Sharpening Part 26 – The Taming of the Skew

My relationship to reality has been so utterly skewed for so long that I don’t even notice it any more. It’s just my reality.
Ethan Hawke

The Taming of the Skew

Beloved Customer has of course noticed that it is easier to keep a blade stable when sharpening its bevel if you skew it on the stone. There is nothing wrong with skewing the blade so long as you understand the natural consequences of doing so and compensate for them appropriately. In this article we will examine some of those consequences.

The first and most immediately obvious consequence of skewing the blade when sharpening it is that the blade tends to wear-out, or hollow-out, the center area of the sharpening stone quicker. This is inefficient, wasting time and stones, but can be compensated for if you pay attention and work the blade evenly over the stone’s entire face. BTW, this is not a kindly suggestion but a commandment.

Second, it is human tendency to place uneven pressure on a skewed blade, with the natural result that the blade wears unevenly. Think about it.

In addition, the leading corner is exposed to more fresher, larger grit particles (which cut more aggressively) than the trailing corner. As a result, the blade’s leading corner tends to be abraded more, causing the blade’s edge to gradually become skewed or rounded in shape over many sharpening sessions. This is definitely bad, and is often mistaken for the work of those devilish iron pixies, especially in the case of kiwaganna and other skewed-blade planes, causing self-doubt and mental anguish (aka “going bananas”). But if you are aware this can happen, and pay attention, you can easily compensate for thereby avoiding months of expensive psychoanalysis by Dr. Alonzo and the need to consume massive pallets of his pretty purple pills.

Third, and I have no way to confirm this, I am told by the guys with microscopes that diagonal scratches at the extreme cutting edge leave it a tad weaker, causing it to dull just a bit quicker.

The way to remove problematic diagonal scratches, BTW, is to make the last few strokes on the finishing stone perpendicular to the cutting edge.

So in summary, habitually skewing a blade while sharpening it is not ideal and should be avoided, but is not catastrophic. It will make one’s sharpening efforts a little less efficient and may cause blades and stones to become distorted, but these negatives can be dealt with, at some cost.

Please read the quotation at the top of this article and consider whether or not your sharpening reality has become skewed without your realizing it. Your humble servant confesses, and Dr. Alonzo can confirm, that his was indeed skewed for a long time.

These aren’t things you wouldn’t have figured out for yourself eventually, Beloved Customer, but now, at least if you pay attention, you’re a few years ahead on the learning curve.

In the worst case, at least ignorance isn’t an excuse anymore. And there’s always pretty purple pills to take the edge off (ツ).

YMHOS

Related image — Shakespeare’s Shrew, Katherine Minola, played by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1987 movie. In this photograph she’s obviously watching someone skewing a plane or chisel blade while sharpening it. Clint Eastwood probably learned a thing or two from this lady.

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