Reply To: Stanley side rebate plane No. 79 blades sharpening

Unless Stanley made your plane differently, the correct skew is 60 degrees. Perhaps you could double check another 79 plane, if you can locate one. I’m sure that if you configure the skew angles and bevels on both your blades correctly, it will work. Sadly, your plane’s previous owner made a mess of the blades and his mistake is hanging you up.

Grinding a skew at 60 degrees and then re-making the cutting bevel is not difficult if you have Diamond stones or a grinding wheel. This will get you back to what the blades should be.
You may experiment with some stiff card, cut to the exact size and shape of the blade and shaped at 60 degrees. Put it in the plane and then see how it fits and how much protrudes.

Yes, the tip of each one needs to protrude below the base-line of the plane – if it didn’t and the tip were above the base line of the plane, it would not cut beyond a couple of shavings then hang up.

This plane is primarily intended to shave the sides of grooves or trenches – if the base of the groove is not seen, the mark made by the tip is not important. If you do not want this mark to be seen, position the fence height carefully so that the tip of the blade sits exactly at the bottom of the cut. That is what I do.

This Stanley No 79 is the only Side Rebate plane with a full-length fence that allows you to do that reliably.

The method that Paul Sellers shows is simply to align the blade’s skew angle to the alignment of the plane by scraping the back along a flat stone to establish a level if it is very slightly out of alignment. If it isn’t you can skip this bit. It is what I mentioned I did when I bought mine from new.

But first you have to get the blade shapes right. Until you do that you are wasting your time on imaginary angles and bits sticking out.

Good luck.