Influence of the Cap-iron on Hand Plane

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  • jgust747
    15 July 2013 at 8:47 pm #14838

    http://youtu.be/56DpxEOpxz0

    interesting, I guess I use the cap iron just to hold the iron and not as a chip breaker. But I don’t think my standard cap iron would get close to 80 degrees.

    Dallas, Texas

    Ken
    15 July 2013 at 8:57 pm #14839

    Thanks Johan, Interesting video buddy.

    Scott
    16 July 2013 at 12:34 am #14846

    Interesting. Thanks for the link Johan.

    Several observations:

    1) The cap iron, or chip breaker, in the film is only 0.3-0.1mm from the cutting edge, which is much less than the usual recommendation of 1/32″ (~0.8mm).

    2) The test device is essentially a chisel plane. There is no mouth like with a conventional plane. I am wondering how much a tightly closed mouth would affect results.

    3) I was impressed to see how effective a shallower cut is at reducing tear-out. The physics makes sense, but the benefit seems exponential.

    4) The 80 degree breaker in the film only appeared to be a mere 0.4mm tall. A typical Bailey style chip breaker could easily be modified by grinding/honing a slight vertical on the leading edge. Just saying…

    -Scott Los Angeles

    jgust747
    16 July 2013 at 2:16 pm #14875

    Good points Scott, maybe I I give it a try.

    I was looking around for some more info and found this:

    From Planecraft C&J Hampton Ltd. 1972 impression sponsored by Woodcraft:

    Cap Iron Settings:

    For rough work: 1/32″ to 1/16″ from the edge

    For finishing work: 1/64″ from the edge

    For hard woods with irregular grain: “as close as you can get it to the cutting edge”

    The publishing history of this book is as follows:

    1934 – first published
    1943 – 2nd impression
    1945 – 3rd impression
    1950 – 4th impression (revised and enlarged)
    1953 – 5th impression
    1954 – 6th impression
    1959 – 7th impression (revised and enlarged again)
    1972 – Woodcraft sponsored printing of the 7th impression from 1959.

    So from what I get it was known how the cap iron/chip breaker could help with tear out even back in the day.

    Dallas, Texas

    David Gill
    16 July 2013 at 7:37 pm #14895

    Johan
    Very interesting, It would be interesting to see what the different iron sharpening methods would have , Convex , concave with and without micro bevels

    Wigan, Lancs. England :

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