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I was wondering if anyone has tips for sharpening the blades on the Ibex finger planes. My brother and I are building a Mandolin (A-style stewmac kit) together and have started work carving the top. I'm all set up to sharpen flat blades but am not exactly sure what to do with the small convex blades that the Ibex planes use. Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
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Josh...I was able to successfully do them by hand by rolling the convex side of the blade over sandpaper on glass. The flat side is simple. It's a bit fussy because of the small size but once honed, I've been able to keep a SS edge with an occasional touch up on the leather strop. I carved out a LP curly maple top with the blade sharpened this way. Good luck!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Josh,

I use the sandpaper method JJ mentions to get the blade sharp to start with. To keep the blade in good shape as I use it, I made a little honing jig for my blades. I glued a scrap piece of leather ~2 X 6 onto a scrap piece of MDF. I rub a little chromium polishing compound on it and then give the blade a few swipes across it to touch up the edge as I go. It will restore a razor edge to a blade in just a minute or two.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
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japanese water stone cones for the curved side .... or the LV 1 inch sander with 1200 and then leather strop belts if you have that ...

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Carve out a chunk of basswood or (?) the shape of the blade (with the blade), use sandpaper method in the 'tube' to hone. They use this method in various forms to sharpen carving gouges but opposite of course.

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Thanks for the tips guys. I will give some of those methods a try and I'm sure they will help a lot.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com