When to replace a plane blade

[D_W]

Thanks David for taking the time to reply at length..it’s appreciated and very helpful.
Its an interesting one alright.
I admit that I’ve never come across this particular method before but the idea of that very tiny convex bevel I don’t think is new .
There’s another well known guy who though he doesn’t use the buffing wheel to put on the tiny convex bevel nonetheless hones so that he makes the same tiny convex right on the edge of his chisel or plane blades.
I don’t know anything about his angles but I would imagine that he gets similar results if the outcome is the same convex right on the edge.

Anyway, I’m going to give your method a go as I’ve nothing to lose and I will let you know the outcome.
Like Graham said, there are a variety of ways to skin a cat ... Am I allowed to say that ?
Apologies to all Cat owners on here lest I’m reported to the Feline Police.

To quote a pro wrestler I heard once when someone asked him about his gimmick. "I think I stole it from someone else, I don't know who, but nobody comes up with anything original". I haven't seen the geometric bits specified anywhere , but it makes this easier without anything getting sloppy. It's less work rather than more.

At the very least, carving tools are often buffed - is the geometry control this tight? I don't know, for some setups it probably is. Knives are cut to a thin bevel and then buffed on the tip.

it's not new. What I wanted to figure out was to make a way that it was better than the flat microbevel, else.....just do the flat microbevel, right?

To game getting a sense of the difference (if you're going to go all the way to buffing the tip), find a chisel that you consider marginal.

The microbevel came up as a matter of cross reference because the immediate assertion was "well, if you round the tip, a tiny microbevel would be better. "

It can be close.

This method in general is how I sharpened before, but doing the rounding by hand. The buffer just does it better than you can do by hand and completely eliminates the need for a fine stone, but the sharpness is at least as good (or better) than a fine stone.

 

[Jacob]

Most of us have seen enough of your sharpening arguments to make our own minds up......

But some haven't.
Suggesting that a beginner should keep it simple seems a good idea to me, e.g. Graham's suggestion of Norton IB8 (coarse and medium oil stone good for general purposes).
30º is the default angle used by all - easy to visualise and to hit freehand. Rub the bevel up and down, round and round at 30º. Bring up a burr, turn it over flat and take off the burr. Speed things up on thicker blades by backing off a bit of the bevel on a grindstone at a shallower angle. That's all there is to it.
Later on add a finer stone and a bit of leather for a strop and that's it for life!

Our sharpening experts tend not to show much of their work beyond a few immaculate shavings.
Here's a few of mine. Take a look at these gorgeous golden curls!

 

[D_W]

Which ones show little work, Jacob? You've aimed that at me already, and it's a stupid comment because I show pictures of my work often.

You create copious numbers straw arguments but hold on to the straw arguments when they're proven wrong.

 

[Lons]

As I said Jacob, I've never suggested your methods don't work, quite the opposite in fact but they are very definitely not the only methods and it's a moot point whether the easiest as well.
As has been said by others, "sharp is sharp" it doesn't matter how you do it if it works for you and anyone with a sharp plane blade can make shavings identical to yours.