modern plane blades

[Ken S]

One of the many interesting people I met while demoing the Tormek was a coworker from my working days at the telephone company. He and his wife came the first day and promised to return the second day with his plane blades. As part of the sales pitch, we sharpen almost every pocket knife in the area (at every show!)

In recent years I have not looked at many tools. At my age, I already own too many tools. I routinely sharpen my old (1909 vintage) Stanley plane blades. Adding camber (a slight arc to prevent marks from the corners of the blade) is not a problem with old Stanley blades. Just lean hard on one side and then the other. The extra pressure "bends" the blade a bit. (Rob, on this side of the pond, we would call that "using some English". I have no idea of the word origin. Perhaps it goes back to the Angles of our Anglosaxon heritage.)

The new plane blades were a shock. They are excellent quality, but as thick as battleship armor plating! They already had a longish micro bevel. In hindsight, I think reestablishing the primary bevel and then restarting a very thin micro bevel would be logical. The present "micro" bevel is too large to efficiently touch up.

Wow! Those new blades are impressive. No chatter with them!

Ken

ps If you happen to read this, please "pm" me (send me a private message through the forum). My ancient memory doesn't always retain names very well. I will try to locate you through the company.