# Sharpening Stanley 71 irons?



## asevereid (Apr 15, 2012)

Hey all, haven't been around here posting for a while, and I come back with a question.
I have been stalled on my woodworking projects as of late, but I have a small one going on at home that will require the use of my no.71, and the irons are just not going to 'cut it':shifty:
I primarily use the scary sharp method to do all of my irons, but am having issues finding the best way to do the irons for the 71 router plane....any suggestions on the best way to sharpen them?


----------



## Dave Paine (May 30, 2012)

I have the Lee Valley Router Plane. I have not tried to sharpen the blades yet.


I looked at the LV site for the instructions on sharpening. The plane included a special holder. You may need to make one from a piece of steel.


LV instructions :



Attach the blade to the holder with the small screw provided. The blade holder can be mounted in a honing guide or used for sharpening by hand. Hone the bevel as illustrated in *Figure 6* or *7*, and flip over to lap the back.






 *Figure 6: Honing the 1/2" straight blade.*​ *Figure 7:* *Honing the 1/2" pointed blade.*​


----------



## asevereid (Apr 15, 2012)

I won't be able to do that, as my cutters are all single piece, but that is a great idea on LV's part though.


----------



## tc65 (Jan 9, 2012)

I'd just put your stone/sandpaper on the edge of a bench. Hold the irons upside down and sharpen with movement parallel to cutting edge.

It may be hard to use the whole stone (if you use one) for sharpening, so be sure to flatten the stone before sharpening anything else.


----------



## john sayles (May 27, 2013)

Just this afternoon I sharpened a set of 3 irons for my #71½

Trc65's got it right -- you need to hang the iron off the edge of the stone, or in your case, sandpaper covered plate.

In any case, be sure to flatten the underside, just as you would with a plane blade.

I have found that the ideal grip is one-handed: hold the iron between the thumb and forefinger down low at the right angle turn in the iron.
Trying to hold such an iron with two hands only encourages rocking, which produces a rounded over edge -- the opposite of sharp.


----------

