John,

I would suggest doing some further checking into places to get your plane irons sharpened I pay 2.50 each to have it done, that's in Canadian dollars and that would equate to nearly free in American dollars.
I took 3 saw blades and 2 plane irons in at 10:00 and picked them up at 2:00 the same day. It was one of those rare occasions where you walk out of the shop thinking 'Gee, that really was a good deal!'
Look around I'm sure you can do better than 10 or 12 bucks per.
I plan on learning how to sharpen the plane irons, but I've got a boat to finish before the snow flies. Which, regretably isn't far off up here.

Good luck!

Ken

: Woodcraft does offer a sharpening service for NEW tools you buy from them via
: the web apparently, but the local store wasn't able to meet the deal Chip
: suggested. The local store (in Phoenix) DOES NOT sharpen plane irons. They
: "send them out" - it takes a week IF you bring them in on
: Thursday and costs $10-12 each. So much for having some of the planes I
: got from my Granddad sharpened professionally. They've been in storage for
: 20+ years and some of them could really use more than the "scary
: sharp" process to get them in shape. I didn't ask about the
: spokeshave or draw knife I that need to get sharpened.