: Damn, I didn't think they charged that much. Sorry for the bad info. For big
: jobs I lay a piece of wet/dry paper on the concrete garage floor, wet the
: tool with 3 in 1 oil and go to town; applying more oil when necessary. It
: does take a long time.

I do the same (more er less)

I was at the Norwalk aquarium this week shapening planes for their boat shop. (I'll be teaching a class) As tools used by a class, you can guess they were less than perfect.

I used a peice of 120 grit sandpaper (just what was at hand) layed onto the cast iron table of the saw and one of those sharpening guides with a roller. After adjusting the guide to get the bevel right, I just started sanding. Hold the paper flat with one hand, sand with the other. As I had regular old sandpaper, i used no oil but if I had wet/dry I would lubricate it with WD-40 or some such.

When the bevel is fixed and the nicks are gone, switch to finer sandpaper (220, 400 etc) or to your favorite sharpening stone.

I finnished up with a leather strop, a super fine stone or one of the other exotic tricks work well too.

I did 5 or 6 planes in an hour or so, Morgan, the apprentice did several more.

This trick works well and will bring back even Granpa's old tools quickly and safely. You will not over heat the blades, you get a good bevel and can get it relly sharp.