It took lots of repetition honing, stropping, going through setup, realizing the chip breaker was right on the edge of the blade, repeat, new error. The first picture is progress: small and crunchy, long and crinkley, long and papery.
Sharpening using Atoma 400/600/1200 diamond plates + a strop I had around. I found Wood By Wright’s setup video helpful and have been enjoying Rex Kreuger’s videos on sharpening and other things.
I worked so hard for these shavings, surely there’s something fun to do with them.
I honestly thought your first photo was a still life study in oil paint.
Nice progress. A sharp tool makes a world of difference. As far as the shavings, mine usually go in the composter. A buddy of mine gives them away to people with chickens.
Thanks! We compost and know folks with chickens, good suggestions.
I collect all my shavings for the fireplace
Unfortunately I don’t have anywhere to burn them, but maybe I’ll save some for camping trips.
They make great compost too if you have any plants or a compost pile.
You can make your own firelighters with wood shavings/sawdust and paraffin wax (for candle making). Melt the wax, mix in the sawdust and pour into a muffin pan to cool. Use paper muffin liners and they’ll start really easily. The sawdust will burn hot enough to light small logs without intermediate sized sticks, and the wax is waterproof so they’ll last basically forever.
Obviously don’t use material from any treated or painted lumber, only clean wood.
Nice work! A little wood paste wax on the sole will make the plane a lot easier to push. Wood paste was is also nice to put on the surface of your table saw if you have one.
I save my wood chips from carving to use as kindling, and to wrap them in tin foil to use for smoking meat on the grill.
Experiencing a bit of plane envy here, since the only one I inherited was trash and yours looks very nice indeed.
Thanks, guess I got lucky!
You could burn them (the shavings)