How I sharpen a hand planer blade or chisel?

Add a little oil on the sharpening stone.

Place the blade on the surface of the stone; you should feel where the grinding angle sits on the stone. Then lift the blade up 5 degrees. 

Move the blade back and forward using the whole of the stone. 

When moving the planer blade, you should keep even pressure on the edge of the blade. 

Depending on the state of your blade, your sharpening can take a little while.

Occasionally, if you lift up the blade, look underneath and you will see the edge being taken away and a new layer of shinny metal being produced.

To check if the blade is sharp -

As you hone (sharpen) the blade a bur will develop on the back, you should frequently check it by running your hand down the back of the blade to feel a slight metal edge, If you feel it your sharpened blade is almost done.

Safety - running your hand down and away from the blade is safe but obviously running your hand into, and up the blade is dangerous.

'Backing off' -

You now need to take the bur of the edge of the blades; this will give it the final cutting edge.

To 'back off', place the back of the blade, flat on the oil stone.

Move it up and down a couple of times, this will flatten of the back of the blade. You should now have a sharp blade.

This is also the same technique for the chisel. 

TIP – If the blade can slice through a single piece of paper you won’t get it any sharper. 
 

How to sharpen wood chisels

When sharpening wood chisels, the same technique as above applies.

But there’s a couple more tricks you need to know -

As the chisel has a smaller width, this can wear down the oil stone, to get round this you need to use all of the stone when sharpening. 

If you have a small chisel, it can be sharpened on its side as there is more surface area and easier to control.