iron yet. Flattening the back of a plane iron is usually the first step in sharpening, but you might spend hours to get down below the rust pits to clean steel.What a chore!
Here’s a non-standard method that could rescue your antique plane iron. Rather than flatten the entire back, work only on the leading edge to create a very small, low-angle bevel. This will slightly increase the cutting angle of the plane, but you probably won’t notice the difference.
The catch is that you must hone this back bevel at a consistent angle every time you sharpen.Use a standard honing guide to sharpen the main bevel of the iron and simply turn it upside down to create the back bevel. If you prefer to sharpen without a guide, you can create the back bevel by laying a shim on top of your stone. The shim slightly raises the blade the same way the guide does.
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