Michael,
Yes, true sharpness and the full appreciation thereof will come with more
practice. I would suggest you go to the 8000 grit stone and then finish off
with a touch of the strop.

To help in your technique, get a jewelers or photographers loupe and inspect
the edge after each transition from stone to stone.

However, with the Marples blue chips you might have a hard time. They are
not capable of retaining a fine edge for more than a few strokes.

Dave


"Michael Press" wrote in message
news

I'm in the process of learning the pleasure of good quality and
properly setup tools. I recently bought 1000x and 4000x waterstones
and sharpened my block plane iron and my Marples blue chip chisels
(and my kitchen knives) following the instructions in Leonard Lee's
book.

I was able to get the chisels to be pretty sharp - I chopped mortices
in pine using only hand pressure, no hammer or mallet. The back and
bevel are pretty shiny, though not quite mirror finish (I could see my
nose but not my nose hairs). The plane creates beautiful, thin curly
shavings, though I haven't tried hardwood yet.

But they're not scary sharp - I couldn't cut off arm hairs and I
didn't have any magical transforming experience like I've heard you
get from super sharp tools. Is there another level of sharp I need to
achieve? Would an 8000x waterstone get me there?

Michael




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