Back bevel for a pitted iron?
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I have a Bailey #5 1/2 with a pitted iron. I don’t have the money to replace the iron right now. I’d like to use this plane to really hog away waste then fall back to my #4 as Paul describes in many of his videos for smoothing. Since the iron is pitted, I think I need to put a small back bevel on the plane in order to get a fine edge (I don’t think I can simply polish the pits out).
What back bevel angle would you guys recommend for a Jack plane with a cambered blade running about a 10” radius? I know PS doesn’t suggest you need back bevels, but I may have to limp along with this iron until I can afford a new one.
I’ll be primarily using this plane to flatten my bench top (see my other thread) and thicknessing stock after that.
Nathan Wertman (Grand Junction, CO, USA, 81507)
“But ‘it will do’ is a very bad maxim, especially for a person learning a business; the right principle is to ask oneself, ‘is it as good as it can be made?’ or, at least, ‘is it as good as I can make it?’” - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker
I just honed up a Sargent 710 iron that had two small spots of pitting right against the back cutting edge. One refused to polish out, so I ground off almost 3/32″ of the bevel to get rid of it.
If you’re using the plane as a roughing tool for hogging, I might just ignore the pitting if its not too bad. Polish it up the best you can. I do not think roughing tools need to be super sharp.
If you are determined, you could just try using that Charlesworth “ruler trick” with the thin steel ruler on one edge of the stone, and running the iron back and forth across the opposing edge. I wouldn’t put more of a back bevel than that. I am not a big fan of that method since it can complicate the removal of the wire edge when stropping, but whatever…
-Scott Los Angeles
since you are going to be using the plane to hog material, I wouldn’t worry to much of the exact sharpness of the plane iron.. Any of the tracks created from the pitted iron will be removed with the use of the smoother…
Nathan, I would grind it down till you get to good steeL. If you have access to a bench grinder it should not take long.
-Canada
@dave, the pitting is pretty consistently bad. As I mentioned, I probably just need to get a new iron, but I’ll have to make due with what I have for the time being.
I was able hone/camber/polish/back bevel my way to a pretty decent edge last night using the ruler trick. I think I probably need more camber after hitting the bench with it for a few minutes, but at least I was able to get the blade to a workable state.
Nathan Wertman (Grand Junction, CO, USA, 81507)
“But ‘it will do’ is a very bad maxim, especially for a person learning a business; the right principle is to ask oneself, ‘is it as good as it can be made?’ or, at least, ‘is it as good as I can make it?’” - The Joiner and Cabinet Maker
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