Taytools 279199 Two Sheets 5/16 x 5 x 12 Dead Flat Float Plate Glass with 7 Sheets 3M (TM) Lapping Microfinishing Film 4-1/4 x 11 for Scary Sharp Sharpening System

I have around a dozen of these pieces of float glass; they are great; however, about half of my orders came with at least one piece broken. You would think they would have up their shipping & packaging game by now, but it is what it is.

Gets my plane blades scary sharp. Mounted the sheets to a flat glass piece and was able to sharpen all my blades.Does exactly what I needed and does so at a reasonable price.

The components of the scary sharp approach to edge sharpening all came well packaged. The various lapping films are not labeled, But TayTools.com offers a guide to the film by both micron and grit online (see link at end of my review). That is my only complaint about the package. The 3M lapping film is excellent and the thick float glass gives a superbly flat surface to sharpen knife or chisel edges. The films range from 40 micron to 0.03 micron, which works out to be roughly 300 grit to 60000 grit. The latter being well above what most knife polishers will ever need or use. The film comes with an adhesive back which is easy to apply, but is reputedly a job to remove.If you want to try the Scary Sharp approach, either the 2 or 3 glass package will work. I am purchasing a second set of 2 float glass plates and film so that I can have all 7 provided films mounted. I mount film on each side of the float glass so 4 plates give me 8 sides to mount. I doubt I will use the 0.03 micron film, but I will use some rougher wet/dry abrasives in the 120/200 grit range for work with damaged blades that need more metal removed.When using the film, I put down some water or a mix of water and Simple Green. This has worked well for a couple of my older kitchen knives and I expect to use it on some Japanese Shun knives in the near future.

So I saw a video on Jon Katz-Moses' YT channel on this system. I needed something at a lower price point, but a higher quality point. I know - choosing beggars and all. But this seemed like a low enough risk to consider it. And I'm glad I did.For the first time in my woodworking journey, I was finally able to get my chisels to shaving sharpness. And my plane irons now actually work!Now there will come a day when I get a whetstone and diamond flattening plate, but this will cover me for years until I can build a larger workshop and have a dedicated sharpening station.

After I opened the box, I must say I was kind of disappointed in the lapping paper. I was questioning if it was 3m paper or not, it all felt like smooth paper to me. Now, I put 4 strips on the first piece of glass, the remaining 3 on the second. I did this in the order they came out of the box since there is no markings on them. I must say it works. After 20 - 30 minutes of lapping my plane iron through the various papers, I was shaving the hair off of my hand with it. I am pretty happy with this. Only complaint, no way of differentiating the paper. I reccomend it!

I had seen several people use these and recommend them and wondered how they work compared to other options. These won’t replace my diamond stones but are very good. If you are just starting woodworking and want a good entry point to sharpen with these are what you need. They are flat, very easy to setup and the paper lasts longer enough to get months of sharpening, but cheap enough to replace if you tear it.

Effective and reasonably priced sharpening system

The product itself is fine and would have gained a 5 star rating had it not been for the supplied PSA sheets. The grits supplied don't follow logic. What I mean is there's a huge jump in grit size going from 1800 to 8000. Why they didn't at least include a 4500 grit sheet is beyond me. At least the glass appears flat. 3 stars is all I can muster due to the grits supplied.