Dull chisels & hand plane blades are useless, (and I hear dangerous in the case of the chisel) when trying to effectively remove wood.
You can still remove the scales from a bluegill and scrape Fido’s lawn biscuit from your shoe with a dull chisel, but for woodwork, they are more a hindrance than useful tool.
Having tried the many methods of sharpening like diamond plates (super messy), wet stones (super messy and too thin for plane blades), grinders (too aggressive), and even tried the Jedi method of using “the Force” (F you Yoda). None have worked better than three successive grits of sandpaper (240, 800, 1500) held in place by hand on a marble slab. I can get the tool razor sharp in a fraction of the time. I even tried honing guides but getting it seated in the guide at the correct angle was time consuming. I can now hold the blade at the correct angle by feel. There’s a small learning curve but once you’re dialed in, you’re golden.
Don’t even get me started on card scrapers…
I do use a strop with the green stuff on it after sharpening but haven’t a clue if I’m doing any good, I just saw all the cool kids doing it and hope I’ll be a cool kid one day too.
So give sandpaper a shot, use Fido’s lawn biscuit chisel for your learning curve.
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