Edge Maintenance is important. There are only three major things to keep in mind so don't go out thinking yourself.

Deburring... using a hard stone, most commonly a diamond stone, remove all of the rough spots along the edges of your board. Work on the rough spots until they are totally smooth again.

Base Edge... once you have determined what angle you want to bevel the edge down to place the beveling sleeve on the file, I usually go down to one half degree on the base. In smooth strokes, making a point to keep the sleeve a couple of inches away from the edge. Start at the tip and move down the board. For the first few inches keep the file perpendicular to the edge. Slowly work yourself into a 45 degree angle. Maintain this angle all the way until the tail. Once at the tail return to the same perpendicular angle you used on the nose. With every stroke of the file use firm, even pressure. If done right a fair amount of mental should fall from your board.

Side Edge... this edge can be sharpened by hand-eye-cordination, or it can be done with one of those slick new tools. The aim is to obtain a flawless 90 degree angle between the base and side edge. The nose and tail of the board should be de-tuned to allow for easy transitions. Run either a hand file or edging tool evenly up and down the rail until the entire board has a totally new rail set-up.

<Tuning Intro
Edge Maintenance >
Waxing Your Board >
Tools For Tuning >

<< Back