Reply To: Welding Plane Irons
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Thank you Tad! It looks like even the parallel irons were being forge welded with a tool steel edge before hardening, using a cheaper wrought iron (low carbon iron) for the bulk of the iron. It makes sense as it would be difficult to cut the hole and slot into tool steel, even when in its annealed (softened) condition. I could see the discoloration that you refer to and that’s what caused me to ask you to perform the file trick, just to confirm! There is also often some surface scarring from where the high carbon steel has been forge welded onto the low carbon steel and they have been unable to fully remove the scarring by grinding the iron – you can see this on most tapered irons and a lot of plough plane irons too (the wooden ploughs that is – -not the Stanley and Record iron ploughs 044’s 045’s etc…).
The fact that the file still bit a little into the steel, below the break just means that this particular tool steel was tempered a little more, back from the full hardness achieved during the hardening process. These irons were produced by the hundreds in batches – racks and racks of them. No two would have the same hardness!
Thanks again for getting that information for me!
MarkH