Plane iron sharpening
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Tagged: plane iron, sharpening
- This topic has 10 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 3 months ago by Jay.
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1 January 2014 at 2:59 am #24949
Hi everyone and Happy New Year!
I’ve been running into an issue with my plane iron, it cuts mostly in the middle of the iron, suggesting that the iron has a radius along the cutting edge. The back has been flattened. I am using diamond plates for sharpening and I’m fairly certain they are flat as well. The cutting edge is mostly perpendicular to the sides. I’ve used a guide before and wonder if that could have been part of the problem I’m not sure what it is that I am doing to cause this. So if anyone has some recommendations or expertise I would enjoy hearing your input. Thanks
Andrew
Andrew, I purposely hone the corners on all my irons but the front edge is straight if you know what I mean. When I set adjust my plane it tends to cut in the middle too but I seem to get satisfactory results with my smoothing plane. If your happy with the results I wouldn’t worry about.
Hi Andrew,
I fail to see the problem here. Your plane iron should usually have a slight camber to it so that you don’t leave plane tracks. An exception to this would be on something like a shooting plane or a block plane perhaps, but for general use a camber is preferred.
Richard.
1 January 2014 at 5:17 am #24953As Dave and Rich have said, for a smoothing plane, a slight camber is preferred…but if this is an extreme condition where you are only getting a cut from the very center of the blade, perhaps the sole of your plane is not flat. A combination of a heavily cambered plane and a convex sole could potentially result in the problem you describe. Use a square to check the blade edge for squareness. If it appears to be essentially square, then the problem is almost certainly that your plane sole is not flat.
Hope this helps; some of the others will probably have some more useful things to say on the matter.
2 January 2014 at 6:41 am #25037Thanks for the comments everyone, I double checked the sole and found it slightly bellied. Corrected that and gave the iron another sharpening. Still cuts toward the middle with the iron set for a light cut, but once advanced enough it cuts a wide and thin enough shaving. Just gotta watch it and make sure I don’t hallow out the middle. Thanks again everyone.
Andrew2 January 2014 at 11:09 am #25042What you have what most of us like to have. The camber may be too much and probably used for roughing out work.
If this the case I would grind iron back to square and take the corners off.
Also get sole of plane flat very important if you want to take 1 thou shavings or less.
To test and set your plane put a 1/4″ strip of wood in vice put plane on strip in the middle advance iron until you have a very fine shaving in middle. Then try and take a shaving either side of iron if one side taking shaving and the other is not, adjust lateral lever to get even shaving each side and the middle. If using a cambered iron the shavings will be less on the out sides than the middle just make sure the shavings on the outsides of plane are equal in thickness.2 January 2014 at 11:22 am #25045Might be worth checking the position of the frog. I had an issue a while ago with a plane that was taking thicker shavings at the sides of the blade than in the middle. I flattened the sole sharpened the blade etc. but the thing that made the difference in the end was adjusting the frog position. Not sure exactly why it made the difference – it was set quite far back so I adjusted it forward.
I know it is not the same issue you are seeing but it is an easy adjustment to try
Just a thought.
Bill
19 January 2014 at 5:15 am #26180So just wondering what could be done to straighten out the middle portion of the blade, it seems to me that I keep rounding the whole edge somehow. I don’t mind the camber too much but it is more than I want.
It could also be that your stones are not truly flat? I’m talking left to right, which could cause that camber you’re talking about. If you have a known flat surface like a granite plate or glass plate, you can re-create the 30 deg. bevel on that with 120 grit or whatever, then paint the whole bevel with a sharpie pen, then do 2 or 3 strokes on the stone. If the wear pattern is not even, then you know something is amiss, with either the stone or the plate surface. That is the best test that I can think of. If you do that, be sure to use a guide for consistency.
Andrew, here is something else to think about. Is your blade flat? Lay it on a surface that you know is flat and check around it with a feeler gage.
Here is another thing to check. Is the surface on the frog that contacts your blade flat?
Is the surface of your blade clamp flat?
Are you tightening down the clamp too much?
Something may be distorting the shape of your blade when you clamp it down. And a final check for this condition would be to put your iron in the plane and loosen your clamp to where it barely hold the iron. Extend the iron below the bottom of the plane and check it with a straight edge. Then tighten the clamp down to where you normally use it and check it with a straight edge again. A distortion of just a few thousandths of an inch will make a big difference.
Andrew, you would want to keep consistent pressure across the front of the iron if you don’t want the camber. I use a jig, but I also keep my fingers on the very tip of the iron so I can get the best feedback all the way across. Watch, though, because it will nip your fingers.
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