Welding Plane Irons
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Welding Plane Irons
- This topic has 20 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by markh.
-
AuthorPosts
-
Why did Stanley offer the odd-sized and slow-selling No.5 1/2? Have a look at old Stanley catalogs or “Patrick’s Blood and Gore” at supertool.com. Before WWII they offered a bewildering array of often near identical tools.
They may have been following the same strategy as Campbell Soups and Kellogg Cereals, who managed to dominate the shelves of grocery stores by crowding out the competition for shelf space with a bigger, if often slow-selling, range of products. (Does anybody else remember Heinz Soup? You’re showing your age if you do.)
Dave
- This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Dave Ring.
6 March 2018 at 4:20 pm #491250I think you have some sort of Franken-plane going on there. Pre ’39 5 1/2 were 2 1/4″ and there was the #5 1/4 that had a 1 3/4″ blade, but the 4 1/2 were all 2 3/8″ blades. Stanley also was not micrometer perfect with their measurements so that is another place people get all twisted about. If 2 3/8″ doesn’t fit, then you may have a frog from another plane.
6 March 2018 at 4:25 pm #491256What did you use as the backer when you struck the iron? I have corrected many the way Paul suggested and then one day a woden iron cracked on me out of the blue. I tried to figure out what happened. Perhaps the block I laid it on that day didn’t have as much give as others?
Mark, your assumption was correct. The file bit into the steel above the brake and at the break and below it would skate more (I say more because it still bit a little, more than expected but nowhere near like above. I also noticed some discoloring or change in the look of the metal on the unbroken side of the iron across from the break (see the pictures) It doesn’t look like grinding marks either. It could be the weld you discussed.
Thanks,
TadAttachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.Thank you Tad! It looks like even the parallel irons were being forge welded with a tool steel edge before hardening, using a cheaper wrought iron (low carbon iron) for the bulk of the iron. It makes sense as it would be difficult to cut the hole and slot into tool steel, even when in its annealed (softened) condition. I could see the discoloration that you refer to and that’s what caused me to ask you to perform the file trick, just to confirm! There is also often some surface scarring from where the high carbon steel has been forge welded onto the low carbon steel and they have been unable to fully remove the scarring by grinding the iron – you can see this on most tapered irons and a lot of plough plane irons too (the wooden ploughs that is – -not the Stanley and Record iron ploughs 044’s 045’s etc…).
The fact that the file still bit a little into the steel, below the break just means that this particular tool steel was tempered a little more, back from the full hardness achieved during the hardening process. These irons were produced by the hundreds in batches – racks and racks of them. No two would have the same hardness!
Thanks again for getting that information for me!
MarkH -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.