Wear on a Record plane iron
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I have just been planing some very old resinous Douglas fir (cut at least 20 years ago) which is causing me to sharpen frequently. Two issues have cropped up one, the resins keep getting jammed under the cap iron/chip breaker and two, I noticed the the polish on the end of the iron is in two bits. The part nearest the edge is more shiny the the rest. The blade must be nearing the end of it’s life as the is a reasonably early Record 51/2.
Am I right in thinking that now might be a good time to replace them both.
PeterShow pictures of the iron and the shiny spots and maybe we can give advice on the condition of it. It could just be not sharpened correctly.
As to gunk getting under the cap iron, you need to have a fit you can’t see any light through and a cap iron that isn’t blunt on its leading edge. Paul has several tutorials on restoring planes.
Another thing to check is that the frog isn’t set too tight for a softwood like fir which has lots of variance in hardness between early and late wood.
Ok I will try to get a photo and I will reset the frog, by the way it is not an over ambitious micro bevel it’s definitely the metal polishing differently. The cap iron has been got at in the past so the leading edge is odd.
The marks are just the lighting I needed to show the difference in shading. You should be able to see the micro bevel, then the fine polish section then the duller area. The distance from the edge to the hole is 36 mm and it is a crucible cast steel iron (if any of this helps).
I take your point about the frog setting and I will revisit Paul’s videos on the subject. The wood is so full of resin in places the shavings can clear your sinuses.
PeterThat looks like a laminated iron to me.
Check out the first photo in this blog by Paul: https://paulsellers.com/2015/05/laminated-stanley-plane-irons-n-more/I wouldn’t replace the iron. If it is in fact laminated, you can tell when you start wearing through the hard steel.
As for the cap iron, here is a way to test the fit to the cutting iron:
Add some colour to the cutting iron back where the cap iron will make contact. As thin as possible. I use spotting ink because I have it, but you can use permanent marker, oil paint or even lipstick (buy your own. She will appreciate it).
Fit the cap iron, back from the colured area. Tighten the screw as tight as you can and still be able to slide it forward.
Now slide it back and forth through the ink. Colour will be removed where the cap iron makes contact.I took some photos of one I’m working on. As you can see, the left side doesn’t make proper contact yet.
You can also raise the double iron assembly, point it to a light bulb, and see if there’s light coming between the cutting iron and the cap iron. That will tell you whether there’s a gap. If you have flat diamond stones, all you need to do is grind/hone the surfaces until they meet nicely (get the shine all the way through, no hurry, don’t press hard).
Thanks to every one who commented. I have resolved most of the issues by flattening the cap iron, restting the frog distance and just keep cleaning the resin gunk out of the mouth of the plane more frequently. I think this is only a problem now because of the wood I am planing, as I said before the smell of the shavings can clear sinuses.
I took the opportunity while I was trying to fix this issue to look at my other plane blades and they are all the same so I suspect I have early planes with laminated blades.
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