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Are the irons of early (thin chipbreaker) LN bench planes marked? I have a used #7 with the early chipbreaker and the iron has no marks, while all the other LN bench planes I have (8 of them) have irons marked "Lie-Nielsen". All the marked ones also have the thick improved chipbreaker.
Thanks,
The early irons are not marked. Any iron that came on the early planes unmarked is made by lie Nielsen but is water hardening steel instead of the current air hardening steel.
I have a 4 1/2 with the early iron and early chipbreaker, and a 7 wth the marked A2 blade and early chipbreaker. I bought mine when they came out originally.
The unmarked blades are in fact 01 oil hardening steel. The marked ones are A2 steel,which will stay sharp longer,but will not get quite the keen initial edge of 01 steel. When I had to skive some soft,spongy leather,my A2 blade would not quite get sharp enough to do it,so I used an 01 blade. For keeping an edge when planing wood,the A2 is preferred.