Sharpening angles for chisels and plane blades
The angle makers grind new blades and chisels to, how they hone the edge, the cutting angle a bevel-up plane gives, and what the grit numbers on sharpening stones mean in microns.
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The primary bevel
25°
Only two sources publish this: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and Lee Valley (Veritas)
New plane blades and bench chisels come ground at this angle. Read: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Sharpening instructions (rev. 01242024); Lee Valley (Veritas), Veritas low-angle jack plane: 12° bed, 25° blade, 37° cutting angle; Lee Valley (Veritas), Veritas PM-V11 bench chisels: 25° primary bevel (30° on 3/8" and narrower).
Honing the edge
The makers agree on a small, steeper secondary bevel, but not on how much steeper, so each is named. Chisel angles by use (paring, bench, mortise) appear only in a magazine and retailer charts that disagree with the makers, so none is given here.
Hone only a small, steeper secondary (micro) bevel at the very edge; there is no need to hone the whole primary bevel each time.
Two sources: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks and Lee Valley (Veritas) , sources [1, 2]
Lie-Nielsen hones its 25° blades at 35°, a 10° secondary bevel: 1,000 grit until a burr forms, then 8,000–10,000 grit, then the back.
One source: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, the maker of those blades , sources [1]
The Veritas Mk.II guide sets a micro-bevel 1° to 2° steeper than the primary bevel.
One source: Lee Valley (Veritas), the maker of that guide , sources [2]
Veritas grinds its narrower bench chisels (3/8" and under) at 30° rather than 25°.
One source: Lee Valley (Veritas), the maker of those chisels , sources [3]
Sources
- Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Sharpening instructions (rev. 01242024), read 2026-11-08
- Lee Valley (Veritas), Mk.II honing guide: setting up, micro-bevel 1° to 2° over the primary, read 2026-11-08
- Lee Valley (Veritas), Veritas PM-V11 bench chisels: 25° primary bevel (30° on 3/8" and narrower), read 2026-11-08
Bevel-up planes: bevel and cutting angle
A bevel-up plane cuts at its bed plus the blade’s bevel. On the usual 12° bed (Lie-Nielsen and Veritas both bed their low-angle planes there; see the hand plane guide):
| Bevel | Cuts at |
|---|---|
| 25° | 37° |
| 33° | 45° |
| 38° | 50° |
Sharpening stone grits in microns
Japanese waterstones use the JIS grit scale. Each size is the median of Shapton’s figures (printed on its stones), Mirka’s and Fine Woodworking’s grit charts where three print the grit, else the mean of the two that do. A grit only one prints is left out. JIS numbers are not P or CAMI sandpaper numbers: the sandpaper grit chart has those.
| Grit | µm | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| #400 | 37.5 | Only two sources publish this: Mirka and Fine Woodworking |
| #600 | 27.5 | Only two sources publish this: Mirka and Fine Woodworking |
| #800 | 19 | Only two sources publish this: Mirka and Fine Woodworking |
| #1000 | 15 | Median of 3 sources |
| #1200 | 13 | Only two sources publish this: Mirka and Fine Woodworking |
| #1500 | 10 | Only two sources publish this: Mirka and Fine Woodworking |
| #2000 | 8 | Median of 3 sources |
| #3000 | 5 | Only two sources publish this: Mirka and Fine Woodworking |
| #4000 | 3 | Median of 3 sources |
| #8000 | 1.52 | Only two sources publish this: Shapton and Fine Woodworking |
| Plate | Color | µm | Mesh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra-extra coarse | Silver | 120 | 120 |
| Extra coarse | Black | 60 | 220 |
| Coarse | Blue | 45 | 325 |
| Fine | Red | 25 | 600 |
| Extra fine | Green | 9 | 1200 |
| Extra-extra fine | Tan | 3 | 8000 |
JIS sources, read 2026-11-08: Shapton, GlassStone HR: grit and micron size printed on each stone (#1000 14.7 µm, #2000 7.35, #4000 3.68, #8000 1.84); Mirka, Product catalog 2025 (North America): grit comparison chart, JIS column (p. 73); Fine Woodworking, Full grit chart: FEPA, JIS R6001, ANSI/CAMI and microns. DMT: Diamond grit information: colors, microns and mesh, the maker of those plates.